节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-02-14
难易度:Low
关键字:annually, predict, shadow, humility, groundhog, leap year
Hey, hey, hey, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I'm Nathanael.
And you are here joining us for our lesson about February.
Yes, we have a lot to learn about this month - the month of February.
Well, when you think about this month, when you think about February, what comes
to mind?
Nathanael, what do you think about when you think about February?
Well, I first think that it's pretty cold.
It's a pretty cold month, February.
What about you, Carolyn?
What do you think about when you think of February?
I also think of cold and snow.
Lots of snow and snow days.
No school.
Oh, that sounds wonderful.
Snow days.
Well, of course you want to stay careful during snow days or any kind of storm.
What do you think of when you think about the month February?
I do think about Valentine's Day.
It is February 14, and it's something that we're going to talk about in today's
lesson.
We'll learn about that and much more.
So let's get started with our first reading for the day.
(Music).
February.
The shortest month of the year has a lot to offer.
In the West, February brings Valentine's Day to mind.
Indeed, Americans alone exchange over 150 million Valentine's cards annually.
In addition, over 58 million pounds of chocolate candy are sold around this
celebration of love.
Maybe that is why February is National Chocolate Lover's Month in the U.S.!
In the East, people think of Lunar New Year, which often occurs in February.
Most return home to celebrate this important holiday with their families.
The shortest month of the year has a lot to offer.
Yes, February is the shortest month of the year with usually just 28 days.
Now the first sentence of this article says, "In the West, February brings
Valentine's Day to mind." Now, is that true for you two?
Gabe, you mentioned that you thought of Valentine's Day.
What do you think of when you hear Valentine's Day, Carolyn?
Well, when I hear Valentine's Day, I think of chocolates and roses and maybe
going out to dinner, something very romantic.
But also maybe just giving a Valentine's Day card to my friends.
Sure. Yes.
All of those things are part of Valentine's Day.
And now I think that Liz has something to tell us in the Grammar Gym.
Hi, there, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
We read in today's article "...February brings Valentine's Day to mind." That's
our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus today is on the phrase: brings to mind.
It means makes people think of.
So today's sentence just means February makes people think of Valentine's Day.
This phrase is most often used in formal situations.
For example:
To many Americans, talking about Chinese food brings fortune cookies to mind.
Or:
The mentioning of Paris brings the Eiffel Tower to mind.
So when talking about something automatically makes people think of something
else, then you can use this phrase.
And if you look at today's Grammar Tip section, you'll find more example
sentences there.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Well, we continue with our article.
Indeed, Americans alone exchange over 150 million Valentine's cards annually.
Indeed they do!
And indeed, we want to talk about this word.
It's an extra word.
indeed.
It kind of means "for sure," or "in fact," or "it's true." Indeed.
But how else could you use that word, Carolyn?
Well, I indeed do know how to use this word.
Yes, you do.
I might say, well, I do indeed like chocolates.
You don't have to put "indeed" at the beginning of the sentence, so you can also
go in the middle.
Hmm, that's a good way to put it.
You can put it in the middle.
I do indeed like this chocolate.
Nathanael, how do you use this word: indeed?
And not only can it be at the beginning or the middle, it can also be at the
end.
February is a cold month, indeed.
It's very cold.
It's used for emphasis there.
February is a cold month, indeed.
I also hear this word just used alone.
If you just want to agree with somebody, they say something and you agree, you
could say, "Indeed.".
But usually I hear British people saying this word more than Americans or other
English speakers.
Indeed.
It does make me think of people from England for some reason.
Well, let's continue.
We do have a Word Bank word right here in this sentence.
It is...
annually.
annually.
This is an adverb that talks about something that happens every year.
Of course, there is a February 14 every year.
People celebrate this annually.
How do you use that word, Carolyn?
Well, every spring my mom works in her garden.
So she works in her garden annually.
It's a yearly event.
All right.
She does that annually.
Do you do anything annually, Nathanael?
Well, I guess there are a lot of things that I do annually.
Uh, my family likes to go to the beach at least annually - sometimes more than
once during a year.
All right.
So there's different things that you could annually.
You could have like an annual vacation that Nathanael was just talking about.
Or you could maybe celebrate something like a holiday annually.
So you can use that word as an adjective as well.
A-N-N-U-A-L is the adjective.
You do something annually.
It is an annual activity.
We continue:
In addition, over 58 million pounds of chocolate candy are sold around the
celebration of love.
Those are some big numbers, you guys.
We have 150 million Valentine's cards annually and also 58 million pounds of
chocolate candy.
Um, which one would you prefer getting, a card or chocolate, Carolyn?
Well, the card would last longer and might mean a little bit more, but chocolate
is pretty delicious.
Yeah.
What about... What about you, Nathanael?
You're a big fan of chocolate?
Well, chocolate is more meaningful to me than cards, too, I think.
Unless the cards are really well-written, maybe.
Nice.
OK. So what do you like to do?
How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?
Do you write a card to contribute to the 150 million other cards that are out
there?
Or do you like to buy people chocolate or something else?
Well, we continue:
Maybe that is why February is National Chocolate Lover's Month in the U.S.!
It's National Chocolate Lover's Month.
That means there are probably a lot of chocoholics out there.
Let's spend some time with Steve and Ken in the Info Cloud right now.
February is National Chocolate Lover's Month in the United States.
And friends, if you're a real chocolate lover, we have a word for you:
chocaholic.
That's right.
Chocaholic is one of the number of recent words formed by analogy with
"alcoholic," which refers to a person addicted to alcohol.
Since "alcoholic" became an English word, it has been chopped up,
and the suffix "-aholic" is now added to other words to refer to people with
various kinds of addiction.
Now addiction may be too strong a word here.
But if you're someone who just can't get enough chocolate, well, you're a
chocaholic.
So unlike alcoholic, which is serious, chocaholic is more of a fun word we can
use to describe someone who craves chocolate a lot.
What's another word with this suffix, Steve?
OK. I'll give you two, Ken.
Workaholics - those are people who are unable or unwilling to stop working.
And for some reason, workaholics happen to be mostly men.
And then there are shopaholics.
Those are people who are really into shopping.
One phrase that comes to mind when I think of shopaholics is "shop till you
drop.".
And I assume shopaholics are mostly women?
I'd say you assume correctly, Ken.
(Chinese).
Continuing in the article, the next sentence says, "In the East, people think of
Lunar New Year, which often occurs in February." Now that's true.
In the East, mostly it's where Lunar New Year is celebrated.
But Carolyn, isn't this celebrated in the United States as well?
Yes, there are a lot of big cities in the United States who also have Lunar New
Year's celebrations,
because they have large populations of people from other countries that
celebrate Lunar New Year.
And of course it's also called Chinese New Year or something like that.
And it says often this celebration occurs in February.
That's because sometimes it does happen towards the end of January as well.
I guess it all depends on where the moon is in the sky, how full it is at that
time of year.
The next sentence says, "Most return home to celebrate this important holiday
with their families.".
I wonder if that means they might actually even go to a different country to
celebrate this holiday at times.
Yeah, I think so. I mean it says they return home to celebrate with their
families.
So home could mean anything.
Actually, what do you think of when you think of the word "home," Carolyn?
Well, here in Asia, I think, well, my home is my apartment.
But if I were to return home for a holiday, I would probably go back to the
United States to my parents' house and celebrate with my family.
All right.
I... uh, this... this word "home" actually brings up different ideas in my mind,
having grown up and moved around a lot growing up.
Um, so I don't think of home as necessarily one place,
but usually I do think of it as where my family is or where my family spent most
of my life.
Nathanael, what do you think of when you think of "home"?
Well, I feel like that the longer I live, the harder it is to actually choose a
place to call home.
But I do connect home more with people than with a certain place.
I feel home when I'm with a certain group, not necessarily being in a certain
country or a certain town.
Well, moving on, I think it is time to see Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.