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
It is our third day in this article Let's Go to the Movies.
Today we are talking all about action and adventure films coming out this
summer.
We've already talked about two today.
The first one was Pacific Rim, a special-effects extravaganza, which deals with
an alien attack.
The second one we talked about was After Earth, in which the planet Earth is no
longer inhabited by humans.
Well, we have a lot more to learn in the next section, so let's start that
reading now.
Let's Go to the Movies.
In the action-drama White House Down, Channing Tatum stars as a Secret Service
agent trying to save the U.S. president.
A paramilitary force that has taken control of the White House threatens his
life.
Those wanting more story-driven fare shouldn't miss the latest adaptation of F.
Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
Tobey Maguire stars as writer Nick Carraway, who is drawn into the flamboyant
world of millionaire Jay Gatsby during the Jazz Age.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Gatsby in this tragic romance.
With so many great titles to see, film fans will be spending many hours
experiencing danger, drama and laughter from the comfort of a theater seat.
(Music).
That's true.
Well, let's start at the beginning of this section here.
We're talking about action and adventure movies.
In the action-drama White House Down, Channing Tatum stars as a Secret Service
agent trying to save the U.S. president.
Well, Carolyn, I can think of many movies in the past that kind of have a
similar theme: someone is trying to save the president or someone in leadership.
This is a very common theme that we see in movies.
Especially coming out of the United States, there are many movies that are made
about the president.
And in this one, a paramilitary force that has taken control of the White House
threatens his life.
So the life of the president of the United States is threatened by a
paramilitary force.
And paramilitary just means that it is not an actual military but people who are
acting as one.
That's right.
Or maybe they're assisting the military.
Sometimes you might see those letters P-A-R-A at the beginning of a word in
English.
"Para-" means "with." It comes from another language, I think.
But it means "with." And so if you can remember that, it will help you
understand the meaning of that word.
And so this has taken control of the White House.
Or some force that is coming, and they want to threaten the president's life.
They take control of something.
So this person wants to come and save the president.
Well, that is a very exciting mission for him to take on.
And there are other movies coming out this summer as well that are
action-oriented.
But those wanting more story-driven fare shouldn't miss the latest adaptation of
F. Scott's... F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
And this is a very famous story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that has been remade into
another movie.
That's right. And so you don't want to miss this if you like story-driven
movies, or story-driven fare as we see here.
Many things can be driven, but...
Well, let's take a look at the Grammar Gym and see what Liz has to say about
this.
Hi there, friends.
Thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
In today's article the writer mentions:
Those wanting more story-driven fare shouldn't miss the latest adaptation of F.
Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Notice the phrase "story-driven." It describes fare.
What kind of fare?
It's fare that is driven by a story.
"Driven" is usually used to talk about what we do with cars, like:
He has never driven a car before.
But in today's sentence, "driven" means to be controlled by or to be strongly
influenced by.
So the sentence just means people who want to watch movies that are influenced
by a story should go see F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
So we see story-driven fare.
What other something-driven adjective phrases are there?
Well, a boss that only cares about money is a money-driven boss.
A hungry tiger looking for food is a hunger-driven tiger.
Or a learning program that focuses on being fun can be described as a fun-driven
program.
If you turn to today's Grammar Tip section in your magazine, you'll find more
examples there.
And that's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Earlier I mentioned that this film The Great Gatsby is remade into another
movie.
And I think that Steve and Ken have something they'd like to tell us about that
in the Information Cloud.
Not only is the movie The Great Gatsby an adaptation, (that is a film that is
based on a play, a musical or in this case, a novel,) it's also a remake.
Right. It's a new version of a previously released movie.
This can be said because there are already three other major Hollywood
productions of The Great Gatsby in existence.
The last one being filmed in 1974.
But there are some die-hard movie fans who will argue that the new Gatsby movie
is not a remake but rather a reinterpretation.
They say a remake needs to be based on a previously released film.
And the new Gatsby film is not.
It's based on the same source material as the other three Gatsby films - the
novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925.
Right, meaning in 88 years, nothing's changed.
The new Gatsby movie has the exact same characters, plot, setting and title as
the other three Gatsby movies before it.
The only difference being the actors and how they interpret their roles.
But maybe those fans are just being too picky.
Why can't a film be an adaptation, a remake and a reinterpretation all at the
same time?
(Chinese).
Well, we've been learning about this famous story, The Great Gatsby.
Tobey Maguire stars as writer Nick Carraway, who is drawn into the flamboyant
world of millionaire Jay Gatsby during the Jazz Age.
All right.
So we know that Tobey Maguire will be in this movie, and he's drawn into the
world, the flamboyant world of Jay Gatsby.
Let's look at the key word: flamboyant.
This makes me think of something that is really fancy.
Maybe you don't need everything to be that fancy and wonderful and spectacular,
but it is.
Someone has made it flamboyant.
Yes. I think of something that is flamboyant as something being very bright,
flashy, something that really catches your attention.
You can't look away from it.
It's very flamboyant and very obvious as well.
And here we have a flamboyant world.
Maybe you know someone who has a flamboyant lifestyle, or they have flamboyant
clothes that are very eye-catching.
That's right, flamboyant clothes.
Or they live in flamboyance.
There's kind of a noun, F-L-A-M-B-O-Y-A-N-C-E.
Now we're talking about Jay Gatsby here, and he has a very flamboyant lifestyle,
it's true.
And he lives during the Jazz Age.
Actually, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald kind of made this term popular, the
Jazz Age.
Now this is the era between World War I and the Great Depression.
That's called the Jazz Age.
Well, in this movie, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Gatsby in this tragic romance.
So we have two big names in this movie, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire are
both stars in this tragic romance.
That's right, a tragic romance.
Do you know other stories that are tragic romances?
Well, Shakespeare wrote a couple.
Romeo and Juliet was definitely a tragic romance.
Well, let's continue.
With so many great titles to see, film fans will be spending many hours
experiencing danger, drama and laughter from the comfort of a theater seat.
Well, what about you?
Are you a film fan?
Will you be seeing any of these movies?
I think I will definitely be going to see some of these titles, another way that
you can say film or movie talking about their title.
And I am looking forward to enjoying spending time in the movie theater this
summer as it will probably be very hot outside.
That's right.
You can enjoy a movie from the comfort of a theater seat.
Well, it's time for us to learn something different with Michelle in the
Language Lab.
OK.
(Chinese).
And now, time to get back to our teachers.
Wow! We've talked about many of the different movies that are coming out this
summer.
Some have already come out.
And I wonder if you've seen some of them.
I wonder if you also like acting.
Or if you had a choice, if you could be in one of these movies, what kind of
movie would you like to star in?
Carolyn?
Well, I would actually really like to star in an animated movie.
Interesting.
Yes. I really like the idea of voice acting and just being very expressive in
the way you use your voice and put it on a character on screen.
I think that it would be really fun project to work on.
That does sound like fun.
For me, I think I'd like to do something a little more story-driven.
I love dramas, and they're big challenge for actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and
Tobey Maguire in The Great Gatsby.
I'd like to be in a movie like that.
Well, what about you?
What kind of movie would you like to be in?
Talk about that in English, of course.
And we hope to see you next time right here on Studio Classroom.
See you.