节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-05-07
难易度:Medium
关键字:lump, snatch, pickpocket, cuastious
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us for our second day about traveling this month.
We're joining Jo and her story about traveling in Europe, and we're asking the
question:
Cash, check or credit?
Which should you use to pay with when you're traveling?
Well, have you ever been in a place where you couldn't use your credit card?
Sometimes that happens.
You have a credit card, but you can't use it.
Has that ever happened to you, Carolyn?
Well, actually a lot of times when I travel, the places I go to don't accept
credit cards because it requires a special system that the shop has to pay for.
So they don't take them; they only take cash.
And that's OK since I usually pay for things in cash.
Well, that's usually OK for me, too.
But I had to make a layover in one country, and I didn't have the cash, the
currency of that country.
All I had was a credit card.
And they said: Sorry, we only take cash.
I didn't even have any U.S. dollars, so I couldn't pay with anything.
I couldn't get my coffee.
Anyway, I'm glad I'm back.
Now I can use a credit card.
Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't.
But it... it's good to learn more from other people's experiences.
So pay attention right now as we listen to Jo and what she has to say.
Cash, Check or Credit Card?
I always carried a credit card, my ATM card and cash wherever I went.
The reason for this was safety.
My credit card had a high limit which was great for emergency use.
Using the ATM card was safer than carrying a lump of cash in my wallet.
A small amount of cash was perfect for food and souvenirs.
I never had trouble with these, but two of my friends weren't so lucky.
In Nice, France, my friend Chiyo had her backpack stolen while we were eating
lunch at McDonald's.
Someone walked right by and snatched it - we didn't notice until we got up to
leave.
Oh... not a good experience at all.
I hate it when people steal things.
Well, let's go to the beginning of Jo's story here today.
She says: I always carried a credit card, my ATM card and cash wherever I went.
So it seems like this is a good idea for us to do as well.
She might give you this advice: Carry a credit card, ATM card and cash wherever
you go when you are traveling.
And we see why she did this.
The reason for this was safety.
And I do think it's a good idea to have different forms of payment when you're
wanting to purchase things in other countries.
But you probably should keep them safe and tucked away where they won't get
stolen.
That's right.
Then you won't be in any danger.
Well, let's continue.
She says: My credit card had a high limit which was great for emergency use.
Wait a minute, Carolyn.
What does that mean to have a high limit?
I know we've talked about this before in earlier months.
What does it mean to have a high credit limit?
Well, if you have a high credit limit, it means that you can buy a lot of things
or spend a lot of credit money that you can pay back later.
It means that the company trusts you that you will be able to pay back what you
spend.
And so, they let you spend a lot.
That's right.
So the more you use a credit card and the earlier you pay off your credit card,
the higher your limit will be.
All right.
So that's pretty good.
And you can use these for emergency use.
Well, let's continue.
Using the ATM card was safer than carrying a lump of cash in my wallet.
OK. Sometimes it can be safer than just carrying cash.
Let's talk about that key word there "lump." What is this word, Carolyn?
What does it mean?
Well, a lump is a large piece of something.
You might say you have a lump of money, which would be quite a thick and large
amount of money.
But I also think of a lump of maybe dirt or coal, something that you can hold in
your hand.
That's right.
I think of kind of a shape when she's talking about this lump of cash in her
wallet.
It's kind of this shape.
It's not smooth.
It's kind of something that might be awkward to carry.
It's a lump of cash.
Sometimes you feel like that.
You have so much cash in your wallet.
It makes your wallet too thick, kind of like a lump in your pocket.
Well, how does the lesson continue, Carolyn?
Well, she says a small amount of cash was perfect for food and souvenirs.
So she just needed to carry around a little bit of cash, not a lump of cash so
that she could get food and souvenirs.
Then she had her ATM card in case she needed to get out more money,
and also had a credit card in case she needed to buy something more expensive or
if there was an emergency.
Jo's a smart one.
Well, let's take a look at a phrase from this sentence: the amount of cash was
perfect for food and souvenirs.
Perfect for something.
Well, of course nothing is perfect.
But you can use this phrase in other ways.
You could say: This gift is perfect for you.
I knew you would like it.
Or that drink, that cool drink is perfect for hot summer weather.
How might you use that phrase?
Well, this is a perfect time for relaxing.
It's vacation time.
It is perfect for going to the beach.
That's right.
It's perfect for that.
Well, let's continue with Jo's story.
She is talking about the amount of cash that was perfect for food and souvenirs.
I never had trouble with thieves, but two of my friends weren't so lucky.
So Jo never had anything stolen from her, but it sounds like her friends maybe
had this experience?
That's what it sounds like.
She says that her friends weren't so lucky.
So they did not have this same luck that she did in not having things stolen
from her.
And then she gives us an example of what happened to one of her friends.
She says: In Nice, France, my friend Chiyo had her backpack stolen while they
were eating lunch at McDonald's.
Oh, man.
To have your backpack stolen, there's probably a lot of important things in
there.
How did it happen?
Well, someone walked right by and snatched it - we didn't notice until we got up
to leave.
Man, I hate when that happens!
But I do like talking about words from the Word Bank.
Let's talk about this word "snatch." If you snatch something from somebody, that
means you take it from them.
Maybe when they did not expect it, you snatch it out of their hands.
And it's usually something that's done very quickly, to snatch.
Usually when I think of this word, though, I think of maybe an animal snatching
something, so.
You might throw a ball or a stick when you're playing with your dog.
And the dog snatches it out of the air.
You're right.
Well, I had a similar experience to Jo when I was visiting Greece, actually.
We were praying before a meal, and we all had our eyes closed.
And someone came by and took my friend's bag.
They snatched her bag and stole it.
So do be careful when you're traveling.
And uh, you don't want people to snatch your things, especially your important
documents.
Right now it's time for us to continue learning something with Michelle.