节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-06-12
难易度:Medium
关键字:paddle, steer, globe, give rise to, keep time, teak, federation
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And you are joining us for a lesson about dragon boating.
We're talking about how Dragon Boating Conquers the World.
Well, it's true.
This sport, this event, this race that began in Asia is now being found in many
places all over the world.
Well, I do wonder if you have ever seen a dragon boat race or maybe if you've
even participated in a dragon boat race.
Carolyn, you're from America.
Have you ever seen a dragon boat race?
Well, I am from the United States, but I have actually participated in a dragon
boat race.
What!
Two years ago when I first came to Taiwan, I lived in a city, and Luodong had a
dragon boat race.
And I was able to be one of the participants in the boat pushing it along.
No way.
Yes.
That's great.
So she got to participate in the dragon boat race.
I've never done that before.
That sounds like fun.
My friend invited me to do that.
And then he told me that all the rehearsals were at five o'clock in the morning.
I was like: Forget it, man. Maybe next year.
But I did get to see him race, and it was quite exciting.
Well, what about you?
Have you ever participated in one or maybe uh, seen one before?
Dragon Boating Conquers the World.
Let's get started with our lesson.
Dragon Boating Conquers the World.
People all over the world enjoy the sport of dragon boating.
Twenty teammates reach forward with paddles, dig them into the water and then
pull back in a quick, powerful motion.
A drummer keeps time for them from the front of the boat while another person
steers from the back.
Together, these 22 people race a boat fitted with the head and tail of a dragon.
It's a scene that's been part of the Dragon Boat Festival in China for thousands
of years.
But over the last 30-plus years, this scene has become common on lakes and
rivers around the globe.
(Music).
Dragon boating is certainly gaining popularity around the world, especially if
our title here is true that it is conquering the world.
It is taking over the sporting scene.
And in the little sidebar we see that people all over the world enjoy the sport
of dragon boating.
And I also really enjoyed it a few years ago when I was able to join a team.
Well, learning about teams, we'll start in our first paragraph:
Twenty teammates reach forward with paddles, dig them into the water and then
pull back in a quick, powerful motion.
And I think this is well described.
If you've ever seen a dragon boat race, this is what it's like.
These teammates reach forward with paddles.
Let's take a look at that word from our Word Bank: a paddle.
It's something that you can use to help you move your boat forword, or in some
cases, to move your boat backward or keep it still.
You use a big wooden stick, or sometimes made of plastic or something else, this
is called a paddle.
That's right.
And when you are going to be in a dragon boat race, you need to make sure that
everyone's paddle goes into the water at the same time,
pulls back at the same time and comes up at the same time to pull your boat
along as fast as possible.
That's right, because you are going forward in a quick, powerful motion.
And of course, you can use the word "paddle" as a verb, too.
You can paddle forword in your boat.
Well, we continue learning about this great experience dragon boating.
A drummer keeps time for them from the front of the boat while another person
steers from the back.
All right.
So you've seen this before.
If you've seen dragon boating, there is someone at the front, maybe with a big
drum, and they are keeping time for all of the people paddling behind.
That's right.
So this drum allows them to paddle at the same time so that they are all
together.
And we also see that there's someone in the back who steers.
And "steer" is one of the words from our Word Bank today.
If you steer something, then you direct it where it's supposed to go, so.
Here they are steering the dragon boat.
You might also steer a ship with the large wheel.
That's right.
Where else have you seen this word "steer"?
Well, if you drive or if you have a car, then you use a steering wheel - the
wheel that steers the tires where they're going to go.
So you have a steering wheel.
You could also use this in kind of an idiom or phrase: to steer clear of
something.
Someone warns you to stay away from something that it's bad for you.
You should steer clear of it.
That's what that means - just stay away from that thing.
That's right.
Well, right now Steve and Ken have something they'd like to share with us in the
Information Cloud.
We're all familiar with the five basic senses, right?
Sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing.
But there are, in fact, a lot of other senses we humans possess to some degree
or another.
Like the sense of rhythm.
If you want to play the drums, you'll need to have this sense because keeping
time is a drummer's main responsibility.
Right.
And if you are someone who enjoys listening to and telling a good joke, you'll
have a healthy sense of humor.
OK. What about the sense that can keep us from getting lost?
Ah, you mean the sense of direction.
This sense comes in handy when you're driving around in an unfamiliar city or
hiking in the woods.
One more, because I know many of you love wearing fashionable clothes.
Well, if that's you, then you probably have a sense of style.
If you lack any one of these four senses, you can try to cultivate it through
learning and practice, but there's no guarantee how far you'll get.
For most people, you either have the sense or you don't.
Right.
Have you ever tried to teach someone how to be funny?
Not easy.
(Chinese).
Well, those are some good senses to know about.
So we have 20 people in a dragon boat paddling, someone in the front keeping
time and someone in the back steering.
Let's continue with our lesson.
Together, these 22 people race a boat fitted with the head and tail of a dragon.
That's so cool.
It's definitely a special kind of boat.
And I guess that's why it is called a dragon boat since it has been fitted with
both the head and the tail of a dragon.
It has these two things on it.
It's been a scene that's been part of the Dragon Boat Festival in China for
thousands of years.
So this is not really a new sport.
No, it's not really a new sport at all.
It might be a new sport that is celebrated around the world, but it's been in
China for thousands of years.
It's a scene that's been a part of the Dragon Boat Festival.
A scene is something that you can see, something that you can enjoy and maybe
even participate in - a scene.
That's right.
And right now Liz has something she would like to share with us about that in
the Grammar Gym.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym, friends.
My name is Liz.
In today's article we read:
It's a scene that's been part of the Dragon Boat Festival in China for thousands
of years.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
And for today we're looking at the sentence pattern.
Notice: [something] is a scene that's been part of [something else].
Sometimes we have an event with many things happening at the same time.
In today's article, the focus is on Dragon Boat Festival.
And there are many things going on during this festival.
But the writer puts special attention on what it's like to be in a dragon boat.
After describing it, he goes on to explain that this is something that people
see - It's a scene.
And it's just one of many things going on during this festival.
It's a part of the Dragon Boat Festival.
Let's look at some more example sentences.
Putting up a tree and letting the kids decorat it is a scene that's been part of
the Johnson Family Christmas celebration for many generations.
Or: Employees working together to clean out their work spaces is a scene that's
been part of the company's annual cleaning contest for many years.
Now it's your turn.
Think of an activity that's part of a greater event, and try using this sentence
pattern.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Well, this festival has gone on for thousands of years.
But over the last 30-plus years, this scene has become common on lakes and
rivers around the globe.
Now we see that word there "plus," 30-plus years.
Gabe, can you explain that to us?
That's right.
This means at least 30 years.
So you can use this when you're writing or talking about something.
You don't want to say the exact number.
Maybe you don't know what the exact number is, but it's more than 30 here,
30-plus years.
You could say the company's been around for the last 15-plus years.
How else could you use that word, Carolyn?
Well, I could say that my parents have been married for 20-plus years.
I don't want to say how long they've been married because they might think that
people will think that we are old.
But they have been married for more than 20 years.
All right.
So that's how you use this word "plus." Try that sometime today or when you're
writing something.
Now let's talk about another word from this sentence, the word "globe." This is
from our Word Bank.
Usually I think of a globe as something that you can touch, you can hold.
It's a small model of the world, and you can spin it.
And there is the world.
Uh, you can talk about different countries on the world from a globe.
But what does it mean here, Carolyn?
Well, here a globe is talking about the world.
So just around the world, the sport of dragon boating has become a very common
scene.
Well, right now it is time for us to learn something with Michelle in the
Language Lab.