节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-06-05
难易度:High
关键字:extravaganza, alien, inhabit, flamboyant, beacon, paramilitary, Jazz Age
(Music).
Hello and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
Thank you for joining us for the third day of our lesson about the movies that
are coming out this summer.
Let's Go to the Movies!
Yes, of course, there are many great movies coming out this summer.
Some have already come out.
Have you seen any of the movies that we have mentioned so far?
Well, there are more things to look forward to as well.
Do you like going to the movies?
Do you like going to watch movies on a big screen at the movie theater?
Or do you prefer watching movies from the comfort of your television or your
seat at home?
Carolyn?
Well, there are certain movies that I really like to watch in a movie theater
because the sound system is so good,
and the special effects are amazing to see on a big screen.
But there are also a lot of other movies that I'm just fine sitting at home and
watching them on my computer or on TV.
Yeah, I think I would agree.
Although sometimes I won't even watch a movie unless I'm very intentional about
it.
That's why I do like going to the movie theaters to watch movies, because I'm
not distracted by other things.
I can just sit and watch the whole movie, especially those big epic films that
have so many wonderful special effects.
Those are great to see in the movie theater.
Well, let's get started with our first reading of today learning about some
other movies this summer.
Let's Go to the Movies.
Action and Adventure.
The special-effects extravaganza Pacific Rim tells of a team of humans who pilot
giant robots in a worldwide battle against an alien attack.
Real-life father and son Will and Jaden Smith costar in After Earth, the story
of a father and son who crash land on planet Earth.
The planet is no longer inhabited by humans as they were forced to abandon it
1,000 years earlier.
As the father lies dying, the son must recover their rescue beacon against
impossible odds.
(Music).
Wow! That sounds like quite an interesting film to watch, and I love those
actors.
Well, let's go to the very beginning here.
We're talking about Action and Adventure.
The special-effects extravaganza Pacific Rim tells of a team of humans who pilot
giant robots in a worldwide battle against an alien attack.
Wow, big sentence right there.
Let's talk about some things in that sentence.
This is a special-effects extravaganza.
That's how they describe this movie Pacific Rim.
It's an extravaganza.
This is from our Word Bank.
Carolyn, what is an extravaganza?
Well, an extravaganza is something very big, very impressive or exciting.
And here we have a movie that is a special-effects extravaganza, which means
that there will be a lot of special effects in this movie.
Probably throughout the entire film, it will just be one special effect after
the other.
That's right.
Now you can use this word "extravaganza" to describe lots of different kinds of
events, actually.
They're talking about a special-effects extravaganza.
But maybe you're throwing a big party, and there will be lots of different kinds
of food.
You could just call that a food extravaganza.
Think about how to use that word "extravaganza." And we're talking about this
movie Pacific Rim.
It tells of a team of humans who do something.
Let's look at that phrase: it tells of something.
Carolyn, can you tell us about this phrase?
Well, this phrase just means that it's about something.
The story is about a team of humans who pilot giant robots.
You might also say tells of the life of a young boy.
So this is a really great phrase that we can use throughout our conversations.
Gabe, how else might you use this?
Well, I might say the book tells of something or the... the movie tells of
something.
This recording that I'm listening to, it tells of the story about this person.
So that's how you use this phrase.
You're not necessarily speaking.
You could be just reading something that tells of something.
So we're talking about a team of humans who pilot giant robots.
Um, usually I think of piloting like you're... you're flying an airplane.
Carolyn, what does this mean here?
Well, here it means that they are controlling the giant robots.
And maybe the robots can fly, so they might need to pilot them.
But it means that they are kind of controlling, they are inside the robot.
And it is in a worldwide battle against an alien attack.
And "alien" is another word from our Word Bank.
If something is alien, then it is foreign; it is from outside.
And usually when we think of alien attacks in movies, we think of aliens from
outer space.
That's right.
And of course one movie that you may have seen is called Independence Day, or ID
4.
Will Smith stars in this movie, and he fights against aliens.
And we're going to be learning about Will Smith a little bit right now as well.
Real-life father and son Will and Jaden Smith costar in After Earth, the story
of a father and son who crash land on planet Earth.
Interesting.
They're humans, but they're coming from the outside.
They crash land, so it's not a smooth landing, right here on planet Earth.
That's right.
And it's very interesting the reason that they crash land on Earth.
We see the planet is no longer inhabited by humans as they were forced to
abandon it 1,000 years earlier.
So there are no people on the Earth anymore.
It is no longer inhabited.
And let's take a look at that Word Bank word, the word "inhabited." If a place
is inhabited, then it means that something lives there.
I might say that the forest is inhabited by many different animals and hundreds
of different kinds of birds.
Or maybe that building is full of animals.
These animals inhabit this old building.
People used to inhabit that building, but now it's inhabited by these different
kinds of animals.
They live there.
So the planet is no longer inhabited by humans as they were before.
It's no longer, that doesn't happen anymore.
But as we continue learning about this movie:
As the father lies dying, the son must recover their rescue beacon against
impossible odds.
Carolyn, what does it mean to do something against impossible odds or against
odds?
Well, it means that it's very unlikely to succeed.
It would be a very difficult situation to actually complete your task.
So here it is against impossible odds.
And it sounds like it would be a very difficult task to recover this rescue
beacon.
That's right.
And a rescue beacon, maybe it's a source of guidance of some kind.
And so if you are going to do this, if it's against impossible odds, it's really
difficult.
Maybe your chances of winning are one out of 100.
That's impossible odds.
Well, it's time for us to continue learning something with Michelle in the
Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.