节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-02-11
难易度:High
关键字:ingenuity, revolutionize, persistence, component, textile mill
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I'm Nathanael.
And we're glad you could join us for today.
Our lesson is about a woman called Margaret E. Knight.
We'll be learning all about her over the next couple of days.
She was a very influential woman.
We're going to be learning about a woman whose ingenuity still affects our lives
today.
When I think of influential women, I think about my mom.
But of course, you don't know my mom.
I know my mom.
She's not a famous historical person.
But what about famous historical people who affected society?
Nathanael, can you think of any other famous influential women?
Well, of course. There have been a lot of them.
But I'm pretty interested in acting, so I thought of Katharine Hepburn who was
maybe one of movie's most famous actresses,
and I think the only actor, male or female, to ever win four Oscars.
All right. Yeah, she was pretty influential in the filming industry and acting
industry.
Carolyn, who do you think of when you think of influential women?
I think of Eleanor Roosevelt, who was married to a U.S. president.
And she ended up working for the United Nations and trying to promote human
rights around the world.
That's right.
She was very influential.
And you guys, I'm sure you guys are also thinking about someone else who's very
influential in our lives.
Our boss Doris Brougham is a very influential woman.
Of course, she's not historical.
She's still around.
She's wonderful.
She's influencing many lives today through her English teaching and through
Studio Classroom.
Well, let's get started with our first reading for today.
(Music).
Margaret E. Knight.
Meet a woman whose ingenuity still affects our lives today.
No one could have predicted that a baby girl born on February 14, 1838, in the
cold northern state of Maine would revolutionize the world.
Yet, that is what Margaret Knight did.
She was not wealthy, received little education and lived at a time when women
were not expected to accomplish much.
Nevertheless, Knight's intelligence, effort and persistence enabled her to
invent many devices with great significance for her own time and for our lives
today.
(Music).
All right. So we're learning all about Margaret E. Knight today.
As you can see right here at the very beginning:
Meet a woman whose ingenuity still affects our lives today.
And right away you see that word from the Word Bank.
It is: ingenuity.
Ingenuity. Carolyn, what does this word mean?
Well, if someone has ingenuity, it means that they're able to think of a lot of
really good new ideas.
So, Nathanael, can you think of an example?
Oh, I think that most people that are inventors are people of ingenuity because
they can think about how to fix something maybe in a new way.
That's right.
They can think of how to fix something in a new way.
Maybe it's combining creativity with effectiveness, and applying it to real life
and really changing the world that you live in.
Do you have ingenuity?
It makes me think of the word "ingenious." If you think of someone who is a
genius, they are ingenious.
They are really creative.
And they can come up with things that can help other people really quickly.
Creativity; ingenuity.
Well, Margaret E. Knight was a person of ingenuity.
What do we find out about her here, Carolyn?
Well, we see that she still affects our lives today,
and that no one could have predicted that a baby girl born on February 14, 1838,
in the cold northern state of Maine would revolutionize the world.
And here we have another key word: revolutionize.
Now Gabe, what is revolutionize?
Well, if you revolutionize something, it's not an easy task.
I don't think any one person can really revolutionize something.
But if you revolutionize something, that means you are making it new.
You are changing something, hopefully, for the better.
This makes me think of things like the American Revolution or the French
Revolution where societies and cultures were changed for the better.
A revolution, a complete change.
How else can you revolutionize something, Nathanael?
Well, one simple idea can revolution a lot of different kinds of things.
One simple idea, maybe in the case of Margaret Knight, could revolutionize an
industry.
All right, so she revolutionized an industry or different industries.
And we see here that no one could have predicted that a baby girl born on
February 14 in 1838, that was a long time "a girl," and it was...
A long time a girl?
I met her long time ago.
And it was a time when girls were not as highly esteemed as they are now.
So no one could have predicted.
That's why it starts out like this.
You can't predict that a girl would have made such a big difference in the
world.
Yet, we continue, that is what Margaret Knight did.
It says that she was not wealthy.
She received little education and lived at a time when women were not expected
to accomplish much.
So they were not expected to accomplish much.
They were not very well-educated.
What else do we know about women at this time, Nathanael?
Well, they just really did not have a lot of privileges.
At this time they did not even have the right to vote.
That would actually come much later.
All right. So they didn't have the right to vote.
They couldn't accomplish much, or people didn't think that they could accomplish
much.
Of course, Margaret E. Knight would prove a lot of people wrong.
Right now it's time for us to continue learning something interesting with Steve
and Ken in the Information Cloud.
What would you do if you had a little money saved up?
Steve, what would you do?
I would buy a little house near the ocean.
Ken, since you asked me what I'd do with a little money, why don't we talk about
the difference between "a little" money and "little" money.
OK, Steve.
If I have a little money saved up, I'm happy with how much money I have.
But if I say I have little money saved, I'm saying I barely have any money.
And I'm not happy with how much money I have.
Notice the difference, friends.
It's in the attitude.
In fact, little money and a little money could even be exactly the same amount
of money.
The difference is "little" has a negative connotation, and "a little" has a much
more positive connotation.
While we're on the subject, why don't we also talk about the difference between
few and a few.
Which is very similar.
If you say "I met a few people at the party," it's positive.
It implies you are happy about the number of people you met.
But if you say "I met few people at the party," it's negative.
It implies you would like to have met more people.
Thanks for clarifying that, Steve.
(Chinese).
Thank you, gentlemen.
Yes, remember the difference between a little and little.
As we just learned, Margaret E. Knight received little education and lived at a
time women were not expected to accomplish much.
Nathanael, how does our article continue?
Well, the next sentence says:
Nevertheless, Knight's intelligence, effort and persistence enabled her to
invent many devices with great significance for her own time and for our lives
today.
That's right.
And we see this word at the beginning of that sentence: nevertheless.
I think this is a good word to talk about because it's kind of a joining word.
It joins two ideas.
It kind of means even so or despite these things.
So despite her little education and the idea that women couldn't accomplish
much, she still did something.
Nevertheless.
Carolyn, how do you use that word "nevertheless"?
Well, if you want to think of an example for "nevertheless," maybe you really
don't want to do a project, but you have to do it.
So despite the fact that I don't want to do this project, nevertheless, I have
to.
All right. Nevertheless, I had to.
It was... it was a rainy day and my best friend couldn't join me.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time at the beach.
So there's things that maybe make you upset, but nevertheless, you still want to
enjoy your time.
Well, nevertheless, Knight's intelligence, effort and persistence enabled her to
invent many devices with great significance.
And we see another key word here from the Word Bank.
It is that word "persistence." If you have persistence, that means you don't
give up.
Maybe you try one time, two times, three times, many times, and you persist.
You keep going.
You don't give up.
She had persistence.
Nathanael, how else could you use that word "persistence"?
Well, if you ask something with persistence, you may eventually get what you're
asking for.
In most cases, people will give you what you want if you don't leave them alone.
All right.
That's a good example.
Do you ask with persistence?
Do you really want to know something, or maybe you just give up after a while?
If you give up, that's not persisting.
You don't have persistence in something.
Of course, it is good to have persistence when you want to accomplish something
important.
Persist. Don't give up.
Well, you're doing a great job today.
Thanks for persisting with us.
And now it's time to learn something different in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.