节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-07-08
难易度:Medium
关键字:handwriting, recommend, instruct, legible, spell check
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And you are joining us for our lesson about handwriting.
The question here is "Necessary or not?" Well, handwriting,
that's writing something using your hand or writing something by hand, not with
a keyboard at a computer.
Well, I wonder how your handwriting is.
Carolyn, how is your handwriting?
Well, I think my handwriting is pretty readable.
It's very neat.
Lots of people actually tell me how nice my handwriting is.
They give me a lot of compliments, uh, when I just write something out for them.
Right.
Well, how is my handwriting?
I will write out the answer for you.
And then see if you can read it and see how awesome my handwriting is, OK?
How is my handwriting?
Here is the answer, Carolyn.
Pretty good, pretty good.
Um... Gabe, I'm... I think you might need to work on your handwriting a little
bit.
I... I can't read your answer.
What do you mean you can't read my answer?
It says: My handwriting is amazing.
OK. Well, I guess I need to work on my handwriting.
Right now it's time for us to get started with our lesson - Handwriting:
Necessary or Not?
Here we go.
Handwriting: Necessary or Not?
Is the pen mightier than the keys?
Jim writes down the name and address of a restaurant he is recommending to Jack
and gives it to him.
Thanks, Jim.
I can't wait to go.
Wow - your handwriting is so beautiful!
Thanks!
You know, many schools don't spend much time instructing students in handwriting
anymore.
It's kind of sad, isn't it?
I've heard that, but handwriting isn't as valuable now that everything is done
by computer.
When I write, I use a keyboard much more often than a pen.
I do use a keyboard pretty often as well.
Well, let's look at the title here.
Handwriting: Necessary or Not?
Handwriting is a word from our Word Bank, so let's look at that for just a
minute.
Handwriting is what it looks like when you write something by hand.
You use your hand to write out words.
That's right.
Maybe you are in a group project at school, and someone needs to write something
by hand to make something look very nice.
So you might ask a question: Who has nice handwriting?
How's your handwriting?
Well, if you have nice handwriting, maybe you can help and do the handwriting
for that project, to make a poster look very nice.
How's your handwriting?
That's right.
Well, we're talking about whether it is necessary or not.
Do we need to practice our handwriting?
Is it something that is important?
Well, we see a great phrase here at the very beginning: Is the pen mightier than
the keys?
And this is kind of a play on another phrase, right, Gabe?
That's right.
There's a very popular phrase.
It says the pen is mightier than the sword.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
That means the words are more influential than weapons or other things.
Words have more influence.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
That's right.
So you might think that soldiers are very strong, very powerful.
But a writer could do even more damage with the words that they write because
more people will read them than the soldier will be able to speak to or attack.
That's right.
And so we see this phrase here at the beginning of today's article: Is the pen
mightier than the keys?
OK, so we're going to be looking at the difference between handwriting and using
the keyboard at your computer.
Well, we begin here.
Jim writes down the name and address of a restaurant he is recommending to Jack
and gives it to him.
OK. So here we're setting up the situation.
And we see a word from our Word Bank: recommend.
Carolyn, I recommend that you teach this word.
Well, if you recommend something, that means that you give a suggestion, maybe
some good advice.
Oh, can you recommend any good restaurants?
I highly recommend going to this restaurant if you want to enjoy a nice pizza.
Well, what restaurant or what place would you recommend to your friends?
Maybe reading a good book or watching a great movie, and you can say:
I recommend you see this, or I recommend you read this.
Well, we have a conversation here.
Carolyn, can I be Jack?
Oh, well, I guess that means that I will be Jim.
Excellent!
I'm sure you will be a wonderful Jim.
Jack says: Thanks, Jim.
I can't wait to go.
Wow - your handwriting is so beautiful!
Well, that's a good phrase to use: I can't wait to do something.
I really want to; I'm really excited about it.
Carolyn, I can't wait for you to be Jim.
Oh. Well, thank you.
Yes. I've just recommended a restaurant for you, and: Thanks!
You know, many schools don't spend much time instructing students in handwriting
anymore.
Oh. Well, let's take a look at that key word.
We see a word there: instruct.
Now to instruct means to teach or coach something.
So how could you use that word, Carolyn?
Well, you might say the director is instructing the actors on where to stand on
the stage.
All right.
And I also think of another word with the word "instruct," it's "instructor."
I-N-S-T-R-U-C-T-O-R.
Now you might be taking dance lessons or something, and you might have a dance
instructor,
someone who is instructing you or teaching you how to dance.
So you can use that word "instruct" and "teach" in kind of the same way.
That's right.
Well, Jim was saying how many schools don't spend time instructing students in
handwriting.
It's kind of sad, isn't it?
It is kind of sad.
And that phrase, it just kind of stating a fact - the fact is it's sad.
It's kind of sad.
Well, Jack says:
I've heard that, but the handwriting isn't as valuable now that everything is
done by computer.
When I write, I use a keyboard much more often than a pen.
Well, that is very interesting, Jack, that...
Hmm, it doesn't seem like Jack thinks handwriting is very important since he
uses a keyboard more often than he uses a pen.
That's right.
He says handwriting isn't as valuable now that everything is done by computer.
So if you do something by computer, that means you're using a computer to do it.
It's done by computer.
Well, is it very valuable, handwriting?
Carolyn, what do you think? Is handwriting valuable?
Well, I think that we'll listen to more of this conversation and get some more
opinions on this topic.
And until then, we will go learn something new with Michelle in the Language
Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.