节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-02-28
难易度:High
关键字:straightforward, versatility, penalize, outnumber, all work and no play,
last man standing
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I'm Nathanael.
We're glad you could join us for the last day of February here.
We're talking about Games to Improve Your Game.
Of course, in our lesson we will be talking about the game of basketball,
improving your basketball skills.
But this does make me wonder about how sometimes you can change the rules to
certain games to make it a little different or interesting.
Do you ever do this, Nathanael?
Well, there is the game football that you can change in a few ways.
One way is to play flag football, which instead of kind of fighting and knocking
people over, you just take the flag that is attached to their waist off of them.
All right.
That changes the game a little bit.
What about you, Carolyn?
Do you ever change the rules to a game?
Well, when my brother and sisters and I would all play card games,
we would frequently change the rules to anything we were playing so that we
could win.
Nice. Of course, that is the ultimate goal - to win.
Sometimes when my family would play Monopoly, we would also change the rules a
little bit to make it a little more fun and interesting.
Well, we're going to see how you can improve your basketball skills while having
fun.
Let's get started with the first reading for today.
(Music).
Games to Improve Your Game.
Improve your basketball skills while having fun.
If you're serious about improving your basketball skills, you probably practice
your shooting and ball handling daily.
But improving your skills doesn't have to be all work and no play.
You can also get some practice by simply playing these straightforward games.
H-O-R-S-E.
An old classic, this game continues to help people improve their shooting
accuracy and versatility.
Players take turns trying to make the first basket using a lay-up, bank shot or
hook shot.
When one player makes a basket, all other players must do so in exactly the same
way, or they get penalized with a letter (first H, then O, etc.).
When players have missed five shots (gaining an entire HORSE), they are
eliminated - the last man standing wins.
Today's deck says: Improve your basketball skills while having fun.
We talked about games in which you changed the rules.
And these are games that are using a basketball but not with the same rules as
basketball.
OK. So the first sentence says:
If you're serious about improving your basketball skills, you probably practice
your shooting and ball handling daily.
OK, we want to talk about this term "ball handling." That's an extra phrase for
today, ball handling.
How would you describe that term, Gabe?
Well, ball handling... if you are handling the ball, that means you are in
control of the ball.
So you might know how to dribble it, you might know how to do things between
your legs and different things like that.
That is ball handling.
But how else could you use that phrase, or what does that make you think about?
Well, it's the kind of skill that you have when you're playing basketball, your
ball handling skills.
You could also say "your game." In the title of our article today, it said Games
to Improve Your Game.
And your game is your basketball skill, so your ability to handle the ball.
Yes, ball handling is how well you use the ball.
And when you say "your game" as we're using it in the title, it's referring to
your basketball skills.
OK. The next sentence says:
But improving your skills doesn't have to be all work and no play.
"All work and no play" is a kind of phrase.
It's from a kind of a rhyme that says "All work and no play makes Jack a dull
boy..." I'm not actually sure where that's from.
Do you use that very often, Gabe?
Not really. I don't really use this phrase.
I know what it means, all work and no play.
That means you're spending so much time just kind of being serious about what
you're doing that it almost seems like it's not fun anymore.
Of course, basketball should be a fun game.
It was created to be a fun sport, so it should not be all work and no play.
That's right.
You want to make sure that you are having fun when you play basketball even when
you are practicing and trying to improve your game.
And the next sentence says:
You can also get some practice by simply playing these straightforward games.
OK. "Straightforward" is an important word for today's article.
We're going to talk about it because it's a key word.
If something is straightforward, I think it is not complicated.
Is there another way to explain that word, Carolyn?
Well, straightforward is something that's very clear, very obvious.
We also had another word in one of our previous articles, "frank," frankly.
So if something is frank, it is straightforward.
It is very clear.
That's right.
I also think about straightforward rules or directions or instructions.
Some games can have very complicated rules.
It's not easy to learn.
But other games have rules that are very straightforward.
They're very easy to learn.
Or maybe you are cooking something, and the recipe is very straightforward.
Well, how does this article continue, Nathanael?
Well, next the article talks about the first example game, HORSE, or H-O-R-S-E.
This game is an old classic.
This game continues to help people improve their shooting accuracy and
versatility.
I think a lot of people know of this game in the United States, this game called
HORSE.
And it is good for these reasons.
One of these words is "versatility." And we want to take a look at that word
today because it's a key word - versatility.
That's a noun.
There's also the adjective: versatile.
Could you use either of these words in a sentence, Carolyn?
Well, if you are versatile, then you are good at many different things.
I think about duct tape being very useful.
It is a very versatile, or versatile object.
It has a great versatility.
You can use it to fix a lot of things.
That's true.
I also think about a lot of tablet computers now.
You can use those to do a lot of things.
Those are very versatile.
They have a lot of versatility.
Yes.
So you'll hear this adjective, versatile or versatile, pronounced either way.
Maybe versatile is a little more common.
OK. Let's look at the next sentence.
Players take turns trying to make the first basket using a lay-up, bank shot or
a hook shot.
These are all different kinds of shots used in basketball.
Would you describe a lay-up, please, Gabe?
Well, lay-up is when you are dribbling the ball and you go right up to the board
with your hand so that you knock the ball from the board into the basket.
Or you can knock it right from your hand into the basket.
So that's a lay-up.
But I want to talk about other words from this sentence here.
We have some extra words: to take turns.
When you take turns, that means one person is doing something, and then it's
another person's turn.
So how could you use that phrase, Nathanael?
Well, this phrase, to take turns, often does happen in a game.
But sometimes when you're eating dinner as a family, you need to take turns at
dipping out of a certain dish.
If you try to do it all at once, there could be a mess.
I think so, too.
Maybe you need to say: It's my turn! OK, now it's your turn.
And Carolyn, it's your turn.
How do you use this phrase?
Oh. Well, when you are talking with someone, you can take turns in a
conversation.
If everyone is talking at the same time, it's very difficult to understand what
they're saying.
So you should take turns in a conversation.
Well, we continue with our article.
When one player makes a basket, all other players must do so in exactly the same
way, or they get penalized with a letter.
Let's take a look at that Word Bank word: penalize.
Ooh, not good, but very common in sports.
A penalty or when you get penalized, that means you get kind of punished.
Or something bad happens to you so you can't do something, or you get points
scored against you.
How do you use that word, Carolyn?
Well, if you are penalized, then you are punished.
And if you break the rules, you may receive a penalty from the referee.
And in this game, you are penalized with a letter.
"First you get an H, and then an O, etc." as it says at the end of that
sentence.
OK. Now we want to go to the Grammar Gym and see what Liz wants to tell us
today.
Hello, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
In today's article we see this sentence: "... all other plays must do so in
exactly the same way or are penalized with a letter (first H, then O, etc.).
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus is on the word at the end of the sentence.
You see it's spelled "e-t-c." And it's pronounced etcetera.
Whenever you see "etc.," etcetera, it means and the rest.
We use "etc." whenever there is a list of things to mention but it takes too
much time to mention everything on the list.
Now in the case of today's sentence, the writer is explaining how players get
penalized with a letter.
But instead of spelling out the whole word HORSE, H-O-R-S-E,
the writer just mentions H and O, and then adds "etc." to avoid spelling the
rest of the word out.
So next time when you have to list something and you don't want to mention
everything on the list, just write "etc." etcetera.
And don't forget to check out today's Grammar Tip section in your magazine for
more example sentences.
This is Liz at the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thanks, Liz.
Well, we see in our last sentence here.
When players have missed five shots (gaining an entire HORSE), they are
eliminated - the last man standing wins.
So the last person left in the game is the winner.
Now why don't we take some time to go see Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.