节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-05-06
难易度:Medium
关键字:currency, traveler's check, insure, purchase, Euro, ATM
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us for today.
Our lesson has to do with traveling.
The title is "Cash, Check or Credit Card?" And so when you travel, you might be
able to pay using three different kinds of things.
Cash, check or credit card.
Of course, there might be other ways to pay.
But these are the three main ones that people use when they're traveling around
the world.
So how do you usually pay for things when you're traveling?
Carolyn, is there a certain way that you usually pay?
Well, usually when I'm traveling, I do take a credit card with me.
But when I actually buy things, I prefer to use cash.
I feel much more comfortable just having the cash there and being able to hand
it to the person and not worrying about using my card.
I see.
Usually I take my credit card or an ATM card, and then I will withdraw some
money.
I'm the same as Carolyn, I would use cash most of the time when I'm paying for
something.
But there are different ways to pay for things.
And we have some tips from this lesson.
So let's get started.
Open up your magazine.
Let's do the first reading of the day.
Cash, Check or Credit Card?
A backpacker's advice on carrying money in Europe.
During my semester abroad in Europe, I had many opportunities to travel around
Germany and neighboring countries.
Nearly every country I visited used the Euro, so exchanging currencies wasn't a
problem.
The adventures came when deciding how to pay.
I began my semester with American Express traveler's checks.
I'd never traveled abroad, and traveler's checks were my safest bet.
They were insured, which meant that American Express would replace them for free
if they were lost or stolen.
Well, it is a good idea to be safe with your money when you are traveling in
another country.
At the beginning we see that this is a backpacker's advice on carrying money in
Europe.
So someone who has gone backpacking in Europe is going to be giving us some tips
on what we should do to keep our money safe when we travel there.
That's right.
And our author is Jo, Jo Wuertz.
And she usually has interesting stories about her travels.
Let's begin.
During my semester abroad in Europe, I had many opportunities to travel around
Germany and neighboring countries.
All right. So she had many chances to go traveling to Germany and the
neighboring countries.
What is that, Carolyn?
What are the neighboring countries?
Well, those would be the countries that are near Germany.
So she didn't just travel within Germany.
She went to the ones that were next to it or maybe a few countries over because
many of the countries in Europe are very close,
and travel is pretty easy.
That's right.
So if you have a chance to travel abroad, maybe... during your semester abroad
at university or at school,
you might want to go to Europe because it's easy to travel around or among these
countries.
There are so many countries right next to each other.
They are all neighboring countries.
Well, how does this lesson continue?
Well, we see: Nearly every country I visited used the Euro, so exchanging
currencies wasn't a problem.
So nearly every country, most of the countries that she visited, used the Euro,
which is a standard form of money in Europe.
That's right, the Euro.
Many countries use the Euro.
It's a kind of currency.
And so we're talking about exchanging currencies here - it wasn't a problem.
There are two things we want to talk about here.
The first is the word "exchange." When you exchange a currency, that means you
are switching it or replacing one with another.
You can exchange different things.
What other things can you exchange in life, Carolyn?
Well, I often think of people who ask me for a phone number or an address.
They say: Oh. Well, would you mind exchanging phone numbers?
So I give them my phone number, and they give me their phone number.
But you could also exchange gifts.
Maybe you're at a party, and everyone brings a gift.
And then you trade one gift for another.
It's a gift exchange.
That's right.
That can be kind of a fun event, a gift exchange.
Or maybe you're exchanging glances with somebody.
You're looking at that person, they're looking at you.
Maybe you're sharing different facial expressions.
You're exchanging glances.
There are different ways to use that word "exchange." Now let's talk about the
Word Bank word: currency.
You need to know this word if you are traveling abroad, especially and if you're
going to be using money in another country.
The currency is the money that that country or that place uses.
How could you use that word?
Well, it is very important to know what currency they use.
So you might ask someone: What is the best currency, or what currency do I need
to exchange my money for before I travel?
That's right.
And if you're not sure, then you might be able to go online.
There are different currencies listed there.
Usually they're abbreviated.
So the U.S. Dollar would be USD and letters like that when you're talking about
currencies.
Well, let's continue with Jo's story.
The adventures came when deciding how to pay.
All right.
So it's fun to just travel abroad, but the adventures come when you decide how
you're going to pay.
That's right.
And we see that she says: I began my semester with American Express traveler's
checks.
Well, traveler's checks from American Express was what she decided to use when
she first started studying abroad.
Now a traveler's check is something that I've never really used.
Gabe, could you tell us more about this Word Bank word?
Of course.
American Express makes traveler's checks.
That means you can use these checks.
They're already made for you.
You buy them, but then you can use them in other countries almost like cash.
So it's a traveler's check.
It's one way that you could pay.
Well, Jo says that she'd never traveled abroad, and "traveler's checks were my
safest bet," she says.
Her safest bet - it's the safest thing she could think of.
And they are pretty safe.
We're going to find out more later why they are safe.
But first, let's go and visit Liz in the Grammar Gym.
Hello, friends.
I hope you're doing well today.
My name is Liz.
And thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
We see this statement in today's article: ... and traveler's checks were my
safest bet.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus today is on the phrase: safest bet.
It's another way to say: smartest option.
So the writer is saying that using traveler's checks is the smartest thing for
her to do.
We use "safest bet" when we're talking about making smart decisions in difficult
or complicated situations.
For example:
Taking the metro to the airport is your safest bet if you don't want to be stuck
in traffic.
Or: it's very hard to find drinking water in the mountains; your safest bet
would be to get it from your hotel.
If you'd like to see some more example sentences, they're available in today's
Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
And that's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
We are talking about traveler's checks that were Jo's safest bet.
In the next sentence we see that they were insured, which meant that American
Express would replace them for free if they were lost or stolen.
So it sounds like these traveler's checks really were a safe bet.
That's great.
And you can get different things insured.
"Insure" is from our key word list, or our Word Bank.
And if you have something insured, that means it is safe.
It's secure.
You have paid some money, a little extra money, for something to be safe.
So if something happens to it, that means you don't have to buy something over
again and start at the very beginning.
That's right.
So a lot of times I think of you might need to buy insurance for your car or
your house.
Those are two very important things to insure.
Well, now it is time for us to enjoy some time with Michelle in the Language
Lab.