节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-03-15
难易度:Medium
关键字:unpopular, weird, tag along, excel, get rid of, reach out
We're enjoying a conversation today between Mary and Jane, two friends, and
they're talking in the cafeteria about an unpopular student.
Should they invite Sally to join them, or should they not invite her to join
them for lunch?
Well, they both have different ways of looking at the situation.
Mary thinks it's good that Sally should join them.
Jane doesn't like that idea so much.
Let's continue and see what the rest of their conversation sounds like.
(Music).
Sitting Alone.
But if we invite her to join us, we may never get rid of her!
She'll tag along with us all the time.
What do you have against her?
Well, she's unpopular.
She's not very pretty; she's painfully shy; she doesn't excel in any subjects,
and she doesn't belong to any clubs.
Maybe she just feels nervous around people she doesn't know.
She might be less shy and more willing to participate if someone reached out to
her a little bit.
Maybe.
But why does that someone have to be us?
And some of you might ask the same question that Jane has just asked.
OK. Gabe, are you ready to get back into character as Jane?
Uh, yeah!
OK, here we go.
Jane's first line after the break.
But if we invite her to join us, we may never get rid of her.
OK, thank you, Jane. Got to interrupt you again.
I'm sorry, but we need to talk about this little phrase: get rid of.
It's actually a More Information phrase today.
But we want to just show you how you can use it.
If you're getting rid of something, you're removing it or maybe you're getting
away from it yourself.
You might try to get rid of mosquitoes in your apartment.
What else would you try to get rid of, Carolyn?
Well, if you have a lot of trash in your room, you need to get rid of it.
Otherwise, you might get mice or rats.
You should get rid of your trash.
I think another thing that you need to get rid of is negative vocabulary.
Sometimes you might hear people using a lot of bad language, things that don't
sound very good.
Maybe in a marriage, someone might use the word "divorce." Maybe you want to get
rid of that kind of talk.
Don't mention those things anymore.
Get rid of it.
OK, very good.
And I think now we can move on.
Jane, I'm sorry for interrupting.
It's OK.
Here I go.
She'll tag along with us all the time.
And now I have to stop you again because we need to talk about this phrase "tag
along." Tag along.
That's an important phrase today.
Let's look at that.
Tag along means to go with.
So maybe if you see a group of people going somewhere that you're interested in
going to as well, you might say:
Can I tag along?
Do you mind if I tag along?
Are there other ways that we could use this, Gabe?
Well actually, that sentence kind of occurred to me to mind if I tag along.
I think one reason that people ask this is because usually tagging along is not
perceived as a good thing.
It's kind of a negative thing.
Oh, we don't want to let them tag along.
Or we feel bad if we just tag along.
So you might ask that question.
Can I tag along, or do you mind if I join you guys?
Do you mind if I tag along?
How might you use that phrase, Carolyn?
Well, you can use this when you're talking about people.
But you can also use it to talk about animals.
While I was taking a walk, there was a dog tagging along.
He was walking along with me even though he wasn't my dog.
OK.
These are all good examples of using this phrase - tag along.
I bet that you could use this phrase even today.
It's quite common.
OK. Mary, would you please give us the next line?
Oh, yes.
What do you have against her?
OK. Thank you very much.
I have to stop you again because now we want to visit Liz in the Grammar Gym.
Let's see what she wants to tell us today.
Hello, friends. How are you today?
My name is Liz.
And thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
And here is our Grammar Tip sentence from today's POINT OF VIEW article.
What do you have against her?
Our focus is on the phrase: to have against someone or something.
It's an expression you'll hear native speakers use to talk about disliking
someone or something because of a certain reason.
So if you're wondering why your friend hates watching foreign films, you can
ask:
What do you have against foreign films?
Or if you want to explain why a classmate won't join everyone for dessert:
She has something against sweets.
And if you want to explain how you honestly don't dislike somebody, you can say:
I have nothing against that person.
If you turn to today's Grammar Tip section, you'll find more example sentences
there.
And that's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.
Thank you very much, Liz.
OK, Jane, you have another chance again to tell us your next line.
Yes!
Well, she's unpopular.
She's not very pretty; she's painfully shy; she doesn't excel in any subjects,
and she doesn't belong to any clubs.
Wow! Very well done, Jane.
That was a very long sentence.
I'm impressed that you got all the way through it.
OK. But there are few things that we need to talk about in this sentence.
And the first one is this use of the word "painfully." Painfully.
It's a bonus word today.
But it's really we want to talk about how you're using that in this sentence.
It says "painfully shy." This uh, this bonus phrase can be used in situations
that are kind of uncomfortable.
If someone is painfully shy, it's... it means they're so shy that it's kind of
uncomfortable to be around them.
But you can use it in other ways as well.
Meeting new people can be painfully awkward.
That's kind of similar.
But what are other ways that we could use this word "painfully" in this way,
Carolyn?
Well, one way that I use it quite often is "painfully obvious." If something is
very clear,
its meaning is very obvious, but someone still doesn't understand, you might
say:
It's painfully obvious that they don't understand this very easy thing.
So, painfully obvious.
That's pretty funny.
Sometimes a riddle might be understood by everybody except one person.
You might say: Oh, so painfully obvious! Why can't you just get it!
I also might use the phrase: some... someone is painfully slow.
Everything they do takes such a long time.
They are painfully slow.
OK. So something is so clear, you don't get it.
It almost hurts me that you don't get it.
Or someone is being so slow.
It almost feels like it's hurting me that you're so slow.
That's kind of the idea behind this.
Well, we also want to talk about another word.
It's a Word Bank word today: excel.
excel.
Let's talk about this word.
It means to be very good at something in particular.
Maybe someone is no good at spelling, but they might actually excel at writing
stories.
Even if they can't spell words very well, they might excel at writing stories.
What's another case where we could use this, Gabe?
Well, you might ask the question:
What do I excel in?
What are my talents?
What am I good at?
Think about that.
What do you excel in?
You want to focus on those strengths.
Carolyn, how might you use that word?
Well, I am not very good at math, but my sister excels in it.
She is extremely good at math; and that is her college major.
OK, very good.
Now Carolyn, we can go back to you because Mary has the next line.
Oh, wonderful!
Maybe she just feels nervous around people she doesn't know.
Ah, good point, Mary.
But for right now, we want to go to the Info Cloud to talk to Steve and Ken.
Hi, friends.
Have you ever noticed there are basically two types of people at a party?
Those who are sociable and talk a lot, and those who just sit quietly in the
corner maybe reading a magazine or nursing a drink.
There are different terms that describe each of these kinds of people.
A very talkative, sociable person might be called a social butterfly.
Just as a butterfly flits from flower to flower, a social butterfly goes from
one group of people to the next either gossiping or making small talk.
And a person who lies low and doesn't want to meet people and a party might be
called a wallflower.
The term comes from the image of a person isolating herself from areas of social
activity, at dances and parties.
This person is afraid to dance and so chooses to remain close to a wall in the
dance hall where she feels safe.
Right.
A wallflower is a person who doesn't like being social, is uncomfortable at a
party or social gathering and was possibly forced to go by well-meaning friends.
Sometimes we use the word "loner" or "recluse" to describe such a person.
But those are a bit stronger, and they sound more negative than wallflower.
Social butterfly, on the other hand, can have a negative connotation.
But it's mostly used in a humorous or teasing manner.
You going out again tonight?
You're such a social butterfly!
(Chinese).
Thanks, guys.
OK. Let's finish out this part of the conversation for today.
Yes. Me.
She might be less shy and more willing to participate if someone reached out to
her a little bit.
Maybe.
But why does that someone have to be us?
Well, you might agree with Jane, or you might think that this is not a very nice
thing to say.
Let's go now to see Michelle in the Language Lab.
OK.
(Chinese).
And keep watching as our lesson continues.
Well, do you ever sit alone for lunch?
You might have reasons for doing that.
Do you all ever sit alone for lunch?
Uh, yes.
No.
Oh, OK. Thank you for your answers.
Well, I guess we'll see you next time when we continue to talk about this issue
on Studio Classroom. Bye-bye.