节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-04-02
难易度:Low
关键字:identity, at bat, defeat, pastime, nervous breakdown
Well, if you're just joining us, we are talking about baseball.
You can open up in your magazine to the lesson called More Than a Game because
baseball is not just a game with rules.
We're actually not talking about the rules of baseball today.
Over the next couple of days we're talking about lessons you can learn from
baseball, America's Favorite Pastime.
We already found out that it's a huge part of America's identity.
And we have lots to learn from this sport.
So let's get started with our first lesson from baseball in the next reading of
the day.
(Music).
More Than a Game.
"A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings." -
Earl Wilson.
For this successful 1960s pitcher, there was a lot of pressure.
Everyone on and off the field watches the player at bat.
He has three tries to hit a ball flying toward him at 80 miles per hour.
Instead of thinking about failing, it's important to focus on the task at hand.
Whether a batter or an office worker, only you can control your own performance.
Don't let the fear of things you can't change defeat you.
It is true that we are in charge of our lives and we're the ones who can make
those changes.
Well, at the beginning of this article we see:
A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.
And this is a quote by Earl Wilson who was a very famous baseball player.
And his quote is very interesting.
Baseball is a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.
Well, what does this mean, Gabe?
Well, he describes baseball as a nervous breakdown because there is a lot of
pressure when you are playing baseball.
And a nervous breakdown is something that I hope you don't experience very
often.
But if you have a nervous breakdown, that means you have a lot of pressure.
You can feel that pressure and maybe you can't handle it.
And so you have a nervous breakdown.
It's not a good thing, is it?
It is not; and it comes from having a lot of stress.
But here we see that a baseball game is like having a nervous breakdown, but
it's divided into nine innings, or nine sections of this baseball game.
So baseball games have nine innings when you play a full game of baseball.
That's right.
And one inning is when each team takes turns playing on the field and batting.
So when one team is batting, that's half an inning.
And then when they go out to play in the field, that's the other half of the
inning.
So there are nine innings in baseball.
And for Earl Wilson, this successful 1960s pitcher, there was a lot of pressure.
Yes. And we see in this sentence that he was the pitcher.
So that means that he was not trying to catch the ball, he was actually throwing
the ball at the person who was batting.
And in the next section we see: Everyone on and off the field watches the player
at bat.
So there is a lot of pressure for the pitcher because everyone is watching the
ball and the person who is at bat.
That's right.
Everyone on the field and off the field.
That means the people that are playing as well as everyone who came to watch
America's Favorite Pastime - baseball.
So they're watching the person at bat.
The person at bat is the batter, the person who has the baseball bat in his
hands and he is at bat.
That's right.
And he has three tries to hit a ball flying toward him at 80 miles per hour.
So there is a very, very fast ball that is almost 129 kilometers per hour.
And he only has three chances or three tries to hit this ball before someone
else comes up to bat.
That's right, only three chances.
Maybe he will get out; maybe he'll hit the ball and start running around the
baseball diamond.
Well, we continue.
Instead of thinking about failing, it's important to focus on the task at hand.
Instead of thinking about failing, it's good to focus on what is there in front
of you - the task at hand.
Carolyn, what does that phrase mean, if something is at hand?
Well, if something is at hand, then it is what you are doing at that moment, so.
It's not something that happens in the future or in the past.
It is what is in front of you now.
All right.
So you might talk about the situation at hand.
Let's not think about other things.
Let's think about the situation at hand, what we need to do right now.
It's immediate.
It's what you need to focus on right now.
And in baseball, you really can't think about failing too much.
You need to focus on the task at hand.
And the task at hand is going to the Information Cloud and learning something
with Steve and Ken.
Today's lesson is about baseball.
And we all know where baseball is played.
Of course. It's played in stadiums.
Yes. In modern times, we go to a stadium to see a ball game.
But did you know that in the old days, baseball was played before a handful of
people in public parks?
Ah, so that's why we also refer to the place where baseball is played a
ballpark.
Right.
When I was a kid attending a baseball game, I always wanted to see someone knock
the ball out of the park or hit a home run.
And then there's the expression "knock one out of the ballpark," which means to
have a great idea or to do something extremely well.
Steve, I think you really knocked one out of the ballpark at the staff meeting
yesterday when you suggested early retirement for English teachers.
Thanks, Ken.
Now if the ball is hit but stays within the ballpark, the ball is in play.
By extension, the expression "in the ballpark" means something that's within a
range that you can deal with.
We often talk about a ballpark figure, which is an acceptable, reasonable
estimation.
(Chinese).
It is good to know about that word "ballpark." And moving on in our lesson we
see:
Whether a batter or an office worker, you... only you can control your own
performance.
So you are the one who is in control.
And we see that word "batter." If someone is a batter, then they are the person
who is at bat, the one with the baseball bat.
And they're about to hit the ball.
That's right.
That is the batter.
And whether you're a batter or an office worker; I could also add some other
things here.
Whether you're a batter, an office worker, a musician, a doctor, a technician,
only you can control your own performance.
So that's a rule that you can use in any area of life.
You can control what you do.
That's right.
And it is important in the last sentence here we see: Don't let the fear of
things you can't change defeat you.
So you don't want to let this fear of things that you can't control or that you
can't change defeat you.
And that is a good word, "defeat." We want to look at that word now.
If you are defeated, that means that you lose.
Right, Gabe?
That's right.
And you just used that in kind of an adjective way.
If you feel defeated, that means you feel like you are losing to something.
So when you play a game and you defeat the other team, that means you have
victory.
You win.
You defeat the other team.
That's right.
So in baseball, you might hear that the Yankees defeated the Red Sox or
something like that.
That's right.
Now in life, maybe sometimes you do feel defeated.
You feel like so many things are happening that are bad or negative, and you
feel bad about that, you feel like you can't possibly win, you could say:
I just feel defeated.
Well, it's important not to focus on failing but to focus on what you need to
do, and you can overcome that feeling of defeat.
Right now it's time for us to continue learning something with Michelle in the
Language Lab.
OK.
(Chinese).
And now it's the time to go back to the teachers.
Today we've been talking about baseball and one of the lessons that you can
learn from it.
And we also learned about two of the positions that you can play in baseball:
the pitcher and the batter.
And so I wonder, Gabe, which would you prefer to be, the person at bat or the
pitcher?
Oh, Carolyn, I think both people have a lot of pressure on them.
I would rather be the batter, actually.
I don't think I'm a very good pitcher.
I can try to bat.
I think it might be a little easier to be batter, but I'm not sure because I've
never been pitcher.
What about you, Carolyn?
Well, my arm is not very good but I think I'd rather be the pitcher because
having a ball at 80 miles an hour coming toward me is a little bit scary.
Yeah, that could be a little bit scary.
Bad things happen sometimes during baseball games.
You never know what might happen.
But it is an exciting game to watch.
There's a lot going on.
We're going to learn some more lessons next time here at Studio Classroom, so
please come back.
Goodbye.