节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-03-30
难易度:Medium
关键字:artificial, expand, layer, stand out, camouflage, runway
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I'm Nathanael.
And you are joining us for day two about Lessons from the Cuttlefish.
That's right.
We're learning how to take a cue from the cuttlefish for things like fashion.
Well, I do wonder, what does this sound like to you - I mean, would
color-changing clothes interest you?
Would you like to wear clothes that maybe could change colors?
Nathanael, what do you think about this?
Well, if I control... could control the colors that they changed to and when
they changed, yes, I might be interested.
I think it might be helpful for making your outfits match.
Ah, very good.
Yes, you do want to wear things that match.
Carolyn, are you interested in this at all, color-changing clothes?
I am. I think this'll be great.
I would love to have clothes that I could change the colors or maybe change the
patterns, the designs.
I could have lots of creative clothing that I had control over.
I think it would be very fun.
It would be fun.
Maybe it would be fun to have colors that change depending on your mood.
If you're angry, it became red.
If you were calm and relaxed, it turned blue or something like that.
This whole idea does sound fun.
So the cuttlefish may be influencing fashion.
Let's continue learning about the cuttlefish today right now.
(Music).
Lessons from the Cuttlefish.
Engineers Jonathan Rossiter and Andrew Conn at the University of Bristol in the
U.K. have created a clear "artificial skin." Using cuttlefish technology,
the two men have developed a soft material that contains something similar to
the cuttlefish's color cells.
But instead of color, these cells hold a tiny, thin piece of black rubber.
A process that squeezes the rubber pieces causes them to appear flatter and
wider.
When all these black spots are expanded at the same time, it looks like the skin
is suddenly darkening.
And just like the cuttlefish, the color change takes place in less than a
second.
Well, we're learning interesting things about cuttlefish technology here.
We start out by reading:
Engineers Jonathan Rossiter and Andrew Conn at the University of Bristol in the
U.K. have created a clear "artificial skin." OK.
Before we look at that sentence, I want to take a look at that word "artificial"
straight from the Word Bank.
If something is artificial, that means it's not real or natural.
Maybe it's manmade, a little bit fake.
Carolyn, how might you use that word "artificial"?
Well, a lot of times in our food, our food has different colors, but it's not
actually that color originally.
So we have a lot of artificial colors in our food that makes it look a little
bit better and probably makes us want to eat it a little bit more.
Uh, how else might you use this word, Nathanael?
Well, you might also see this word when you're talking about computers because
there's something called "artificial intelligence" in many computer programs
that help them work, really.
Artificial intelligence is another common place to see this word, artificial.
Artificial intelligence.
Artificial colors in your food.
Actually, that reminds me of maybe some artificial flavoring.
It's not really from fruit, but it's artificial flavoring to make it taste like
a certain kind of fruit.
Well, we're talking here about a clear artificial skin.
I would be kind of scared to wear a clear skin of any kind.
But I'm sure that these engineers know what they're doing.
Nathanael, how do we continue?
The next sentence says:
Using cuttlefish technology, the two men have developed a soft material that
contains something similar to the cuttlefish's... cuttlefish's color cells.
A lot of "k"s there.
I think this would be a very strange feeling kind of material.
I don't know if this is something that I would really want to wear.
I don't know, either.
We'll see.
Maybe they'll design some clothes that are actually comfortable but actually use
cuttlefish technology.
Now I don't think that the cuttlefish ever intended to have technology mimic it,
but here we're talking about cuttlefish technology.
And maybe you can use some other animals to talk about technology, too, like
maybe scientists study whales.
There is whale technology in how to communicate with sounds like sonar, whale
technology.
Anyway, today we're talking about cuttlefish technology and how it influences
fashion.
How do we continue, Carolyn?
Sure.
Well, we see that but instead of color, these cells hold a tiny, thin piece of
black rubber.
So earlier we talked about how the cuttlefish has lots of different colored ink
inside its cells.
But this is a tiny piece of black rubber.
And in the article we see a process that squeezes the rubber pieces causes them
to appear flatter and wider.
So it sounds like these scientists have found a way to make tiny pieces of
rubber act similar to a cuttlefish.
Nathanael, how does this work?
Yeah. It's interesting.
The next sentence explains it a little bit.
But I don't know if I completely get it without seeing it; maybe you will.
When all these black spots are expanded at the same time, it looks like the skin
is suddenly darkening.
So interesting.
These spots are going to expand, and they will look darker.
Well, we want to talk about this word "expand," or "expanded" as it is used here
because it is a Word Bank word today.
And when something expands, it gets larger.
I often think of a circle expanding and getting bigger, but many other things
can expand, right?
That's very true.
And actually, I think of something a little less physical expanding.
I like to expand my knowledge.
You can learn about new things and expand the amount of things you know.
I think another phrase for expanding your knowledge is expanding your horizons.
The horizon is what you can see as far as you can see.
So when you expand your horizons, you can see even further, you know even more.
I also think of things like balloons.
Of course, at first they're deflated.
But then you can expand the balloon.
You can put more air into it and it expands.
That's right.
I think the population can also expand.
Uh, it grows bigger just like other things do as well.
OK. The next sentence says:
And just like the cuttlefish, the color change takes place in less than a
second.
And again, I m pretty impressed with this.
A color change that can take place in less than a second.
That's really very quick.
I wonder if it will be difficult to achieve this kind of technology.
Well, it may be a possibility in the future.
We see a phrase here in this sentence: takes place.
The color change takes place in less than a second.
We want to talk about that phrase, "to take place." It means to happen.
So Nathanael, how could you use those words?
Well, you can use this phrase in many different kinds of questions.
Where did it take place?
When did it take place?
How did it take place?
There are all kinds of possibilities.
All right. Well, right now it's time for something else to take place.
Michelle has something to teach us in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.