节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-05-28
难易度:Low
关键字:practical, fashionable, casual, occasion, World War I, overalls, designer
jeans
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us for the second day of our lesson The History of
Women's Trousers.
Yes, they have had a long history.
People have had to fight for the right to wear trousers or pants or slacks, or
whatever you want to call them.
But this just makes me wonder what are some of the differences between women's
fashions and men's fashions.
Of course men have worn pants or trousers for a long time.
But today there are still some differences between women's and men's fashion.
What are some, Carolyn?
Well, one I can think of that's very obvious - you are wearing a tie today, and
I am not wearing a tie.
But I am wearing high heels, and you are not.
Well, yes, that is one big difference.
I think another difference I can think of is maybe what you put in your hair.
Women put certain things in the air sometimes that I don't really see a lot of
men put in their hair.
Of course, today lots of men and women wear things that are very similar.
So sometimes fashions do cross.
All right.
Now it's time for us to get started with the first part of our reading for today
- The History of Women's Trousers.
The History of Women's Trousers.
Practical matters.
When men went off to fight in World War I, women's roles changed.
They were forced to take jobs that were traditionally performed by men.
As women began working in factories and fields, they discovered that skirts
weren't practical.
So they wore trousers on the job.
Women once again performed traditional male jobs during World War II.
Often they would borrow pants and overalls from their husbands, fathers and
brothers.
But trousers still weren't acceptable outside of work.
Well, here are some very interesting factors as to how women were able to wear
pants.
At the beginning of this section we see Practical matters.
If something is practical... well, that's a word from our Word Bank.
And practical just means something that makes sense.
It's useful or something that you can use very easily, and it's helpful.
How might you use this word, Gabe?
Well, I often think about practical advice.
Someone might give you advice that you can use in your life.
It's very practical.
They tell you what you should do.
That's practical advice.
Sometimes other people give you advice, and you think about it.
Maybe it's kind of confusing, you're not sure what to do.
It's not practical advice.
And here's some practical advice for you since you are learning English: Maybe
you want to pick up an English novel.
That would be a practical way to improve your English.
Well, we are talking about practical matters here and how that affected whether
women could wear pants or not.
We see here at the beginning:
When men went off to fight in World War I, women's roles changed.
So something happened during World War I as the men all left to fight.
That's right.
They went off to fight.
Often you hear about soldiers going off to war.
Usually you see that word "off" like this.
They went off to war.
So they went off to fight in World War I, and then women's roles changed.
Carolyn, what is a role?
Well, a role is what you do or the part you play.
Many times when I hear the word "role," I think of acting and what part you play
in a movie or in a drama.
But here it's talking about your role in life.
Maybe your role at home is a mother or father.
So women's roles changed, maybe women had to learn how to do different things.
Well, we continue.
They were forced to take jobs that were traditionally performed by men.
Again we see "acting" here, or what you do with this word "perform." Things that
were performed or done by men, and now women are beginning to do these things.
That's right.
And as women began working in factories and fields, they discovered that skirts
weren't practical.
So before when women were mostly at home, wearing a skirt was not a problem.
But if you are trying to do your husband's job or your brother or your son's job
and working in a factory or out in a field, it would be very difficult to do
this in a skirt.
That's right.
Maybe skirts would get in the way.
They wouldn't allow you to do as much or do what you're supposed to do.
So they wore trousers on the job.
Well, I like that phrase "on the job." What does that mean, Carolyn?
Well, if something is on the job, then it's what you do while you are working.
So they are wearing these pants while they work, but maybe not while they're at
home, just when they're working.
That's right.
Well, sometimes I see this phrase "on the job" used in another way.
Someone might be sleeping on the job.
They're supposed to be working, but they're sleeping on the job, or they're
checking the Internet for things that are not work-related on the job.
So if you're at work, make sure you're really on the job, doing what you need to
do.
Well, how does the lesson continue?
Well, women once again performed traditional male jobs during World War II.
So it sounds like when the men would have to go off to fight, the women would
have to replace them in the workforce and take over their jobs.
All right.
So these kind of all revolve around the wars.
The two major world wars have changed women's roles a little bit.
Very interesting.
Well, often they would borrow pants and overalls from their husbands, fathers
and brothers.
So they didn't have their own, they would have to borrow these things from their
family members.
That's right, because well, they didn't really wear pants outside of the house.
They didn't have to because they didn't have these types of jobs.
But here we see that they borrowed overalls from their husbands, fathers or
brothers.
And overalls are pants that come all the way up over your entire body.
They cover everything.
That's right.
There's a way that you can connect them up at the top over your shirt; those are
overalls.
Have you ever worn overalls?
Or maybe you own a pair of overalls.
"But trousers still weren't acceptable outside of work," we see.
Oh. So even though they were able to wear these clothes during the war and when
they were working,
they still weren't really supposed to wear them when they weren't on the job.
That's right.
"Outside of work," we see this phrase here.
Now usually I think of outside as being as opposed to inside of a building, for
instance.
But here we're talking about outside of work.
Can you explain this a little bit, Carolyn?
Well, if you're outside of the work, then it means that you aren't working.
And sometimes our work is outside, but that's not what it's talking about.
If you're working in a field, then you're working.
But once you go home, that is outside of work.
All right, so.
What can you wear when you're on the job, while you are working?
And what can you wear when you're outside of work?
They might be two different things.
Right now it's time for us to continue learning something with Michelle in the
Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.