节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-04-27
难易度:Low
关键字:route, signal, go to the extra mile, lipstick, solar eclipse
In the first part of our article today, we stepped into history and took a route
along the Great Wall of China.
There was a great marathon run there, one of the great races in the world.
And you can actually run along the steep steps of the Great Wall and through
rice fields and other areas around China.
It's a very interesting race.
Well, we have much more to learn about marathons in our next reading.
So let's read that now.
The Greatest Races.
Extra help.
Most marathons provide water for runners, but some go the extra mile.
The Little Rock Marathon in Arkansas, USA, has a "lipstick station" near the
end.
It helps female runners look great for photos after the race.
And in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, marathon runners can enjoy country music.
Fifty groups perform on 28 stages set up along the route.
For people around the world, running a marathon is a challenging but satisfying
experience.
A very satisfying article.
Well, let's get started with this section here.
It says: Extra help.
Extra help.
Well, our sentence says: Most marathons provide water for runners, but some go
the extra mile.
And it's true.
If you do participate in a long race, there will be water stations where you can
drink some water.
But what does it mean to go the extra mile, Carolyn?
Well, this is a really great phrase.
And I like that the author used it here because we're talking about a race.
And a lot of times we measure that in kilometers or miles.
And so if you go the extra mile, it means you go further than you needed to.
You go an extra distance - an extra mile.
So if you go the extra mile, you might say:
Well, it was so nice of you to go the extra mile and show us around the city and
take off of work for an entire day.
You really didn't need to.
That's right.
Or maybe your parents told you to wash the dishes.
And so you did, you wash the dishes.
And then they came home, and they see that the whole house is clean.
They might say: Wow! We just told you to wash the dishes, but you went the extra
mile and you cleaned the whole place.
So that's what it means to go the extra mile.
It's always a good thing.
And in some of these marathons, people go the extra mile.
And how do they do that, Carolyn?
Well, we see: The Little Rock Marathon in Arkansas, USA, has a "lipstick
station" near the end.
And this is going the extra mile if they have a lipstick station.
And that's a word we want to talk about.
Lipstick in a kind of makeup that a lot of women will put on their lips.
You see the word "lip" in this word "lipstick." Uh, Gabe, how else can you use
this word?
Well, I would say I don't wear lipstick.
That's how I use this word.
But I do use chapsticks sometimes.
I actually have some chapstick in my pocket.
And chapstick is for when your lips get too dry.
It's not lipstick.
It's chapstick.
And as Carolyn said, many women like to use lipstick when they go out.
Or maybe there's a fancy dinner or something special going on, they might wear
special lipstick.
That's right.
So lipstick will add some color to your lips.
You can get many different colors of lipstick.
And here in this marathon, there's actually a lipstick station.
Well, why is there a lipstick station, Gabe?
This is really interesting to me.
It helps female runners look great for photos after the race.
Wow! OK.
So if you want to look like you did not just enter a marathon and race in a
marathon, you can go to a lipstick station and then look just like you do in any
other photo.
You can go and take pictures after your marathon.
Well, this is definitely going the extra mile since it's the first time I've
ever heard of a lipstick station at a marathon.
But it's a pretty nice idea because if you ran 42 kilometers, you're probably
very hot, very tired, exhausted.
And you might not want to have your picture taken.
So a lipstick station could help you feel more comfortable with having your
picture taken as you cross the finish line.
Hmm. I wonder if there's like a comb station for guys so they can comb their
hair to look nice for photos.
Well, we continue.
And in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, marathon runners can enjoy country music.
Well, that sounds really cool, actually.
Yes. Country music is very popular in Tennessee.
A lot of famous country artists come from that state.
And we see that 50 groups perform on 28 stages set up along the route.
So there are many, many performers all along the route of the race.
That's right.
And they're performing on these 28 different stages.
That's actually quite a lot.
It seems like you're never without music when you're running a marathon there.
Well, it's time for us to continue learning something with Steve and Ken in the
Information Cloud.
The Greek word "marathon" literally means a place with fennels.
But ever since that epic run 2,500 years ago, the word is now associated with
long-distance foot races.
In our more modern times, you might hear the word "marathon" being used as an
adjective to describe a very long event or activity.
The activity could be tedious, like a marathon study session, or fun, like a
weekend movie marathon.
Right.
Some time ago, a clever person decided to cut the word "marathon" up, take the
second half of the word and place it behind the verb "walk".
The new word "walkathon" came to mean a long-distance walking event, organized
to raise money for charity.
Now since then, other verbs have been used in place of "walk," making new ways
to raise funds for good causes, like "bike" for bikeathon.
Other such charitable events aren't so much long distance as they are long
duration, like danceathons, skateathons and telethons.
OK, telethon's T-E-L-E prefix gives us the clue that the event has a connection
with television.
So a telethon is a very long television program aired for the purpose of raising
money for charity.
(Chinese).
In the last sentence of our article today we see:
For people around the world, running a marathon is a challenging but satisfying
experience.
And I think running a marathon really is a challenge.
What do you think, Gabe?
Well, it's true.
It is quite a challenge.
It can be challenging to run that long race, but it is a satisfying experience.
So many things in life are like that.
They're difficult.
You don't really know if you can do it.
But once you're finished, you feel satisfied, and you're very happy that you
did.
Can you think of anything in life that is like this, Carolyn?
Well, it's not easy trying to learn another language, but it is very satisfying.
I spent a lot of time trying to learn Chinese.
And it's been a big challenge.
But I've made a lot of progress, and I feel very satisfied with the results.
Well, that is a great example.
I think something for me that is challenging but also satisfying is teaching.
I enjoy teaching different things.
I enjoy teaching English, of course.
I also teach the Bible.
And I like to teach drums.
And it's challenging to teach sometimes because sometimes there's
miscommunication.
But of course, it is satisfying when you can see your students are developing
and growing.
Right now it's time for us to continue learning something with Liz in the
Grammar Gym.
And then will visit Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hello, friends.
How are you doing today?
My name is Liz.
And thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
In our SPORTS article today we read:
For people around the world, running a marathon is a challenging but satisfying
experience.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus today is on the sentence pattern:
[subject] is a [adjective 1] but [adjective 2] [object].
In today's sentence, we see that running a marathon is a challenging experience,
but running a marathon is also a satisfying experience.
It is challenging but also satisfying.
Put them together and you get the sentence we have in the article.
So can you think of things that have qualities that seem to be opposites?
For example:
Carl is a pleasant but inexperienced office worker.
Or: Terrance's parrot is a beautiful but vicious bird.
If you have a copy of this month's magazine with you, be sure to check out
today's Grammar Tip section for more example sentences.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
I'll see you next time.
OK.
(Chinese).
And now, back to our lesson.
We've learned about some pretty interesting marathons in today's lesson.
And I wonder which one of these marathons seems most interesting to you.
Carolyn, what do you think about this?
Well, all of the marathons we've learned about the past two days had been very
interesting.
But I think the one I like the most was the one in Australia with the solar
eclipse.
The start of the race was signaled by the sun.
And I think that it's such a unique way to start the race that I'm kind of sad I
missed it.
Well, you could probably describe that race as a once-in-a-lifetime experience
because a total solar eclipse doesn't happen very often.
I also really enjoy the idea of listening to a lot of bands as I run my
marathon, although I would probably choose jazz music instead of country music.
But these races are all very interesting.
If you have a chance to run a marathon, maybe you can do one in a special area
like we learned about in today's lesson.
Thank you for joining us today.
And we hope to see you next time right here at Studio Classroom.
See you later.
See you.