节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-05-25
难易度:Medium
关键字:site, creepy, particular, inappropriate, social network, in the loop
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
Thank you for joining us for day two of our lesson To Post or Not to Post.
What do you like to post online?
Should you post things online?
When should you post a picture, and when should you not post a picture or a
status?
To post or not to post?
That is the question.
We've been enjoying a conversation between Julie and Susan.
Now Carolyn, can you tell us the difference between these two ladies?
Well, Susan saw this wonderful presentation of this heart-shaped sandwich and
wants to post it online.
But Julie finds it a little bit odd that maybe posting things like that isn't
worth her while and is a waste of time for people who have to scroll through
those updates online.
So they're having a little bit of a disagreement about what you should post and
what you shouldn't post.
So Julie only likes to post things that are important or interesting to her.
And Susan seems to like to post things that might interest a lot of other
people, not just herself.
That's right.
Well, we have more to learn from this conversation between Julie and Susan
today.
So let's get started.
To Post or Not to Post.
Oh, I do that, too.
There are so many different social networks and blog sites available.
It's easy to stay in touch with people you don't see very often.
In some cases, maybe.
But I don't really want people I don't talk to regularly to know what I'm doing
or where I'm going.
That's just creepy.
Then you can be more particular about who you friend and who can see your
updates.
But I like keeping large numbers of people in the loop by posting a single
message.
I guess.
But that doesn't mean I want everyone I'm friends with to see what I post.
Besides, some people respond a little too quickly to my posts, and it makes me
uncomfortable.
(Music).
All right.
Well, to begin this lesson today, we need to go back to what Julie said in
yesterday's lesson.
She said:
I usually just post about major events or things that catch my interest, things
that are interesting to me.
So Carolyn, what did Susan say here?
Well, Susan responds:
Oh, I do that, too.
There are so many different social networks and blog sites available.
It's easy to stay in touch with people you don't see very often.
OK, great. Great. Excellent.
But we do have some important things we want to talk about from Susan's line.
What is social network?
A social network, that's something that you can take part in online.
Of course, a social network might be Facebook or Google Plus or Twitter, Weibo,
Tumblr.
There are lots of different social networks out there, ways to stay in touch and
stay connected with other people.
That's right.
And we also see that there are blog sites.
Uh, "sites" is just an abbreviation for website.
So if there are lots of blog sites, it means that there are lots of websites out
there where people are writing blogs or web blogs.
They are just writing down their thoughts.
It's like an online journal on this site.
That's right.
So anytime you see that word "site," you know it's talking about a website of
some kind, something you need to go on the Internet to see or to do something
with.
So what kind of sites do you visit online?
Or maybe you have a blog, and you have a certain website that you like to write
your thoughts down in.
Well, this is what Susan is saying:
It's easy to stay in touch with people you don't see very often.
Let's see what Julie says.
In some cases, maybe.
But I don't really want people I don't talk to regularly to know what I'm doing
or where I'm going.
That's just creepy.
Oh, I see where Julie is coming from, what she's trying to say.
And she says that she doesn't want people that she doesn't talk to regularly to
know what she's doing.
And if you don't talk to someone regularly, it means that you don't talk to them
all the time.
Maybe you talk to them once a year or twice a year, not someone that you are
very close friends with.
So maybe you don't want them knowing everything you're doing.
That's right.
Of course you have some close friends, and then there are those people that you
know.
And then there are some people that don't know you very well at all.
Do you want them knowing everything about your life?
Or would you agree with Julie, is it kind of creepy?
Let's take a look at that word from the Word Bank.
If something is creepy, I think of the word "scary." But I think it means
something a little bit different.
Creepy maybe makes you feel uncomfortable.
Maybe it doesn't make you afraid, but it makes you uncomfortable thinking about.
Right. So it makes you a little bit nervous and very uncomfortable like: Oh,
that's kind of creepy.
Or did you see that guy standing over there?
He's kind of creepy.
I don't know him.
That's right.
So it makes you feel very nervous or even afraid.
So what is creepy to you?
Think about that.
Maybe you can use this word today.
Well, Susan... How does Susan continue?
Oh, well, yes.
She says: Then you can be more particular about who you friend and who can see
your updates.
Interesting.
Let me interrupt you for a moment.
Let's talk about that Word Bank word: particular.
If you are particular about something, that means you like things to be done a
certain way.
Not... not no rules; maybe you have some rules about how to do something.
You are particular about it.
How might you use that phrase, or that word?
Well, I know some people are very particular about the things that they eat.
They have very specific kinds of foods that they will and won't eat.
So they are very particular when it comes to food.
So you could be particular about food.
Or maybe you're particular about who you tell your secrets to.
I think it's important to be particular about some things in life.
So what do you need to be more particular about in life?
That's something you can think about.
Right now it's time for us to learn something new with Steve and Ken in the
Information Cloud.
Like all languages, English is constantly changing.
New words are born.
Old words die out.
And existing words change form and meaning.
That's right.
Like the word "friend," for hundreds of years, it was a noun.
Just eight years ago, it became a verb.
Turning nouns into verbs is called verbing, which is funny because the word
"verb" itself is a noun.
Right.
One reason verbing happens is because of new technology.
With certain new inventions, we discover we need to describe an action that
previously did not exist.
For example, using a microwave oven.
When the appliance came out in the 1950s, there was no quick and easy way to
tell someone you were going to heat or cook something in one.
Right.
But people are practical.
And it didn't take long before someone took microwave, the noun, and turned it
into a verb.
So now if you want a quick snack, you just throw something, like a bag of
popcorn, into the microwave and "microwave" it.
Right.
Technology is a huge driving force behind verbing.
Consider some of the other nouns we've recently turned into verbs, words like
text, bookmark, access and, of course, Google.
(Chinese).
Well, that is very interesting the way you can verb things.
And here in that sentence we saw that you can friend someone online.
Well, Susan continues.
But I like keeping large numbers of people in the loop by posting a single
message.
And Carolyn, I would like to keep everyone in the loop about this phrase because
I think it's important to know.
If you keep someone in the loop, that means you keep them updated.
You give them information as it comes along.
Maybe your friend is going to have a baby, and they want to keep you in the
loop.
They're going to tell you how the process is coming.
Is the baby here yet or not?
They want to keep you in the loop so you know what's going on.
That's right.
Well uh, Julie, you have the next line.
Would you continue?
Of course.
I guess.
But that doesn't mean I want everyone I'm friends with to see what I post.
Besides, some people respond a little too quickly to my post, and it makes me
uncomfortable.
It's kind of creepy.
Well, it could be a little bit creepy.
And if people are responding very quickly, I can see how it might make you
uncomfortable.
Well, we don't want to be uncomfortable.
We want to go join Michelle in the Language Lab to learn something more.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.