节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-01-03
难易度:Low
关键字:billion, permanently, temperature, work of art, molecule, snowflake,
crystal
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I'm Nathanael.
Thank you for joining us for today.
Our lesson is about Snow.
Now many of us have seen snow.
Maybe you haven't ever seen snow in your life, but you're going to learn a
little bit about it today.
Well, different memories come to my mind when I think of snow.
I think of growing up.
Well, I didn't grow up around snow, but I got to see it sometimes.
And when I did, we would make little snowmen.
Nathanael, what did you do in the snow?
Well, I do remember when I was little, I got to play in the snow some.
And one of my favorite things to do was to go sledding.
You slide down the hill on a board, and that's called sledding.
Carolyn, what about you?
What kinds of things did you do in the snow?
Did you grow up around snow every winter?
Well, West Virginia does get snow sometimes in the winter.
And it can be so much fun because sometimes you'll have snow days.
And you don't have to go to school because there's so much snow.
And then you get to go outside and build snowman and play.
It's a lot of fun.
It is a lot of fun.
It can be fun to play in the snow.
Well, our author has written a very good article today.
Let's get right into our first reading.
Snow.
Cool facts about snow.
What is 15 inches wide, eight inches thick and made of billions of water
molecules?
If you guessed the world's largest snowflake, you are right!
Most snowflakes are very small and are less than half an inch wide.
However, a snowstorm in Fort Keogh, Montana, on January 28, 1887, produced this
record 15-inch snowflake.
While some parts of the world never see snow, the white stuff permanently
coffers about 10 percent of the earth's surface.
For snow to fall, the temperature must stay very cold.
Snow forms when the water inside the cloud freezes.
(Music).
We're talking about cool facts about snow.
The first sentence here is: What is 15 inches wide, eight inches thick and made
of billions of water molecules?
I like that question.
It kind of reminds me of a riddle that I learned when I was younger.
"What is," a lot of riddles start with these two words.
What is something and something else and something else.
Like this:
If I asked you guys, "What is black and white and red all over?" what would you
say, Nathanael?
I would say an angry zebra.
OK, an angry "zeba..." zebra. Good.
Definitely black and white and red all over because he's angry.
What about you Carolyn?
What would you say?
I would say a newspaper that someone has written on in red pen.
Ah, a newspaper someone has written on in red pen.
Or even if you've just read the newspaper, it's "read" all over.
Or what about an... an embarrassed penguin?
A blushing penguin could be black and white and red all over.
So you have this question: What is black and white and red all over?
Think of some other English riddles that begin with this question.
Well, it's kind of a riddle or kind of a question here at the beginning.
The question is: What is 15 inches wide, eight inches thick and made of billions
of water molecules?
We're going to talk about that word right there.
It is "billion." That is a very large number.
It is a "1"... a "1" with how many zeros behind it, Nathanael?
That's a "1" with nine zeros behind it, quite a few zeros.
It's 1,000,000,000.
1,000,000,000 is a billion.
Well, how else could you use this word "billion"?
As you can see here, it has an S, "billions" of water molecules.
That means we don't know how many billion, but there are many billions of water
molecules.
I also think of a billionaire, B-I-L-L-I-O-N-A-I-R-E.
And Carolyn, what is a billionaire?
Well, a billionaire is someone who has a billion dollars, or at least a billion.
Maybe he has two billion dollars; or she has three billion dollars.
That would make them both billionaires.
Billionaires.
Well, maybe one day we can be billionaires.
Or, I know at least we have billions of water molecules inside of our bodies.
That should count for something.
Well, Carolyn how else would you use this word "billion"?
Well, the world also has billions of people in it.
There are over six billion people in the world.
Yes, there are billions of people on the planet.
Well, back to our question.
What is 15 inches wide, eight inches thick and made of billions of water
molecules, Nathanael?
Actually, the next sentence is the answer to this riddle.
If you guessed the world's largest snowflake, you are right!
The answer is the world's largest snowflake.
And that is a huge snowflake!
Most snowflakes are very small and are less than half an inch wide.
But where was this enormous, huge, big snowflakes found, Carolyn?
Well, we see that this giant snowflake, however, a snowstorm in Fort Keogh,
Montana, on January 28, 1887, produced this record 15-inch snowflake.
So in Montana in the United States, they had a big snowstorm; and there was a
record-sized snowflake.
A "record" snowflake.
And we see this word "record." Usually I see it as a verb, to record something.
You are writing it down, or you're remembering somehow.
This is a record-sized snowflake.
And where might you find some records in the world, Carolyn?
Well, you might look in the Guinness Book of World Records.
It's a large book filled with all sorts of records, everything from sky diving
to food and snowflakes.
Nathanael, do you kow of any world record holders?
Yes, actually I do.
Just a couple months ago, Felix Baumgartner had the quickest, the most fast free
fall, or fall, ever for a human being.
He jumped with a parachute and dived 24.5 miles to the earth.
That is pretty incredible.
That is quite a record.
Well, as you can see, there are many different records in the world.
It's the most of something.
And people recorded it in this book - The Guinness Book of World Records.
Well, this 15-inch snowflake, that seems kind of scary.
Would you like to have been there when it fell down from the sky?
I think it would have been very, very scary because a 15-inch snowflake is about
as big as my board.
Right.
You... you'd be afraid of it may be falling on your head.
And you know, you don't know how heavy it is.
Maybe it could have killed you, who knows?
Anyways, it's a 15-inch snowflake, which is a big snowflake.
Continuing on.
While some parts of the world never see snow, the white stuff permanently covers
about 10 percent of the earth's surface.
We see another word there from the Word Bank - permanently.
Nathanael, what does this word mean?
Well, if something is "permanent," it will not change.
It's this way, and it will stay that way.
It will stay that way permanently.
I think of maybe living in a place for a long time.
I live here permanently.
I go to other places for vacation, but I live here permanently.
Well, continuing on.
For snow to fall, the temperature must stay very cold.
So the temperature is permanently very cold.
We see this word here, "temperature." It's also from the Word Bank.
And that is how hot or cold something is.
How could you use that word, Carolyn?
Well, you want to make sure the temperature in your fridge, or your
refrigerator, stays pretty cold so that your food doesn't go bad.
You're right about that.
You want to make sure the temperature is just right.
If the temperature rises, it gets hotter.
If the temperature drops or falls, it gets colder.
Well, right now it's time for us to learn something with Liz in the Grammar Gym.
Hello, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
So we're talking about Snow in today's article.
And here's our Grammar Tip sentence.
For snow to fall, the temperature must stay very cold.
Another way to say this is: The temperature must stay very cold for snow to
fall.
However, the writer wants to put the attention on snow.
So it appears at the beginning of the sentence.
Notice the pattern in today's sentence, there are two parts.
Part A: For something to happen.
And Part B: Something else must happen.
Basically, A cannot happen unless there is B.
Here are some examples.
For Mary to make her special cake, there must be something important to
celebrate.
Or: For the package to not be late, you must mail it before tomorrow.
That's all the time we have for today.
Keep up the good work.
Remember, for your English to improve, you must practice regularly.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Bye-bye.
Thanks for that, Liz.
Well, did you ever wonder where snow actually comes from?
The next sentence of the article tells us.
Snow forms, or snow is made, when the water inside the cloud freezes.
Snow comes from clouds in freezing temperatures.
All right.
Let's go to the Language Lab, and see what Michelle has to say to us today.
Hi, Michelle.
Hi, Michelle.