节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-03-02
难易度:Medium
关键字:preserve, governor, engineer, scientific, province, World Columbian
Exposition, thermometer
In today's lesson so far we've learned about two dishes that are named after
people.
The first one is named after Willem Beukelz.
And it is called the "pickle." And pickling is just a way of preserving
something so that it will last longer.
The second one we learned about is (Chinese).
And it is named after a governor from Sichuan province in China.
Well, we have a few more things to learn about today, so let's see what else has
been named after people.
Whose Name?
More than just foods take people's names.
Many enjoy riding on a Ferris wheel, named for engineer George W. G. Ferris.
He designed the first one for Chicago's World Columbian Exposition in 1893.
Many places measure temperature in Celsius.
Anders Celsius was a Swedish scientist.
He invented a thermometer where water's boiling point was 0 degrees and its
freezing point 100 degrees.
After his death in 1744, the scale was changed to its present form.
Scientific laws, diseases, sports terms and places around the world use people's
names.
You can't escape them; they're everywhere!
Well, we learned about some very interesting things here: the Celsius
thermometer and, of course, the Ferris wheel.
Let's take a look at that first sentence there.
More than just foods take people's names.
Yes.
Many enjoy riding on a Ferris wheel, named for engineer George W. G. Ferris.
All right.
He has a long name, and he has a very important word in his name, something that
we all enjoy.
And of course, he was an engineer.
Let's take a look at that Word Bank word: engineer.
An engineer is someone who knows how to operate something.
He works on something, or maybe he creates it so that it operates well.
What kinds of engineers are there, Nathanael?
Well, there are many kinds of engineers.
There are civil engineers that might work on roads or bridges; or there are
chemical engineers that, of course, work with chemicals.
That's right.
Yeah. And there are also electrical engineers that deal with electricity and
appliances.
But engineer could also be someone who is in charge of driving a train.
They can also be called an engineer.
That's right.
That's because a train or has a train engine, he is the engineer.
He operates the train.
Well, this man George Ferris, he created something called the Ferris wheel.
And of course, I think many of us have ridden in Ferris wheels.
Carolyn, do you like Ferris wheels?
Or have you ever ridden in an interesting Ferris wheel?
Well, I do like Ferris wheels because they give you a great opportunity to see a
very long way away.
You can see very far if you are sitting at the top of a Ferris wheel.
And I usually try to ride at least one Ferris wheel if I go to an amusement
park.
That's right. That's right.
A lot of amusement parks do have Ferris wheels.
Or you might also say they are fairs.
A fair might have a Ferris wheel.
Nathanael, do you like Ferris wheels?
I do enjoy Ferris wheels.
They're not my favorite kind of ride.
They're not the most exciting ride.
I like roller coasters.
But they are good for seeing the view, like Carolyn said.
Right. The views from Ferris wheels are great.
So unless you are afraid of heights, do go out and enjoy a Ferris wheel.
Well, we continue learning about George Ferris.
He designed the first Ferris wheel for Chicago's World Columbian Exposition in
1893.
He designed the original Ferris wheel.
Well, Carolyn, can you please tell us a little bit about the World Columbian
Exposition?
Well, it is a very long name.
And I was a little confused when I first saw "Columbian." I thought maybe it was
talking about the country in South America.
But actually they're talking about Christopher Columbus.
And they wanted to have a big world's fair to celebrate the 400th anniversary
from when Columbus first landed in America.
All right.
Well, there is the history to this World Colombian Exposition.
It does celebrate a very important date.
Nathanael, how does our article continue?
Well, we're going to talk about another example of something named after someone
that we're familiar with.
Many places measure temperature in Celsius.
I think America uses Fahrenheit, but many other countries use Celsius.
It's true.
And Celsius is named after Anders Celsius who was a Swedish scientist.
And Carolyn, what else can we find out about Anders Celsius?
Well, we see that he invented a thermometer where water's boiling point was 0
degrees and its freezing point 100 degrees.
Now this is also a little bit confusing because that's no longer true.
What happened, Gabe?
Well, the scale was reversed.
Of course, now we see a Celsius thermometer where the boiling point is 100
degrees and the freezing point is 0 degrees.
But he created kind of a scale with the opposite.
So he is very important for today for when we measure our heat, how hot or cold
something is.
But how else does this article continue, Nathanael?
The next sentence actually talks about this change.
It says after his death in 1744, the scale was changed to its present form as we
talked about now:
100 degrees is the boiling point and 0 degrees is the freezing point in the
Celsius thermometer.
That's right.
That is the present form, the way it is now.
Well, we continue.
Scientific laws, diseases, sports terms and places around the world use people's
names.
It's true.
Let's talk about that word from the Word Bank.
It is: scientific.
This is an adjective that describes anything that has to do with science.
So how could you use that word, Carolyn?
What comes to mind?
Well, I usually think of scientific research.
It seems like they're always trying to research perhaps a new medicine, and they
need to do a scientific study.
Mmhm, so scientific research.
Nathanael, do you ever use that word "scientific"?
Yes. Sometimes we do use that word.
You might say something like a scientific process.
The way that you do something is scientific, in that maybe you're trying to find
out something about it or you're doing it in a very detailed, measured way.
That's right, also known as the scientific method.
People who want to know how things work, they use the scientific method to
observe things over and over again.
Well, we continue that you can't escape these things; they're everywhere!
You can't escape them.
Let's take a look at those words: can't escape.
If you can't escape something, that means you're stuck with it.
How else could you use that phrase, Carolyn?
That's right.
You can't avoid it or get away from it.
And I think that many times you can't escape seeing people taking pictures of
their food in restaurants.
That is so funny.
It's something very common.
Yes. You can't escape that.
How do you use that phrase?
Well, sometimes we may not be able to escape some kind of feeling.
We can't escape this feeling of sadness sometimes.
We just always feel sad for several days.
Well, we do hope that if you are feeling sad or depressed, then you can escape
that feeling somehow.
We're going to continue learning something with Steve and Ken in the Information
Cloud about that phrase: they're everywhere.
And then we'll enjoy a review skit, and learn something later with Michelle.
Hi, friends.
How do you describe something that is everywhere?
If you go to a big city, you might find taxis everywhere.
How you describe that?
Well, there's a big word in English that describes just that.
And it's "ubiquitous." And that is spelled U-B-I-Q-U-I-T-O-U-S.
So I might say taxis are ubiquitous in Taipei.
You'll find them everywhere except when you need one.
Now there's another big word that has a similar meaning.
And that's omnipresent, O-M-N-I-P-R-E-S-E-N-T.
So now you must be asking what's the difference between ubiquitous and
omnipresent.
Well, ubiquitous is something that you might find everywhere like taxis in big
cities.
Omnipresent, however, is something that's present in all places at all times.
Here's another way to look at it.
Omnipresent describes one thing everywhere like air is everywhere all the time,
it's omnipresent.
And if you believe in God, you would say He is omnipresent.
One God in all places all the time, He is omnipresent.
Ubiquitous, on the other hand, is many things all the same everywhere, like cell
phones.
Yes. You see cell phones everywhere you go.
But they're not the same cell phones, so they're not omnipresent, they're
ubiquitous.
(Chinese).
Some people's names have become common words.
Yeah, as many as 50,000 of them.
Like sandwich, for example.
It was named after the Earl of Sandwich.
Yeah. He had no time for meals, so his servants put meat between pieces of
bread.
And the sandwich was born... and eaten.
Oh. Granny Smith apples are named after a grandmother Maria Anne Smith.
Maria and her husband moved to a farm in Australia.
They grew apple trees on their farm.
And the tart apples became known as Granny Smith apples.
Hmm, they're delicious.
And the 14th-century Dutch man Mr. Beu...k...
Pickles?
Beukelz?
How do you say that name?
Anyway, he had a special method of preserving fish.
Because the British traders had trouble saying his name like we did, that method
is called pickle.
And what about kung pao chicken?
Did you know that spicy dish was named after the Chinese governor Ding Baozhen?
Wow!
Well, I know it now.
Another word from a name is the Ferris wheel.
It was invented by an engineer George W. G. Ferris.
He designed the first Ferris wheel for the Chicago Fair.
Yeah! Oh, and there's also Anders Celsius.
He was the Swedish scientist that invented the Celsius thermometer.
Yeah. There are so many common words from people's names, 50,000 of them!
Yeah. We could go on and on and on and on and on, but we won't.
We're out of time.
Yeah.
(Chinese).
And let's get back to our teachers.
We've talked all about things that are named after different people.
Nathanael, what is something else that is named for someone?
Well, I thought of the Shakespearean sonnet.
It's a specific kind of form of poetry named after, of course, William
Shakespeare.
All right.
What about you, Carolyn?
Do you use any words named after people?
I do.
One that I think a lot of people use now is Bluetooth.
And Bluetooth was actually named after King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark.
And the inventors of the Bluetooth device decided it was a good name because
King Harald of Denmark united Scandinavia,
and they wanted to unite your computer with other electronics.
Interesting.
That's where we get the Bluetooth.
And of course if you have a teddy bear, that was named after Theodore Roosevelt
who went out hunting and refused to shoot a bear.
You have a teddy bear.
Well, there're so many things that are named after different people.
What are some other ones?
Talk about them in English.
And we'll see you next time right here on Studio Classroom.
Goodbye.