节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-06-07
难易度:Medium
关键字:poinsonous,venom, infection, massive, set in
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us for today's lesson.
I hope you're interested in learning about snakebites.
This lesson is all about snakebites.
Well, the world is full of snakes... well, maybe not full of snakes, but there
are many kinds of snakes all over the world.
Hey, do you like snakes?
How do you feel about snakes?
Do you think that they are interesting or frightening to you?
Carolyn, how do you feel about snakes?
Well, I actually have mixed feelings about snakes.
If it's just a nice little gutter snake or a black snake, I'm OK with that.
I actually even kept a corn snake at my house for a few days until we could take
it to the park service to have them take care of it and use it for education.
OK. So that's great.
So all snakes are wonderful, right?
Ah, no, I wouldn't say that.
If that corn snake had been a rattlesnake, I probably would have killed it.
All right.
So you feel different ways about different snakes.
I think snakes are beautiful, I really do.
But I try not to get too close to them because I'm not sure yet which ones are
poisonous (or venomous) and which ones are not.
But I do think that they are beautiful creatures.
Anyway, we're going to be learning about snakebites today.
Please pay attention as we get started with our first reading of the day.
(Music).
Snakebites.
Watch out for poisonous snakes!
Adults, children and pets around the world experience them.
They can result in swelling, bleeding or even death.
In India, they kill many more people than tiger attacks.
Snakebites affect between 1.2 million and five million people each year around
the world.
Luckily, out of the 3,000 species of snakes that exist worldwide, only 600 have
venom according to the World Health Organization.
However, any bite can be dangerous if infection sets in.
Some types of venom make the bite area swollen or painful.
Others cause bleeding or damage the heart's nerves.
Here are some especially dangerous snakes:
All right.
Well, before we take a look at some of those dangerous snakes, let's learn some
English from the beginning of this lesson.
At the very beginning we see a phrase there: Watch out for poisonous snakes!
Watch out for these snakes.
Let's look at that word from our Word Bank: poisonous.
If something is poisonous, that means it's not good for you.
It can cause you to be unhealthy in some way, and it's bad for you.
What kinds of things are poisonous, Carolyn?
Well, things that are poisonous contain poison.
And there are a lot of plants that are poisonous.
If you touch them or eat them, you can have a very severe reaction.
Maybe you touch a plant, and your skin gets a terrible rash.
It turns red and itchy.
You might even have to go to the hospital.
But you might eat something that is poisonous as well.
There are many mushrooms that are poisonous, and you need to be careful not to
eat them.
That's right.
Some chemicals are poisonous.
Some gases could be poisonous.
We also might say "toxic," T-O-X-I-C.
But these things are poisonous for you.
You want to learn what things are poisonous in the world of nature.
Well, we're talking about poisonous snakebites, and let's get started.
What's our first sentence for the day, Carolyn?
Well, we see: Adults, children and pets around the world experience them.
Oh, them!
Them. What is "them"?
Well, we continue.
They can result in swelling, bleeding or even death.
We're still talking about them or they - these can result in swelling bleeding
or even death.
Well, let's see if the next sentence will tell us what "they" are.
In India, they kill many more people than tiger attacks.
Wait a minute.
So far we have three sentences, and we don't know what they or them are, OK?
In India, they kill more people than tiger attacks.
That's crazy! What are we talking about?
The next sentence here is snakebites.
Snakebites affect between 1.2 million and five million people each year around
the world.
That is a very large number.
Even the smallest number, 1.2 million, that's a lot of people who are affected
by snakebites.
It sounds like a pretty dangerous thing.
That's right.
Well, so far the first three sentences did not talk about snakebites.
The fourth sentence we knew what they were talking about.
Let's learn a little bit more about what this is called with Steve and Ken in
the Info Cloud.
The author of today's lesson starts her article by telling us there exists a
deadly danger and that the danger is everywhere in the world.
Pretty frightening.
But she didn't tell us what it is.
Not right away, anyway, because she's busy grabbing our attention and making us
care about reading what comes next.
And so finally, in the fourth sentence of the article, we learn what the danger
is - snakebites.
So what did the author do?
She created a little suspense - that mental and emotional excitement we feel
while anticipating the outcome of uncertain situations.
Suspense could come from a real-life situation, a story, a drama or even a joke.
Using suspense is effective because we humans are naturally curious people.
If we start to watch a thrilling drama, we're usually willing to continue
watching to see how it ends.
If we're reading a murder mystery, we're often pretty eager to read on and find
out who did it.
So friends, take advantage of this.
The next time you write an essay or prepare a speech, try adding some suspense.
And give your audience a reason to care about what you'll say next.
(Chinese).
There was a lot of suspense building in that first paragraph talking about
something so dangerous and not knowing what it was.
But we found out that we are talking about snakebites.
How does the next paragraph continue, Gabe?
Well, luckily, out of the 3,000 species of snakes that exist worldwide, only 600
have venom according to the World Health Organization.
So we see that word "worldwide," and actually before the Info Cloud, you saw
another phrase: around the world.
Actually those can mean the same thing.
You can use those phrases and words in the same way, worldwide or around the
world.
That's right.
And of the 3,000 species of snakes around the world, only 600 of them have
venom.
Well, I think that is 600 too many.
But let's look at that word "venom." It is from the Word Bank.
And if something has venom, then it has a kind of poison in it.
Now venom and poison are a little bit different, but a lot of times we use them
in the same way.
That's right.
You might call something poisonous or you could say it is venomous.
So venom is a noun; but venomous becomes an adjective, V-E-N-O-M-O-U-S, when
something has venom and could be poisonous when it bites you, like a snake.
Or something else that is venomous or has venom is a spider.
Some spiders, anyway.
What are other things that might have venom, Carolyn?
Well, there are a lot of animals that have venom.
And actually insects, also.
Maybe you get stung by a bee, and you have a terrible reaction, it might be that
the bee was venomous.
And now you have venom or poison inside you.
Now there is a little sidebar in your magazine on venom versus poison if you'd
like to read that and learn a little bit more about the difference between those
two words.
That's right.
Well, we're talking about snakebites here.
Six hundred snakes have venom or are venomous.
Let's continue.
However, any bite can be dangerous if infection sets in.
Well, let's take a look at that word from our Word Bank.
It is "infection." This is not a good thing.
If you have an infection, that means it's affecting your body in some way, and
you need to get it checked out maybe at a hospital or by a doctor.
That's right.
So when you get injured, if there's a cut on your skin, you might get an
infection if that area gets dirty or bacteria gets in it.
And it can set in.
It can be very, very dangerous.
Well, continuing:
Some types of venom make the bite area swollen or painful.
It can be very, very painful or swollen.
Others cause bleeding or damage the heart's nerves.
Ouch! OK. Be careful around snakes.
Here are some especially dangerous snakes.
Well, we're going to be talking about those a little bit later.
But for now, we need to learn something new with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).