节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-06-28
难易度:Medium
关键字:submarine, refuel, attraction, vessel, tank
(Music).
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
Thank you for joining us for the second day of our lesson all about Chuuk.
We're learning about the South Pacific's historic treasure - Chuuk.
And today we'll be talking a little bit about some dive sites that are popular
there.
Now I don't know if you enjoy diving.
Maybe you've never been scuba diving before.
Would you like to try?
How... how do you feel about this?
Carolyn, have you ever been scuba diving?
Do you enjoy diving?
Well, I've actually never been scuba diving.
I haven't even been snorkeling out in the ocean.
But it's something that I really want to do.
I would love to learn how to scuba dive and just be able to explore places under
the water like this.
It sounds like so much fun.
Gabe, have you ever been scuba diving?
Yes, I have, a couple of times.
I don't have my license yet.
I do enjoy scuba diving.
But I have to say, sometimes equalising or adjusting to the water pressure can
kind of hurt my ears a little bit.
I know that's something a lot of divers experience.
But the more you do it, the easier it becomes.
And it's a lot of fun to see all those things under the water.
I would love to visit Chuuk for that reason.
Well, let's get started with the first part of our reading for the day: The
Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon.
Chuuk: The South Pacific's Historic Treasure.
"The Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon".
Micronesia may be small, but there's nothing "micro" about its dive sites.
More than 100 ships, submarines and aircraft lie at the bottom of Chuuk Lagoon.
For 25 years these wrecks were ignored.
But in 1969, explorer Jacques Cousteau made a film about the lagoon, and it
became famous.
Divers have flocked here ever since.
Although there are far too many wrecks to see in one trip, some of the best are:
The Nippo Maru.
It is nearly whole and has a tank and several weapons on its deck.
Well, this sounds like a really interesting place to go, all of this history and
so many ships to learn about.
Well, let's go back to beginning here, The Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon.
Now if you have a ghost fleet, Gabe, what does that mean?
Well, a ghost fleet.
What do you think of when you think of a ghost?
That's right, something that is not living anymore.
So it's kind of eerie, this fleet that is sunk beneath the surface of the water
here, this ghost fleet.
That's right.
And this fleet being a lot of different ships, large military ships.
Well, let's look at the first sentence here.
Micronesia may be small, but there's nothing "micro" about its dive sites.
And of course, the word "micro" means small, but there's nothing small about its
dive sites, Gabe.
All right.
Well, in that word "Micronesia," you see the word "micro," which means small.
And of course if you're looking at the globe or the world, then yeah, that can
seem very small.
But when you're there, it's not small at all.
So these words are relative words to your experience or where you are standing,
your angle.
But let's take a look at this word or this phrase here.
There's nothing micro about its dive sites; there's nothing something about
something else.
You could use that phrase in other ways.
How might you use that phrase, Carolyn?
Well, I might say the prices at this store are really low, but there's nothing
cheap about their service.
So the quality there is really good.
The employees are great; but they have very low prices.
All right.
You're taking that class in school?
There's nothing interesting about that subject, is there?
So you can use that phrase in many ways.
And of course there's a lot of interesting... there are many interesting things
to learn about Chuuk.
Let's continue.
We're talking about this dive site, OK.
More than 100 ships, submarines and aircraft lie at the bottom of Chuuk lagoon.
And we have a word there from our Word Bank, the word "submarine." Now this is
such a very cool and interesting vessel or ship.
A submarine is a boat that doesn't go on top of the water but is under the
water, like you're driving through the ocean.
That's right, a submarine.
Sometimes we shorten that word to a "sub," S-U-B.
And of course maybe you've had sandwiches that look like submarines.
It's true; those are called submarine sandwiches.
If you enjoy those kind of sandwiches, well, you can think about Chuuk lagoon
and the submarines that used to be there...
the submarines that are there at the bottom now, these wrecks.
Now there's another word in this sentence that's kind of interesting.
I think it maybe should have an S... or it seems like it should have an S, the
word "aircraft." But aircraft never has an S.
That's right.
It's not aircrafts; aircraft, singular and plural, no S.
So continuing into the next sentence:
For 25 years these wrecks were ignored.
Nobody really paid any attention to them for 25 years, but something changed.
But in 1969 explorer Jacques Cousteau made a film about the lagoon, and it
became famous.
All right.
So this explorer is a very famous explorer - Jacques Cousteau.
He made a film.
You might call that a documentary, D-O-C-U-M-E-N-T-A-R-Y, a kind of film where
you record actual things about history or something.
And you can make a film like that.
This became famous.
Divers have flocked there ever since.
They have flocked to Chuck ever since.
That's right.
So it sounds like his film was very popular among divers.
They all saw this movie, and they wanted to go to the lagoon and investigate
these wrecks.
Well, continuing.
Although there are far too many wrecks to see in one trip, some of the best
are...
And Gabe, what's the first wreck that divers must see when they go to Chuuk?
Well, the first suggestion here is the Nippo Maru.
It is nearly whole and has a tank and several weapons on its deck.
Well, that seems kind of cool.
It hasn't been destroyed too badly.
It's nearly whole.
So almost all of it is there.
And what is on top of its deck?
A tank!
And a tank, of course, is a military vehicle, usually very large that is armored
so that it can't be destroyed by other things, maybe by regular weapons.
But it's a very powerful vehicle that protects soldiers and can go through
pretty much anything.
All right.
Well, we've been learning a little bit about the Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon, and
there are many things you can see underwater here.
But we're just going to talk about a couple more ships in today's lesson.
But before we do that, we need to spend some time with Michelle in the Language
Lab.
And then we'll take a break.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.