节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-04-11
难易度:High
关键字:carton, variation, reliance, indispensable, chisel, flint
Hi, everyone, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us for the second day of our lesson about Food
Inventions.
We've already talked about some innovations that have helped us in the kitchen
to make the process of eating a safer process.
And also, we have more to learn today.
But I do wonder about what kinds of things you have in your kitchen, maybe
something you think is strange.
What's a strange kitchen tool or invention that you have seen, Carolyn?
Well, I don't know how strange it is, but I do think it's very neat and very
useful.
It's a pineapple slicer.
You cut off the top of the pineapple with a knife.
And then you take this long metal tube, and you twist it into the pineapple and
then pull it out.
And it gives you beautiful sliced strings of pineapple.
That is one great way to cut your pineapples, makes it easier on you.
Something my mom used to have was an apple slicer.
You would put the apple on one end into this apple slicer.
And then... and then rotate the other end and it would just slice the skin off.
I guess it was an apple peeler.
It would peel the skin off.
That way you could just eat the meat of the apple.
Very interesting inventions.
Well, we're going to learn about more today in our lesson.
So I hope you have your magazine open.
Let's get started.
Food Inventions.
An emphasis on convenience.
The egg carton.
Back in 1911, an argument in British Columbia, Canada, led to a useful
invention.
Eggs shipped by a local farmer to a hotel owner often arrived broken, and each
blamed the other for the damage.
To solve the problem, Canadian newspaperman Joseph Coyle designed a paper carton
with small, hollowed out spaces that cushioned the eggs and kept them separated.
Coyle's invention was so successful that we still use a variation of it today.
(Music).
The title of this section really is "An emphasis on convenience." And it's kind
of interesting.
It says a lot about the day in which we live, people want things that are easy
and convenient.
Do you find this to be true, Carolyn?
I do think that this is very true.
We always are looking for ways to make things easier and more convenient.
If things are easily accessible, if we can do things easily and find them
faster, we are very happy with it.
That's right.
So there is an emphasis on convenience when people are inventing things.
The first thing we talk about here is the egg carton.
All right, the egg carton.
You might see an egg carton in the supermarket.
It's full of eggs, maybe six or a dozen eggs in an egg carton.
Let's look at that key word.
It is "carton." What is a carton, Carolyn?
Well, a carton is a type of container or box that you put something in.
And usually I think of an egg carton or even a milk carton.
It's now mostly made out of a type of board, a very hard-pressed paper.
And you can put liquids in it or keep your eggs safe in it.
All right.
So cartons could come in different shapes and sizes.
An egg cartoon looks much different than a milk carton.
That's the container that milk is in.
So try to use that word today: carton.
Well, we're learning about the egg carton.
It says back in 1911, an argument in British Columbia, Canada, led to a useful
invention.
I love when that happens.
Arguments can be good.
It's true.
And we see that "Back in 1911..." This is a great way to start a sentence to say
back in some period of time.
If you say "back in," then it's probably a long time ago.
So you might say back in my grandparents' day, they didn't really have a car.
Back in the 80s, I was born.
There are different ways to use that phrase "back in," so something a long time
ago.
Well, we continue with our lesson.
Eggs shipped by a local farmer to a hotel owner often arrived broken, and each
blamed the other for the damage.
Well, I guess that would seem like an argument, Carolyn, I mean, if people are
just blaming each other.
That's right.
If they have broken eggs, no one wants to take the blame for it.
Oh. The person who is delivering them broke the eggs.
No. It's because the hotel is too far away.
So I'm sure that they had a big argument over who is responsible for these
broken eggs.
Fortunately, there was a solution.
To solve the problem, Canadian newspaperman Joseph Coyle designed a paper carton
with small hollowed out spaces that cushioned the eggs and kept them separated.
That genius, Joseph Coyle.
He was a Canadian newspaperman.
Wouldn't you know, a newspaperman invented the egg carton!
That's great.
So this kind of tells me that no matter what you're doing, maybe you can have an
idea that could help many people.
That's very true.
It doesn't matter what your job is, you can still invent something that is very
helpful or useful.
And we see that what he did was make something to keep the eggs separated and to
cushion them or support them and keep them safe so that they didn't break.
How does the article continue, Gabe?
Well, Coyle's invention was so successful that we still use a variation of it
today.
All right.
Let's take a look at that word "variation." A variation means a kind.
So it's not exactly like the original, it is a variation.
So how might you use that word?
Well, it does mean that some changes have been made to it.
It was originally made this way.
And we've changed it a little bit, but it's still about the same.
So the egg carton was made out of a paper carton.
So before, it was paper.
Now we have things that are more like foam or more like cardboard, a little bit
of a harder material.
That's right.
It's a variation.
I also think of cars today.
They are a variation of the original cars.
Of course, you might still see that car.
But we don't drive those kinds of cars anymore.
We have much more conveniently-made cars today, easier to drive.
But they are a variation of the original.
Well, I like this word in another sentence here.
It is "cushion." Uh, this makes me think of a pillow.
What can you tell me about a cushion, Carolyn?
Well, a cushion, I usually think of something that you might sit on on a couch.
It's something that supports you and is very comfortable.
You feel very relaxed when you're sitting on a cushion.
Or you can cushion your head when you lay on a pillow.
So it can be a noun or a verb.
That's right.
Well, we have more to learn after our break.
But right now it's time for us to visit Michelle in the Language Lab.
(Chinese).