节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-02-04
难易度:High
关键字:on a shoestring, significantly, pay for itself, quality, off-season, break
the bank
Hey, everyone, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I'm Nathanael.
We're very glad that you could join us today.
We're talking about Traveling on a Shoestring.
Of course, right there in that title, you see a key word.
And we'll talk about that later.
That's an interesting idiom that's worth learning.
Now we're talking about traveling today, traveling with a good budget.
That means keeping your costs down while traveling.
So my question for you is: How do you keep your costs down while you travel?
Carolyn, how do you keep your costs down?
Well, there're several things that I usually do.
I like to look online at different websites and compare prices between them,
and maybe call a travel agent or two and see if they have a better deal than
what I saw online.
Interesting.
That is a good way to cut costs or keep your costs down, not to spend too much.
What about you, Nathanael?
Well, when I go on trips, or at least one time when I went on a trip, we kept
cost down by not eating.
Interesting.
You kept cost down by not eating.
Well, that's one way to keep your cost down but your stomach hungry.
Well, there are different ways to keep cost down when you travel.
What is best for you?
We're going to learn a lot about this today: Traveling on a Shoestring.
Let's get started.
(Music).
Traveling on a Shoestring.
Tips to spend less on your trips.
These days when you go one vacation, you spend most of your money just getting
to your destination!
Travel is expensive, but don't stay home due to a small budget!
Here are some ways you can cut costs and still enjoy a trip:
Travel during off-season if possible.
Flights and hotels are significantly cheaper when tourism is low.
Choose a hotel that's a little farther from popular attractions.
If you are staying several days, check out prices on hostels or vacation homes -
both can end up being cheaper than a hotel in the long run.
We're learning some good tips about how to travel on a shoestring.
Traveling on a shoestring.
Well, I'm wearing shoes, and they have strings.
Um, Carolyn, is that what we're talking about here when we're saying "traveling
on a shoestring"?
This is from our Word Bank, this... this phrase "on a shoestring." Carolyn, what
does this mean?
Well, it doesn't mean that you are on a shoestring, Gabe.
It means that you have a very small budget, maybe a thin budget like a
shoestring.
And you want to keep your cost as low or as small as possible.
All right.
That's a great way to explain it.
Think about it like having money or a budget that is very thin, just like your
shoestrings.
Nathanael, how else can you use that phrase, "on a shoestring"?
Well, not only can you travel on a shoestring, sometimes you might have to live
on a shoestring.
I have to live on a shoestring until I find a better job.
OK. I got to live on a shoestring until I find a better job, or until I get my
first paycheck.
I don't have money yet.
I have to live on a shoestring.
There are different ways to use this phrase.
Try it out today, of course, in English.
Well, we see that first sentence there: Tips to spend less on your trips.
We're learning about these tips to help you with your trips.
It's kind of fun; those words rhyme.
Nathanael, how does this article begin?
These days when you go on vacation, you spend most of your money just getting to
your destination!
It's true.
OK, so these days you spend most of your money just getting to your destination.
What does "these days" mean?
Well, "these days" is modern times, recently.
You could say these days the weather is quite cold.
It just means around this time.
All right, around this time, these days.
And of course, these days when you go on vacation, you spend most of your money
just getting to your destination.
It can be quite expensive.
Nathanael, what is your destination?
Well, your destination is where you're planning to go, the last place that you
will arrive.
You might travel from point A to point B; point B, the last point that you go to
is your destination.
All right, where you are ending up.
Well, we continue.
Travel is expensive, but don't stay home due to a small budget!
It's true.
Here are some ways you can cut costs and still enjoy a trip.
Well, Carolyn, what is our first tip here?
Our first tip is to travel during off-season if possible.
And "off-season" is a More Information word in this article.
And it just means not during the on-season, the most popular season.
Maybe summer is the most popular season to go to the beach.
So if you go during the off-season, you would go in the winter or the spring
when there aren't as many people there.
Now Nathanael, how does our article continue?
Flights and hotels are significantly cheaper when tourism is low.
OK. There's a great key word here: significantly.
It's an adverb.
How would you define "significantly," Gabe?
Well, if something is significant, that means it makes a big difference.
So if the price is about the same, maybe one is just a little bit cheaper, we
wouldn't say it's significantly cheaper.
However, if the price is very different, you would say it's significantly
cheaper.
If you are traveling somewhere, you want to go and stay somewhere that might be
significantly cheaper.
Maybe you could choose a hotel that is significantly better or significantly
more comfortable than another hotel.
Maybe you could say we had a meal, but that meal was significantly more
expensive than we would normally eat.
Carolyn, how else would you use that word?
Well, it is significantly faster to take a direct flight to your destination.
So it's much faster if you don't have to change planes.
That's right.
So significantly faster. That means it's lot, there's a big difference there.
Well, we continue.
You should... you should try to find flights and hotels that are significantly
cheaper when tourism is low or during the low season.
Not the peak season, but the low season.
Our next tip is: Choose a hotel that's a little farther from popular
attractions.
Nathanael, an attraction, what is that?
Well, an attraction, I guess, is just something that would attract you.
But it's usually a place that you can go that you would have a lot of interest
in.
You could call that an attraction.
All right, and a popular attraction.
Another name for that is a tourist trap.
It's a place where lots of people are attracted to going.
They want to go there.
So if you're staying several days, check out prices on the hostels or vacation
homes.
Wait. That word "hostel," it kind of looks like the word "hotel," but there's
another letter added there - the letter S, hostel, H-O-S-T-E-L.
And Carolyn, how is this different from a hotel?
Well, when you think of a hotel, you think of your own room, your own bathroom,
you have your own bed.
And in a hostel, it's much cheaper.
There are many beds in one room; and you probably share a bathroom with a few
other people.
So the costs are much lower, but you don't have as much privacy.
Hmm. Well, have either of you stayed in hostels before?
I have.
And I think it's... it can save money.
Have you stayed in a hostel before?
I have stayed in a hostel, and I've really enjoyed it.
It was a great way to save money on my trip so that I had more money to do other
things.
All right.
Well, you can save money if you stay in a hostel.
And we find that both of these things can end up being cheaper than a hotel in
the long run.
We see that phrase "in the long run" here.
That means that maybe... if it's just for a short time, it won't make a
difference.
But in the long run, over a long period of time, it does make a difference.
How else could you use that phrase, Nathanael?
Well, if you're taking a hiking vacation, you might say: Well, it's a long hike,
but it's worth it in the long run.
There's a beautiful waterfall at the end.
I agree.
A lot of times it is worth it to get to your final destination.
Maybe you are a student.
Actually, you probably might be a student if you're studying Studio Classroom.
If you work hard now, it will pay off in the long run.
Life will be easier in the future in the long run.
Right now it's time for us to continue learning something with Michelle in the
Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.