节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-04-08
难易度:Low
关键字:suburb, frustrate, overcome, make the most of, comfort zone, embrace
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us today.
Our lesson is called Home Away From Home.
And it's written by Pauline Lin, who is the former TV director here at Studio
Classroom, actually.
So we're going to learn about her experiences after she moved with her family to
the United States.
Well, moving is not an easy experience for everybody.
Have you ever moved before?
How do you feel about moving?
What do you think about moving, Carolyn?
Well, I don't actually have very much experience with moving because I don't
remember really moving until I came to Taipei.
It was really my first moving experience.
And it was not very easy because I couldn't bring many of my things with me on
the plane.
Have you ever had to move, Gabe?
Oh, my goodness. Yes, I've had to move many times in my life, so much so that
now I have very few things.
Moving so much has kind of forced me to throw away some unnecessary things,
which is good, I guess.
Well, we're going to learn about moving or being at a home away from home with
Pauline's experiences.
Let's get started with the first reading of today's lesson.
Home Away From Home.
New experiences are waiting for everyone.
We are finally settled down in a suburb near Washington D.C.
This is where we will be staying for three years.
When my husband was asked to transfer to his company's office here, we knew our
lives would change.
My two teenage daughters had to leave their friends and comfort zone in Taipei.
They will need to adjust to a new educational system.
Will they be able to "survive" at a new school?
Can they function well in a foreign language?
Will they feel frustrated and homesick a lot?
Only time will tell.
Well, adjusting to life in a new city that you've just moved to can be a bit of
a challenge.
And at the beginning of our article we see: New experiences are waiting for
everyone.
So no matter where you go, you are sure to experience something new when you
move.
And our article beings: We are finally settled down in a suburb near Washington
D.C.
So Pauline and her family have settled down in a suburb.
And "suburb" is a great word here.
It... what exactly does suburb mean, Gabe?
Well, the suburbs of a city are a part of the city but not downtown, not the
main part.
They're kind of the surrounding neighborhoods.
So there's still lots of people, but not as many people as downtown.
But it's also not the countryside.
It's not rural; it's the suburbs of a city.
So it is "sub-urban." We know that "urban" means city.
It is a suburb, part of the city but a little further away from the center of
the city.
Now there's another phrase in there you mentioned, Gabe.
That's right.
Well, in part of the sentence we see the phrase "settled down." And I think that
Liz is going to share more with us in the Grammar Gym.
Hi, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
In our LIFE IN AMERICA article we read:
"We are finally settled down in a suburb near Washington D.C." And that's our
Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus is on the idiom: to settle down.
"To settle down" has several different meanings.
But in today's sentence, it means to begin living in a place in a stable and
orderly way.
So in the case of today's sentence, the writer is saying that life in their new
home near Washington D.C. is finally starting to become much more orderly and
stable.
We usually use "settle down" to talk about someone moving to a new place to
start a new home.
For example:
After working in Asia for several years, the American businessman decided to
settle down in Hong Kong.
Or: Mr. and Mrs. Lin wish their children could settle down near them, but all
three sons live overseas.
So friends, give this phrase a try and discuss with your friends where they
would like to settle down.
And if you have a copy of this month's magazine, be sure to check out today's
Grammar Tip section for more examples.
And this is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
I'll see you all next time.
Thank you, Liz.
So Pauline's family is settled down.
They're not moving anywhere now.
And we're continuing with her lesson.
This is where we will be staying for three years.
So they really are settled down if they're planning on staying somewhere for
that amount of time.
That's right.
And we continue in our article: When my husband was asked to transfer to his
company's office here, we knew our lives would change.
So her husband was asked to transfer to another city where his company, the
company that he worked for, had another office.
Now "transfer" is a really great word.
If you transfer, that means that you go to another place.
And here he is transferring jobs.
He's changing the location of this job, but he is not actually changing the job
that he has.
And Carolyn, I want to say that maybe even within a company, you could transfer
from one department to another department.
So your responsibility is a little bit different.
You could also say you're transferring your responsibilities to another person.
So it's kind of this idea of change.
That's right.
And it is a really great word.
Well, continuing in of our article we see:
My two teenage daughters had to leave their friends and comfort zone in Taipei.
Well, it's very difficult when you're moving if you have to leave your friends
and to leave your comfort zone.
And that's a really great phrase.
It means that you are comfortable in that place, in that zone.
How else can you use this, Gabe?
Well, Carolyn, I think that almost everybody has a comfort zone.
Uh, very few people are... are always moving from one place to another so that
they're never comfortable anywhere.
Most of us have a comfort zone, a comfortable area.
What is your comfort zone?
Actually, I live in Taipei, and so Taipei is kind of like my comfort zone.
That's right.
Well, we have a few more things to learn with Steve and Ken in the Information
Cloud.
If you're between the ages of 13 and 19, you are a teenager.
Why? Just say the numbers out loud - 11, 12, 13, 14, 15...
Only the numbers between 12 and 20 have the word "teen" in them.
That's why we use the term teenager.
If someone is not quite old enough to be a teenager, we might call that person a
preteen.
Someone between the ages of, say, 9 and 12, would be a preteen.
Another word for preteen is "tween," which is mainly used in the U.S.
A tween is a child between middle childhood and adolescence.
Yes.
"Tween" is actually a combination of the words "teen" and "between." The term is
often used by marketers who are trying to sell products to kids in the tween age
range.
Now Ken, you just used the word "adolescence." What's that?
Adolescence is that period of transition between youth and maturity.
OK. So someone who is transitioning between childhood and adulthood can be
called an adolescent.
(Chinese).
Well, moving on, Pauline writes: They will need to adjust to a new educational
system.
So she's talking about her two teenage daughters, and they need to adjust to
some changes.
An educational system.
Well, in different countries the educational systems are a little bit different.
One thing that comes to my mind is that in Asia, high school's only three years.
Or in many places it's only three years whereas in the United States, it is
usually four years in high school.
That's just one little difference.
Well, and they're also going to be studying in a different language.
They will be studying in English now instead of in Chinese.
So this could be a bit of a concern.
And Pauline goes on to list some other concerns with these questions:
Will they be able to "survive" at a new school?
Can they survive there, Gabe?
Well, can they survive? That's a good question.
This word is in quotes because usually the word "survive" means to... to live
and not die.
But of course, they're not going to die.
They will survive.
This just means: Can they stay encouraged and not give up?
That's kind of what it means to survive in a new place - to stay encouraged and
not give up.
And she also asks:
Can they function well in a foreign language now that they're going to be taking
their classes in English instead of Chinese.
And she has another question here.
Will they feel frustrated and homesick a lot?
And in this sentence we see this word "frustrated." If you are frustrated, what
does that mean, Gabe?
Carolyn, when I feel frustrated, that means I feel upset about something,
usually something that I can't control, so I feel frustrated.
Sometimes miscommunication will make me feel frustrated.
I say something, and the other person doesn't understand.
Or maybe I misunderstand them.
And so we both just feel frustrated.
Caroly, do you ever feel frustrated?
Sometimes. And I think especially when you move, you can feel very frustrated
trying to adjust to a new city and a new life.
And in the last sentence here she say: Only time will tell.
If only time will tell, then the answers to these questions are not clear right
now, but in the future, they will know the answers.
Well, now it's time to learn something more with Michelle in the Language Lab.