节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-02-12
难易度:High
关键字:compensation, conceive, endeavor, on file
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 day two of our lesson about Margaret E.
Knight.
She, of course, is a very influential person who revolutionized a lot of the way
that we do things in today's world.
Well, she was an inventor.
She invented some things.
Yesterday we learned that she invented a device, or she devised a device that
would help stop machines when something went wrong.
She invented lots of other things.
And that just makes me wonder what kinds of things that you want to invent.
Or maybe you did invent something, but maybe you wanted to invest something when
you were a child?
Nathanael, can you think of anything that you wanted to invent or did you have
any ideas about things?
Well, you know, I played with LEGOs a lot when I was a kid, the little blocks
that you could build buildings out of.
And I really liked building traps or moving walls and that type of thing.
Oh, that's cool.
Carolyn, did you want to invent anything when you were a child?
Well, I had a great idea for this wonderful invention that would allow me to get
the remote control for the TV from across the room.
But I didn't know how to invent it.
That is a wonderful idea for an invention.
Well, friends, we hope you do have your remote controls.
But don't change the channel.
Stick with us here at Studio Classroom.
We're going to get started in our reading for today.
(Music).
Margaret E. Knight.
Although factories were eager to adopt her first invention, Knight did not
receive much in the way of compensation for her effort.
Because of her youth and her family's lack of education, Knight was unable to
patent her safety device to earn a profit from selling it.
But Knight did patent many of her later inventions, including one of her most
enduring creations - a machine for producing flat-bottomed paper bags.
In Knight's day, paper bags were shaped like envelopes, which made them
difficult to fill.
While working at a paper bag factory, Knight conceived of bags with flat,
rectangular bottoms that would be stronger and more practical.
(Music).
Getting started at the beginning, we read this sentence:
Although factories were eager to adopt her first invention, Knight did not
receive much in the way of compensation for her effort.
Well, we see this word "adopt" here.
Factories were eager to adopt something.
Usually I think of adopting little children when I see this word "adopt."
Nathanael, what does this word here mean in the article?
Well, here, of course, they're taking on something new.
It doesn't have to be a child.
It can be an idea or a new strategy, in this case.
That's right.
So it's a new idea, a new strategy.
Adopting something, making it your own.
And they were eager to adopt her first invention.
But what happened?
Knight did not receive much in the way of compensation.
Knight did not receive much in the way of compensation for her effort.
So "in the way of." That means that she did not get compensated for her effort.
There was not much in the way of compensation.
How else can you use that phrase, Carolyn?
Well, when you think of something being "in the way of," you might think that
something is in front of it or blocking it, but that's not what it means here.
It means something similar to.
So maybe there wasn't much in the way of food at the birthday party, so I was
very hungry.
All right, not much in the way of food at the birthday party.
You might walk into a store, you want to buy something.
And the person there would say: Well, we don't have much in the way of coffee.
We don't have much in the way of chocolate.
What else do you want to buy?
We don't have much in the way of...
How else can you use that phrase, Nathanael?
Well, you could say that she didn't have much in the way of experience, but she
was a quick learner.
All right.
That's another excellent way to use it: not much in the way of experience.
So you can use it to talk about ideas, things, tangible things, or even things
like compensation.
And we're talking about compensation right now.
This is from the Word Bank: compensation for something.
So you did something, maybe you paid something you... you expended a bit of your
money or your energy, and what is your compensation?
Well, that's what you get back for what you gave - compensation.
How do you use that word, Carolyn?
Well, I like to get compensation for my work.
And that could be in the form of money or maybe some cake, Nathanael.
Oh, cake! You like cake, do you?
Well, another way to use this word in the United States, we talk about workmen's
compensation.
If you get injured, you may be able to receive workmen's compensation - some
extra money because of your injury.
All right. So that is workmen's compensation.
Um, I like the idea of getting compensated with money, or I like Carolyn was
saying, with cake.
Maybe if I do something for you, you can take me out to coffee.
That's what you can do in the way of compensation for me.
Right now it's time for us to learn something different with Steve and Ken in
the Information Cloud.
Let's talk about two words today that seem to have the same meaning but are, in
fact, different.
They are: eager and anxious.
Although "anxious" has been used as a synonym for "eager" since the 18th
century,
we should use "anxious" only when we're worried or feel uneasy about an
anticipated event.
For example, you can be anxious about an upcoming exam.
But you probably shouldn't tell your friends that you're "anxious" to see them
this weekend.
Instead, I should say I'm "eager" to see my friends this weekend.
That's right.
It's not that it's wrong.
But it runs the risk of confusion because "anxious" is related to the word
anxiety.
And "anxiety" is definitely a negative-sounding word.
It is.
Anxious and eager both mean looking forward to something, but they have
different connotations.
"Eager" suggests enthusiasm about something.
If you are really looking forward to some warm weather, for example, you're
eager for it.
And that's a positive connotation.
Anxious, on the other hand, has the negative connotation.
It implies a worry about something.
So, if your son doesn't come home on time, you won't feel eager, you'll feel
anxious.
Ah, yes. That would make me very anxious.
(Chinese).
Thank you, guys.
Well, I'm not anxious, but I am eager to continue with our next sentence.
Because of her youth and her family's lack of education, Knight was unable to
patent her safety device to earn a profit from selling it.
All right.
So maybe her family didn't know enough about the law, what they could do to help
her earn... or get this patent,
because, of course, she invented something, and she wanted to earn a profit from
it.
She wanted to get some money for that.
Well, how does our article continue, Carolyn?
It says: But Knight did patent many of her later inventions,
including one of her most enduring creations - a machine for producing
flat-bottomed paper bags.
Now Nathanael, have you ever used a flat-bottomed paper bag?
Well, yes, I have.
They're very common in the United States at grocery stores.
If you buy things, you often put them in brown paper bags with a flat bottom.
I love flat-bottomed paper bags. Yeah.
You can either get like a plastic bag, or sometimes they give you that paper
sack or paper bag that has a flat bottom.
I guess before this, they were kind of like envelopes.
Well, as we continue, we see: In Knight's day, paper bags were shaped like
envelopes, which made them difficult to fill.
We see a phrase there: in Knight's day, or in someone's day.
What does this mean, Carolyn?
Are we talking about the day that she invented something?
No. We're talking about the general time when she was alive.
So her day means her lifetime.
And so an example you could use is in my great-grandmother's day, cars were a
new invention.
Well, I guess they would be.
Yeah, cars were a new invention in her day.
How else could you use that phrase, Nathanael?
Well, I was thinking that in our day, women have it maybe a little bit better
than they did at the time of Margaret E. Knight.
Well, I think so too.
I would agree with that.
In our day, it is a lot easier for a woman than it was from Margaret E. Knight.
I was thinking about my grandfather.
In my grandfather's day, lots of... lots more people lived on farms.
I remember they...
He told me a story about how they made ice cream out of hail falling from the
sky along with milk from cows that they had on the farm,
something that I could not do now, or in our day.
Well, we continue.
While working at a paper bag factory, Knight conceived of bags with flat,
rectangular bottoms that would be stronger and more practical.
And we see that Word Bank word there.
It is the word "conceive." Carolyn, can you tell us about this word?
Well, if you conceive of an idea or a concept, then you think of it.
It comes to your mind and you make it alive.
So what is something that you could conceive, Nathanael?
I think that artists often conceive what they're going to draw, what they're
going to paint or make before they actually create it.
So they conceive of it, they have the idea in their mind first.
That's right.
I was thinking about maybe song writers or actors too.
They conceive of how they want something played out.
If you're writing a song or creating something new, you conceive of it first,
and then you draw it or you create it.
Well, she conceived of some pretty good ideas, and she created these
flat-bottomed paper bags.
They're stronger and more practical.
Well, it's time for us to learn something new with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.