节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-05-04
难易度:Low
关键字:significant, recreation, contribution, represent, tobacco, labor union,
second-hand smoke
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us today.
Our lesson is called The Merry Month of May.
Three "M's" there in our title.
Of course, "merry" just means happy.
May can be a happy month, and we hope it is for you.
Well, May can make you think of a lot of different things.
Maybe it's your birthday in May.
Well, what are you going to celebrate in May?
Is there anything special going on this month for you?
Carolyn, is there anything special going on for you?
Actually, there is something very special going on this month for me and the
rest of my family because one of my sisters is graduating from college today.
No way! Today!
Well, that is something to celebrate.
Well, for me, actually it is quite a special month.
Every May my parents celebrate their anniversary, their wedding anniversary.
So it is definitely a merry month.
Well, we have a lot to learn about May.
So I hope you have your magazine.
Open it up and let's get started with the first reading of the day.
The Merry Month of May.
Celebrate more than Mother's Day this month.
May 1 is International Workers' Day, a significant day for workers.
Prior to the 1800s, workers put in nearly 16 hours each day.
Over time, labor unions in many countries fought for shorter workdays.
"Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, and eight hours rest" became a
popular saying.
If you wish to party for a whole week, join the nurses!
May 6 begins National Nurses' Week, which ends on May 12, International Nurses'
Day.
That day, Florence Nightingale's birthday, celebrates the profession and her
contribution to modern nursing.
(Music).
The month of May is a very interesting month.
But before we get into the article too much, right there in the title "The Merry
Month of May," Steve and Ken have something they'd like to share with us.
Let's go see them in the Information Cloud.
Hi, friends.
Did you know the title of today's lesson is actually taken from the lyrics of an
old song called The Fountain in the Park.
Old is right.
That song came out in the 1880s, but because it was so popular, it's still in
the minds of the public.
If I were to whistle the melody right now, I'm sure many of you would recognize
it.
Appropriating popular song titles and lyrics is a trick authors and movie
producers use often.
Because they want the public to identify with their product quickly and easily.
The sooner they do, the sooner the public will go out and read the book or watch
the movie.
There are hundreds of movie titles that have a connection to famous English song
titles or lyrics.
One example is Stand by Me.
Ah, yes, a number-one hit song back in 1961.
It became stuck in the public's mind for a long, long time.
In 1986, movie producers capitalized on the song's enduring popularity and
released the movie with the same name.
Just last year, a forgettable Brad Pitt movie came out called Killing Them
Softly.
The title was a reference to the 1973 hit song Killing Me Softly.
(Chinese).
Well, we can learn a lot about May here about nurses and other important things
that happen in May.
And at the beginning of the article we see that May 1 is International Workers'
Day, a significant day for workers.
Well, it sounds like a pretty important day.
And we see a word right there in this sentence, the word "significant." It's
from our Word Bank.
If something is significant, then it has a lot of importance.
It is very, very important thing, so.
What does this mean, Gabe?
Well, this is a significant word.
It's a word that we think that you should know.
Maybe it can help a lot when you are trying to practice using your English.
You can use this word in different ways.
Maybe you have a significant relationship.
Maybe you have some important friendships in your life.
What... which relationships are significant to you?
Or maybe you might want to say I didn't do anything significant today.
I didn't do anything important, nothing that will change my life.
Nothing was too significant.
But we know that International Workers' Day is a significant day for workers.
For people who work, so.
We see that prior to the 1800s, workers put in nearly 16 hours each day.
How would you feel, Gabe, if you had to work 16 hours every day?
Carolyn, I'm very glad that I don't have to work 16 hours every day.
I'm glad that I did not live prior to the 1800s.
Um, but it's true.
"Prior to this time," that means before this time.
And we find that workers put in nearly 16 hours a day.
Let's take a look at that phrase: to put in something.
You're talking about giving some of your time or giving some of your... whatever
you have.
You could also put in a lot of energy into a project.
How else could you use that phrase?
Well, you might say that you put in money.
You invest in something to try to make it better, try to succeed in business.
You can put in your own money or other people could put in their money.
It's true.
Or maybe if you're studying at a university, and you have a... a big paper that
you need to write.
Some people spend hours, maybe 100 or 200 hours.
They put in many hours for their homework for this one big paper.
So you can use that phrase in different ways.
Well, we'll look at and see what workers put in.
Over time, labor unions in many countries fought for shorter workdays.
So labor unions, these organizations of workers were trying to get shoter
workdays because the overtime was too much.
Sixteen hours a day.
That's right.
Sixteen hours a day, of course, today that would be considered overtime.
That's used as one word O-V-E-R-T-I-M-E.
If you are working overtime, hopefully you get paid a little more.
Here we see it as two words, over time, labor unions in many countries fought
for shorter work days.
That means over a long period of time.
And it was.
It was probably close to 100 years or more that people kept fighting for this.
And we see this quote here, "Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, and
eight hours rest" became a popular saying.
That's right.
So they wanted to divide the day into three eight-hour periods:
eight hours of labor or work, eight hours of recreation or relaxing, and then
eight hours of rest - to sleep.
And we see that word "recreation." And it's from our Word Bank, so let's talk
about it.
If you have recreation, then you do something that you enjoy.
Maybe you spend your time relaxing, or maybe you go to the park.
It is a great place for recreation.
That's right.
That is a good place for recreation.
It's pretty much what you do for fun.
Maybe you have a hobby of some kind, that's a recreational activity.
Or maybe you like to go out hiking.
Maybe you like to do something different, playing games.
These are all considered recreation, what you do that's not work.
That's right.
Well, that is why workers enjoy the month of May on May 1.
Continuing in the article:
If you wish to party for a whole week, join the nurses!
May 6 begins National Nurses' Week, which ends on May 12, International Nurses'
Day.
That's right.
So we're... you can celebrate nurses or nursing for a week or for a day.
And we continue:
That day, on May 12, Florence Nightingale's birthday, this celebrates the
profession and her contribution to modern nursing.
Well, we do have a key word.
The word is "contribution." And if you have a contribution, that means you give
something to something else.
So Florence Nightingale contributed.
She gave a lot of her life to modern nursing or studying about nursing.
That's right.
Well, you can contribute a lot of things.
You can make a contribution.
Her contribution was to nursing.
But maybe you like to make a contribution of your time to projects that you
think are worthwhile.
Well, I think it's an important question.
How can I contribute to society?
You see that word as a verb as well.
C-O-N-T-R-I-B-U-T-E.
How can you contribute to society?
That's a question a lot of people have.
What contribution will you make?
Well, Michelle always makes a good contribution here at Studio Classroom.
Let's join her in the Language Lab now.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.