节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-03-27
难易度:High
关键字:downside, symptom, spinal, massage, chiropractor, chiropratic
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I'm Nathanael.
And yes, you are joining us for a lesson called The Downside of Staying
Connected.
Of course, many people have smartphones or tablets these days in order to stay
connected with their friends and family.
But I do wonder about this question here that we see in the Talk About It:
Do you have the habit of looking down at your smartphone or tablet for a long
period of time?
Do you have this habit, Carolyn?
Well, I don't have a smartphone, and I don't have a tablet, so I don't have this
habit fortunately because as we are going to find out,
it looks like it can cause a lot of problems.
Uh, Nathanael, what about you?
Uh, Nathanael?
Sorry. I...
Well, we asked you a question.
Um, do you have the habit of maybe looking down at your smartphone or tablet for
too long of a period of time?
And it seems like you do.
Um... of course not.
Of course not... right!
What were you just doing, Nathanael?
I was just checking my email.
You know, have to do it every once in a while.
Right.
Well, maybe today's lesson is for you.
Let's get started, friends, with our first reading of the day: The Downside of
Staying Connected.
The Downside of Staying Connected.
The habit of looking down at your smartphone or tablet could be hurting you.
The next time you're riding a subway or bus, pay attention to your fellow
passengers.
Chances are you'll see plenty of them with their heads down, tapping the screens
of their tablets or texting on their smartphones.
While these folks may be making good use of their time by staying connected,
their bodies are paying a heavy price for such convenience.
As hand-held devices such as smartphones and tablets are becoming more common,
users are reporting some new physical problems.
Well, we are learning about The Downside of Staying Connected.
And right there in our title, we have a word from the Word Bank.
It is: downside.
Nathanael, now that your smartphone is put away, could you please help us talk
about this word "downside"?
Well, there's a downside and kind of an upside to everything.
The downside is kind of the bad part of things.
So the downside of staying connected is maybe the bad results of staying
connected.
All right. Well, Carolyn, how might you use this word in a sentence, the
"downside"?
Well, I really love to travel.
And it's great, it's so much fun, I can learn so many new things.
But the downside is it can be a little bit expensive and I might have to be on a
plane for a really long time.
All right.
That is the downside.
Or maybe if you are really just thinking about the negative part of something,
you could also say, "Well, the upside is this." There's also a positive side.
There are two sides to every coin.
There's a downside and an upside.
Well, let's get started with the... the thing right below the title, the deck
says:
The habit of looking down at your smartphone or tablet could be hurting you.
Maybe this describes you.
Maybe you have some neck... neck pains or back pains.
This lesson could benefit you.
What is the first line of the lesson, Carolyn?
We see: The next time you're riding a subway or bus, pay attention to your
fellow passengers.
And after reading this article, I have started paying attention to the other
passengers on the train and noticing something.
And we see: Chances are you'll see plenty of them with their heads down, tapping
the screens of their tablets or texting on their smartphones.
And this is something that I notice a lot on my way to work.
Nathanael, do you ever see people doing this?
Oh, of course.
When you go out, there's all kinds of people on their phones.
It's very, very common.
That's right.
The chances are you will see something like this.
I like that phrase: chances are.
Let me use it in another way.
If you've heard the phrase "a friend for life," chances are you listen to Studio
Classroom, or you've heard Studio Classroom before.
Well, the lesson continues.
While these folks may be making good use of their time by staying connected,
(that means staying in touch with other people,) their bodies are paying a heavy
price for such convenience.
Wow! They're paying a heavy price.
And of course, we find out that they are making good use of their time.
Let's take a look at that phrase: to make good use of something.
How else could you use that phrase, Carolyn?
Well, if you make good use of something, then you are using it as best as
possible.
If you have a project at work, you do need to make good use of your time.
But you could also make good use of the people around you if you need some help.
You can ask them to assist you and make good use and the resources around you.
All right, good, making good use of your resources.
How might you use that phrase, Nathanael?
Well, a high-priced phone plan might be worth the cost if you do make good use
of it.
If you use it for many different things that are good for your life and useful
for staying connected, maybe it's worth a high price.
All right.
You could make good use of it.
Make good use of your vacation.
Don't just travel to another country and not see the sights.
Make good use of your time there.
And of course, we see here in this sentence:
While these folks may be making good use of their time by staying connected,
their bodies are paying a heavy price for such convenience.
What does that mean, Carolyn, to pay a heavy price for something?
Well, it doesn't mean that the price is actually heavy that you have to carry
it.
But it means that it is very expensive or costly.
And if something is costly, then maybe it's not really worth what they're doing.
OK, maybe it's not worth it.
Well, Nathanael, how does the lesson continue?
It says as hand-held devices such as smartphones and tablets are becoming more
common, users are reporting some new physical problems.
Well, I don't really know what he might be talking about here.
I don't think I'm experiencing any of these things, but maybe others are.
Right, of course.
Maybe you haven't experienced those new physical problems yet.
But maybe if you're not careful, you might have some of those problems.
Here we're talking about new physical problems.
So maybe they're problems that didn't exist before.
But scientists or doctors are discovering that there are some new problems that
are related to staying connected or looking down on your smartphone or tablet
for too long.
Well, we have more to learn with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.