节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-04-04
难易度:Low
关键字:comeback, determination, leather, down, columnist, Grand Canyon
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us for day three of our lesson about baseball.
It is more than just a game.
We've been talking about different life lessons that you can learn from this
wonderful sport, baseball.
It is not only America's Favorite Pastime, there's a reason for that.
There's a reason that people love this sport.
There are many lessons that you can learn from it.
What's one of the lessons that we talked about, Carolyn?
Well, on the first day we talked about overcoming fear and not letting the fear
of things you can't change defeat you.
It's important to focus on the task at hand even when we're under a lot of
pressure.
That's right.
It's good to focus on the task at hand.
Another lesson that we learned is that you need to take risks sometimes in life.
If you want to steal a base in baseball, that can be kind of risky.
You don't know if you will make it or not.
But if you do, you will improve and maybe get a point for your team.
Sometimes it's good to take risks.
And another lesson that we learned is that it's good not to pity yourself.
You need to move forward.
Take steps forward.
Don't just feel bad about your failures.
Well, we have one more lesson to learn from baseball today, so let's get
started.
If your magazine isn't opened yet, open it right now.
Let's get started with the first reading of the day.
More Than a Game.
"It ain't over 'til it's over." - Yogi Berra.
The meaning of this famous Yankees catcher and manager's words is simple: Never
give up.
There is always time for a comeback in baseball.
In 2010, the Colorado Rockies were down six runs against the St. Louis
Cardinals.
Determination pushed them to score nine points at the bottom of the ninth for
the win.
We often stop trying when we think we know what the ending will be.
With the right attitude, we can still succeed even when it doesn't seem likely.
It is important to have the right attitude.
And at the beginning of our reading today we see another quote, this one from
Yogi Berra.
He says, "It ain't over 'til it's over." So those are some words of
encouragement to you from Yogi Berra.
And it's kind of an interesting phrase.
He uses this word "ain't," which is not really a word.
And it's not something that we use.
But the article does go on to explain what he means in this sentence.
Uh, Gabe, can you please continue for us?
That's right.
Well, I should explain the meaning of that word "ain't." We don't want to hear
you using it, but it means isn't.
So you could say it isn't over till it's over or it's not over till it's over.
And the meaning of this famous Yankees catcher and manager's words is simple:
Never give up.
All right.
That's a great lesson that you can learn from baseball - Never give up.
Uh, Carolyn, what is a catcher?
Well, the catcher is the person who tries to catch the ball.
So the ball is being hit by the batter.
It's being thrown by the pitcher, and being caught by the catcher.
That's rights.
So the catcher is always behind the batter.
And he catches the pitcher's balls. OK.
Well, don't give up, or never give up.
So this famous Yankees catcher was also a manager in his life, very famous
person, Yogi Berra.
Well, we continue.
There is always time for a comeback in baseball.
There is always time for a comeback.
And we want to take a look at that word "comeback." A comeback is when you are
down or maybe when you are losing,
and then it's when you kind of come back so that you are actually winning.
How else could you use that word, Carolyn?
Well, a lot of times in sports we talk about the team made a comeback.
So they were losing before, and then they go on to win the game.
And nobody thought that they could do it.
They made a comeback.
All right.
They made a comeback.
I also think of another way to use that word "comeback." Maybe if you are
arguing with somebody, someone might say something kind of mean.
And if... if you have a comeback, that means you say something that... that
keeps the argument going.
It's not a good thing, really, to keep having comebacks back and forth.
But in baseball, it's good to have a comeback, or in a sport.
If you're losing, it's great when you can have a comeback.
That's right.
And the article gives us an example of a comeback.
In 2010 the Colorado Rockies were down six runs against the St. Louis Cardinals.
So these are team names, the Colorado Rockies and the St. Louis Cardinals.
And the Rockies were down by six runs.
So they were down six points.
This is a pretty big gap if they are down that many points.
It's true.
And when you're down in a game, that means your team has less points.
Your team is losing.
So your team might be winning.
You are up, or you're ahead by so many points.
That's the opposite of "down." So the Rockies were down six runs against the St.
Louis Cardinals.
Well, how does this article continue, Carolyn?
Well, we see that determination pushed them to score nine points at the bottom
of the ninth for the win.
So the Rockies were able to win the game even though they were down six runs.
And we see this word at the beginning of the sentence: determination.
What does that mean if you have determination, Gabe?
Well, if you have determination, that means you will not give up.
You have a goal and you are determined to do it.
That means you've decided in your heart that you're going to do it no matter
what.
You have determination.
So as you can see, that word can be used in different ways.
You can be determined to do something.
D-E-T-E-R-M-I-N-E-D.
Are you a determined person?
Do you have determination?
I think that I do have determination.
When I set a goal for myself, I want to succeed.
And I try as hard as I can to meet that goal.
So I do think I have determination.
All right. It's good to have determination.
When do you have determination, friends?
Think about that, talk about it in English.
We have some words in that sentence, "the bottom of the ninth." What does that
mean?
Well, we've been learning about innings, or we learned about innings before.
So this is talking about the second half of the ninth inning or the last inning.
We call that the bottom of the ninth.
What is the first half of the ninth inning called, Carolyn?
That would be the top of the ninth.
You have the bottom and also the top of the ninth.
So it was at the very end of the game, the last inning, that they were able to
score nine points and win.
Well, continuing in our article we see:
We often stop trying when we think we know what the ending will be.
With the right attitude, we can still succeed even when it doesn't seem likely.
I think this is a really great advice.
That's right.
Sometimes we think that we're going to lose, and so we just give up.
But if you think about it another way, sometimes you think you're going to win,
and so you become too proud and stop trying.
And you might actually lose if you become too proud.
That's a good point to remember, too.
Right now it's time for us to continue learning something with Michelle in the
Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.