节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-05-22
难易度:High
关键字:precisely, nozzle, mature, hearing aid, prototype
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
Thank you for joining us for today.
We have an interesting lesson about 3-D printing.
You could see our title that says "3-D Printing: No Factory Required." Well,
what is 3-D printing, anyway?
I've heard of printing, but 3-D printing?
Carolyn, have you heard of 3-D printing?
Actually, I have.
It was something that one of my friends in the United States introduced to me.
She has a friend who bought a 3-D printer.
And I was very interested to see some of the interesting things that he was able
to "print." It's not really printing.
It actually has a lot to do with the title here - "no factory required" because
it's not being printed on paper.
That's right.
Not being printed on paper; no factory required.
Well, we're going to learn all about 3-D printing in our lesson today.
So let's get started with the first reading here.
(Music).
3-D Printing: No Factory Required!
This magical technology turns 3-D designs into 3-D objects.
Printing images is easy:
Select an image of a purple robot on your PC, for example, and then press print.
Your home printer precisely shoots drops of ink onto a flat piece of paper,
creating the robot's 2-D image.
"Printing" 3-D objects is something altogether different.
Take the purple robot.
First select a file of the 3-D model of the robot and send it to your special
3-D printer.
Immediately, the printer begins making noise, and a nozzle releases plastic
material in thin layers, over and over again.
In two to three hours, a 3-D purple robot is standing before you!
In our title we do see this great phrase: no factory required.
Usually when I think of making something - not printing - but just making a toy
or some kind of object, we usually think that it comes from a factory.
But here we're learning about 3-D printing where no factory is required.
This is a very great phrase.
And right there we see this magical technology turns 3-D designs into 3-D
objects.
That's really cool.
3-D designs that you can see online or maybe you can create, you can turn these
things into 3-D objects that you don't just see.
You can actually feel them, touch them, use them.
All right.
So let's get started with the first sentence here:
Printing images is easy:
Select an image of a purple robot on your PC, for example, and then press print.
That is easy enough, right?
It is pretty easy.
You're just taking a piece of paper and your printer, and there's a picture of a
purple robot on your PC, your computer, and you hit the "Print" button.
And what happens?
Well, your home printer precisely shoots drops of ink onto a flat piece of
paper, creating the robot's 2-D image.
Well, that's true.
That's what happens when you print - you have a 2-D image.
And 2-D, well, if you have a piece of paper like this, then that would have a
2-D image on the top, not an object.
But let's take a look at a key word from this sentence.
What is it, Carolyn?
It is the word "precisely." And if something is done precisely, then it is
exact.
There is no confusion.
It is very specific in what it does.
It is very precise.
So when your printer prints something, the ink is not going all over the paper.
It is going to one specific area that you want it to be in.
So it does precisely what you want it to do.
You could also use that word in another way.
If you tell someone to do something, and they do exactly what you wanted to do,
you say:
You did precisely what I said.
Thank you! Thank you for doing precisely as I asked.
That's right.
Well, we see that "printing" 3-D objects is something altogether different.
Now if it's altogether different, then it's completely different.
There really isn't anything similar.
And we see that the word "printing" here is in quotation marks, which is
something that Steve and Ken want to talk about in the Information Cloud.
Today let's take a look at something that may seem insignificant, but it's, in
fact, quite meaningful - quotation marks.
Steve, what can you tell us about quotation marks?
Well, as the name suggests, quotes are used when quoting someone's words.
That's the most common usage of quotation marks.
Yes. That's one usage.
But there's another function of this punctuation mark: irony, which is the use
of words to express something different from their original meaning.
In other words, what's quoted is an unusual meaning of the word.
As an example, living in the age of the Internet, we might talk about "living"
in the virtual world.
And I might put the word "living" in quotes because no one can literaly live in
the virtual world.
It's not real.
That's a good one, Ken.
Here's another example.
John claimed he was too "busy" to help me.
If I put "busy" in quotes, I am doubting whether he was really busy.
Hey, Steve, why did you put your fingers up like that just now?
Well, Ken, that's what we call "air quotes;" some people call it "finger
quotes." When people speak,
they'll sometimes use their fingers to indicate quotation marks, giving the
quoted word an ironic or unusual meaning.
(Chinese).
All right.
Well, we have more to learn about 3-D printing.
Now you've learned about this robot 2-D image and that 3-D objects are something
altogether different.
Now we see this next sentence: Take the purple robot.
Um, take the purple robot.
Take... take it where, Carolyn?
Where am I taking it?
Well, you're not taking the purple robot anywhere.
You're not going to hold it.
OK.
It's a 2-D image on your computer.
And actually, I think that Liz would like to explain this sentence to us a
little bit better in the Grammar Gym.
Hi there, friends.
How are you doing today?
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
In today's article, we see this sentence: Take the purple robot.
The writer is not saying that we the readers should go ahead and reach out with
our hands and grab the purple robot, no.
Instead, "take" is a short way of saying "take for example." So today's sentence
just means using the purple robot as an example.
This use of "take" to talk about examples is most often found in spoken
situations.
For example:
Robert has so many crazy stories about his travels; take the time when he was
stuck in Mexico City without his passport.
Or: Mrs. Jensen's students are very creative; take Timothy and his artwork.
And that's it for today.
Be sure to check out today's Grammar Tip section in your magazine for more
example sentences.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Well, we're taking this purple robot.
The next sentence here is:
First select a file of the 3-D model of the robot and send it to your special
3-D printer.
So this is assuming that you have a 3-D printer, and you send this file to the
3-D printer.
That's right.
So you have a 3-D image on your computer and a 3-D printer.
And immediately, the printer begins making noise, and a nozzle releases plastic
material in thin layers, over and over again.
And so it's going to be releasing this plastic material from a nozzle.
And nozzle is one of the words from our Word Bank today.
A nozzle is the narrow end of a tube usually.
And it uh, sends out liquid.
It controls where the liquid goes.
So usually I think of a hose, actually, a water hose.
Usually water hoses will have a nozzle, or some water hoses have a nozzle on the
end.
And you can control where the water goes, how much pressure you want the water
to have.
There is a nozzle there.
But of course, if you have a 3-D printer, this is not shooting out water.
It's shooting out probably really hot plastic that will get solid over time.
Right. So this nozzle is releasing these thin layers of plastic over and over
again.
And in two to three hours, a 3-D purple robot is standing before you.
You can see it right there.
It's something you can hold and not just on a piece of paper.
Well, right now we want to take some time to go visit Michelle in the Language
Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.