节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-06-21
难易度:High
关键字:blow one's mind, infectious, intent, throng, Grammy, prime minister
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And we're glad that you could join us for our lesson today about a special band
named Mumford and Sons.
I don't know if you've heard of them before; perhaps you have.
They are wonderful.
Well, we are talking about a band, a music band today.
And I wonder what kind of music you listen to?
What do you enjoy listening to?
Carolyn?
Well, I enjoy listening to many different kinds of music.
But some of my favorite artists right now would have to be Owl City,
and Future of Forestry was a new band that I was introduced to recently.
And I just love their music.
All right, Owl City, Future of Forestry.
You let me hear some of their music.
I like Future of Forestry as well.
Well, I've loved Radio Head for a long time.
I went to a concert of theirs last year.
And I love all sorts of jazz, especially that kind of funky jazz.
I love going to those kinds of concerts and listening to that kind of music.
Well, Mumford & Sons is very unique.
It's different.
And you are going to get a chance to learn a little bit about them today.
So let's get started with the first reading for the day.
(Music).
Mumford & Sons.
Meet the Gentlemen of the Road.
If you haven't heard Mumford & Sons, get online now, and they will blow your
mind.
Check out the songs "The Cave" or "I Will Wait." Done?
Maybe now you have an idea of how an infectious sound can spring a young British
band to amazing heights.
The group earned two 2013 Grammy awards, and in 2012 their album Babel had the
second highest new album sales.
But Mumford's four unrelated members offer more than that; they invite you to
join them.
OK. Let's start at the very beginning here learning about Mumford & Sons - Meet
the Gentlemen of the Road.
Well, if you have had a chance to look online and see some of those songs
mentioned here, you will see that they certainly are gentlemen.
And they act like gentlemen or look like gentlemen in their concerts and in
everything that they do.
They are the Gentlemen of the Road.
That's right.
And they are Gentlemen of the Road because they're always traveling, which is
something we will be talking about in today's lesson.
Well, first, let's just look a bit at their name.
Their name - Mumford & Sons.
Usually when I see "& Sons" with something, I think of a "father-and-son"
business.
But that's not what this band is, is it, Gabe?
No, it's not.
It's a group of friends that got together.
And one of them, yes, their name is Mumford, but then the others are not named
Mumford.
It's not really his son; it's his friends.
But here we're talking about Mumford & Sons.
And it's true, there are many businesses in the West that might say "something &
Sons" or "something & Co.," and that means it's a kind of company.
That's right.
But here it's not a family business; it's a family of friends.
Well, let's get started at the very beginning here.
If you haven't heard Mumford & Sons, get online now, and they will blow your
mind.
All right. They will blow your mind.
Let's take a look at some of those words.
They're from our Word Bank: to blow your mind.
That means they are better than you expected.
Or maybe you didn't expect anything, you didn't know what to expect.
But it was a lot better.
It was really great.
It blew your mind.
How could you use that phrase, Carolyn?
Well, I do think if you went watching a performance, maybe you've heard these
songs before,
you've listened to the CD or the MP3.
But then you go to the concert, and it's a live performance.
And it just blows your mind because you had no idea that it could sound even
better; and a live concert experience is pretty amazing.
Well, that's how I felt at Radio Head's concert last year.
It blew my mind.
They truly are good musicians and good performers onstage.
They blew my mind.
It makes me think of another phrase: if something blows you away.
It kind of means the same thing.
Wow! That just blew me away.
It was incredible.
How do we continue this lesson, Carolyn?
We see: Check out the songs "The Cave" or "I Will Wait." So check out these
songs.
Check out. Let's look at that phrase.
If you check something out, that means you look at it, you look it up.
Maybe you find some information on it, or here - listen to these songs.
All right. I love that band.
You should listen to them, too.
Check out their new album.
Or you could check their new album out.
You could put these words "check out" together or split them up, check something
out.
Well, check out those songs "The Cave" and "I Will Wait." Done?
Well, of course not right now.
You're on Studio Classroom.
You're listening to us.
But in a minute, you should go check those songs out.
And when you are done, maybe now you have an idea of how an infectious sound can
spring a young British band to amazing heights.
All right.
Well, let's take a look at a word right there.
The word is "infectious." This is from our Word Bank.
Now this kind of makes me think of the word "infected" with... which is a bad
thing.
So if you're infected, that means it's... it's not good for your body.
But if it's infectious, that means you are infecting others.
And music can be infectious.
It's catchy.
You want to listen to more of it.
That's right.
So here we're talking about it in a good way.
That's right.
This infectious sound is a good thing.
It means that people want to listen to it.
It spreads very quickly.
And this infectious sound has sprung a young British band to amazing heights.
So they went from not being very popular to being very well known around the
world.
And what have they done, Gabe?
Well, they're pretty amazing.
The group earned two 2013 Grammy awards, (wow!) and in 2012 their album Babel
had the second highest new album sales.
All right.
So it seems like they've been doing pretty well for themselves.
Carolyn, what is the Grammy Awards?
Well, the Grammys are probably the biggest award show for musicians.
So all of the performers, especially in the United States where it's hosted,
they are chosen for different categories.
And here Mumford & Sons won two Grammys in different categories in 2013.
That's right, and their album Babel did pretty well as well.
Well, we continue learning.
But Mumford's four unrelated members offer more than that; they invite you to
join them.
Well, this makes me want to learn a little bit more.
So far we know that they are unrelated members.
Carolyn, what does that mean?
Well, it means that they are not part of the same family.
So even though they're called Mumford & Sons, as we said before, they are not
related to or unrelated.
But right now, let's spend some time with Michelle in the Language Lab.