节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-05-02
难易度:Medium
关键字:mouthwatering, declare, booth, idol, cook-off, Guinness, legendary
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us for the second day of our lesson - Memphis in May.
Of course, yesterday we learned about a music festival that kicks off this
month-long Memphis in May.
It was the Beale Street Music Festival.
Well, today we're going to be learning about something a little bit different,
something most people like - food.
Yes, a world-famous barbecue contest.
Now I do wonder if you have ever entered a food contest, or maybe you have
attended a food contest.
Have you, Carolyn?
Well, I have been to a couple of different food competitions.
I knew a guy who was competing and cooking in a food competition; but I've also
been to a food-eating competition.
And it was jello.
And I ate so much jello that I no longer really enjoy it.
Wow. OK.
Well, that's one kind of food that's very special.
I was just thinking, I... I have actually been a judge in a food contest.
It was to see who could use cheese to make the best kinds of bread or treats,
different things like that.
It was a pretty cool contest.
Today we're going to be learning about a world-famous barbecue contest.
So let's get started.
(Music).
Memphis in May.
World-famous barbecue contest.
The mouthwatering smell of pork barbecue fills the air during the World
Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.
The cook-off event began in 1978 in a downtown parking lot with only 26
competitors.
This month the contest runs from May 16 through 18 with more than 250 teams from
around the world.
Teams compete for over $110,000 in prizes and the right to be crowned the
Memphis in May barbecue champion.
Guinness has declared the event the "Largest Pork BBQ in the World" with 82 tons
of pork cooked over three days.
Well, there is certainly a lot of pork being cooked at this world-famous
barbecue contest.
And our article starts: The mouthwatering smell of pork barbecue fills the air
during the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.
It's a very long title for this contest.
But at the beginning of the sentence we see a very long word: mouthwatering.
And it's one of our Word Bank words.
If something is mouthwatering, what does that mean, Gabe?
Well, if something is mouthwatering, it makes your mouth water.
And sometimes your mouth begins to water when you are getting hungry.
So sometimes you can smell something that makes the inside of your mouth begin
to water.
I think if I visited this place, Memphis in May, and enjoyed the barbecue
contest,
I would smell these things and my mouth would begin to water, Carolyn.
I... my mouth would probably also being to water because of the delicious smells
that fill the air.
And this is a really great phrase.
If something fills the air, then it is everywhere.
So let's take a minute and look at that.
Gabe, what else could fill the air?
Well, this is a great phrase.
If something fills the air, that means that everywhere you walk, you can
experience it.
So if you are at this barbecue, then everywhere you walk, you can smell the
delicious smell of pork barbecue.
But I also could use this phrase in another way.
Maybe I'll talk about music.
Music filled the air at the festival at the Beale Street Music Festival.
That's right.
So a smell could fill the air.
A sound could fill the air.
But it could also be something that you see.
Maybe the air was filled with birds.
Birds fill the air; or balloons.
So something that you can sense around you can fill the air around you.
All right.
Well, we're talking about the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.
Let's continue.
The cook-off event began in 1978 in a downtown parking lot with only 26
competitors.
That's not many.
But I se this word at the beginning, the "cook-off" event.
Carolyn, what's a cook-off?
Well, it's a fun way to talk about a cooking competition.
Many times we'll have the word "off" to show that you're going to be competing
against someone else.
So in this cook-off, there were many people competing.
And here when it first started, there were only 26 competitors.
There were only 26 competitors.
Well, that word "cook-off" makes me think of another kind of contest.
Maybe if you're good at dancing, you can join a dance-off.
You're competing against other dancers to see who is better.
Well, we do have more to learn with Steve and Ken in the Information Cloud all
about parking lots.
Let's talk about something that you do almost every day if you drive a car:
parking.
Yes. Parking can be a headache especially in a big city.
Sometimes when you arrive at your destination, you find that all the available
parking spaces are taken.
Now a parking space is just the area where a single car can park.
It may be indicated by lines drawn on the side of a road showing where you
should park or it may be in a parking lot.
Let's talk about parking lot for a minute.
A parking lot is a large level area where cars or other vehicles are parked.
It can be covered or open-air.
Right.
But if you're in a large building that contains several levels of parking lots
stacked on top of each other, we no longer call it a parking lot.
Instead, we call that a parking garage.
And if you travel outside the U.S., you might also hear the term "car park,"
which is the British term for a parking lot.
OK. "Garage" has another meaning.
It may also refer to the place where you take your car to have it repaired.
Good point.
(Chinese).
Continuing in our article we see:
This month the contest runs from May 16 through 18 with more than 250 teams from
around the world.
So when this competition first started, there were only 26 people or teams
competing.
And now there are 250... more than 250 teams.
I think it may have gained some popularity, Gabe.
I think so, too.
This sounds like something that I would want to go and enjoy this barbecue
cooking contest.
And it lasts for three days from May 16 through May 18 this year.
I think these teams will be smelling like pork by the end of those three days.
I'm sure that they will be.
And continuing in the next paragraph we see why so many people want to
participate.
Teams compete for over $110,000 in prizes and the right to be crowned the
Memphis in May barbecue champion.
Well, that sounds great.
Some people do compete for this prize over $110,000.
But many people do really compete for the right to be crowned the Memphis in May
barbecue champion.
They really do want that trophy.
I've seen some pictures of these trophies.
They are nice trophies, nice prizes.
That's right.
They are not small.
And they get the honor of being the champion of this world-famous barbecue
competition.
And we see that even Guinness has declared the event the "Largest Pork Barbecue
in the World" with 82 tons of pork cooked over three days.
Wow! That's a lot of pork.
Friends, let's take a look at this key word from the Word Bank here.
It is "declare." Guinness has declared this event something.
So when you declare something, that makes it official.
How else could you use that word, Carolyn?
Well, you might declare today a day of rest.
OK.
You are not to do any work today.
You have to rest.
It is official.
All right. It's official.
Or maybe at the end of this cooking contest, someone is declared the winner.
It's official.
Nobody else won, only that one team won.
Well, let's take a look at another word here.
It's the word "Guinness." Carolyn, who is Guinness?
Well, here it's referring to the Guinness Book of World Records.
They are very important.
And it's a great way to keep track of who is number one, or does the most of
something, or the fastest, the best at something in the world.
Well, now it's time for us to go see Michelle in the Language Lab.