节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-01-09
难易度:Medium
关键字:run out of (time), have no time to lose, time is money, time will tell,
for the time being
Hello, everyone.
And welcome to Studio Classroom.
I'm your teacher Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I'm Nathanael.
And I'm glad you could join us again for today.
We have another lesson about time.
We're continuing a story about a professor.
And yesterday we found out that this professor settled on an idea.
He wanted to create a time machine.
And with a time machine, you can travel through time.
Um, Nathanael, have you ever traveled through time?
Um... ah, no. Gabe, that's... that's a stupid question.
I'm sorry.
No one's traveled through time.
That was kind of a silly question.
I'm... I'm sorry about that.
I guess nobody has ever traveled through time.
Well, Gabe, actually I... I feel like I've traveled through time because when I
flew from Japan to the United States, it seemed like I traveled through time.
I was on the plane for over 12 hours, but when I landed in New York, it was the
same time I left.
Whoa! Hey, yeah, sometimes when you're flying on an airplane, it seems like
you're traveling through time.
I like that.
Well, right now we're going to continue the story about our professor who wants
to travel through time.
Here we go.
(Music).
It's About Time.
The professor's dream wasn't just any old time machine.
His invention not only would allow people to go back in time or forward in time
but also would create time.
"Everyone always complains about running out of time," he thought.
"Why not make a machine that can create more time when you need it?
Or stretch time and make it last longer?
Or save time like putting it in a bank? (With interest!)" He knew he had no time
to lose.
He was eager to create his world-changing invention.
Well, I hope it will be a world-changing invention.
We see at the beginning here, the very first sentence:
The professor's dream wasn't just any old time machine.
It wasn't just any old time machine.
It was something to be special.
We see that phrase: not just any old something.
If it's not just any old, that's a good way to say it's unique.
It should be special.
It's not like the other ones.
It's not just any old time machine.
How else could you use that phrase, Carolyn?
Well, you might say this car isn't just any old car.
It belonged to my dad.
And he spent a lot of time making this into a great car.
I like that.
What about you, Nathanael?
Not just any old what?
Well, this isn't just any old tie. It's my favorite tie.
Oh. Well, if it's your favorite, then of course it's not just any old tie.
I think of Doris Brougham.
She's not just any old English teacher.
She founded Studio Classroom!
She's a very special and unique person.
Not just any old something.
You are absolutely right, Gabe.
And we see in our reading why the professor had a time machine that wasn't just
any old time machine.
His invention not only would allow people to go back in time or forward in time,
but it would also create time.
"Everyone always complains about running out of time," he thought.
And it's true.
It... we do complain a lot about running out of time or not having enough time.
And we see this key word... Word Bank phrase here: to run out of time.
Nathanael, what is run out of time?
Do you... do you have to run to catch it?
No. You don't literally have to run to catch up with time.
It just means the time is passing, you need more time to get something done.
If you're running out of time, you need more time.
You need more time.
We ran out of time.
Or, we have no more time.
We're running out of time right now.
We're not running out of time really, friends.
We have to talk about this story, and we have time.
But the professor thought he was running out of time.
We continue.
"Why not make a machine that can create more time when you need it?
Or stretch time and make it last longer?
Or save time like putting it in a bank? (With interest!)" Wait. Is... this a
joke, Nathanael?
What's going on here?
Well, "interest" has a couple of different meanings.
Of course, if you're interested in something, you might really like it, or you
think it's something good to think about.
But "interest" here means when a small percentage is added to, like, your money
in the bank.
So maybe we can add a little extra time if we put it in the bank.
That's very interesting and very creative.
I like the idea.
I just don't know if it's possible.
Can you create time?
Can you put time in a bank, and then get interest later so you have more time?
Well, we continue.
The professor knew he had no time to lose.
I love this phrase: no time to lose.
It's also from the Word Bank.
And if you have no time to lose, what does that mean, Carolyn?
Well, it kind of makes me think that you can lose time like you forget where you
put it.
But actually, it just means that you want to get something done as fast as
possible because you don't have a lot of time or a lot of extra time to spare.
That's right. I have a family with seven people... well, not me, but I have four
siblings, and our family has seven people.
And um, a lot of times my parents would say this: We have no time to lose.
Let's get going.
We need to go.
It takes us a long time to do some things, but we have no time to lose.
Have you ever used that phrase, Nathanael?
Sure. The other day I was going to go to a movie with some friends.
I said the movie is about to start.
There's no time to lose.
We need to get there now!
We've got no time to lose.
We need to get going.
Well, the professor also thought he had no time to lose.
You don't want to lose any time.
We continue: He was eager to create his world-changing invention.
He was going to invent a creation or something that would change the world, a
world-changing invention.
Let's go now to see what Liz has for us in the Grammar Gym.
Hi there, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
We've been reading a story about a professor and his dream of making a time
machine.
We read: He was eager to create his world-changing invention.
Notice the phrase: world-changing invention.
"World-changing" describes invention.
What kind of an invention is it?
It's an invention that changes the world.
But that just sounds wordier compared to "world-changing invention." So let's
practice a bit.
Think of an object that does something.
For example, in many fairy tales, we read about dragons that breathe fire.
So we can say:
There are fire-breathing dragons.
If you need an idea to help you get or grab money quickly, then you need a
money-grabbing idea.
And nowadays, we want solutions that help us save more energy.
So we want energy-saving solutions.
If you turn to today's Grammar Tip section in your magazine, you'll find more
examples there.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Well, friends, we are not out of time.
Actually, we may need to stretch time a little bit.
And we see that word here in today's lesson.
The professor thought that maybe he could "stretch" time and make it last
longer.
Stretch to make something longer.
Carolyn, how do you use that word "stretch"?
Well, usually when I think of stretch, I think of: Oh, I'm so tired. I need to
stretch.
Or maybe I'm going to do some exercise, so I should stretch my muscles before I
exercise.
All right.
Usually that's what I think about too.
If I'm going to exercise, I'm going running, I need to stretch my arm muscles.
I need to stretch especially my leg muscles if I'm going to do that kind of
exercise.
But how else can you use that word "stretch," Nathanael?
Well, like here, you can stretch time, which doesn't mean that you grab time and
try to pull it, make it longer, you just try to use that time more.
You try to do more within that space of time.
You can also stretch a dollar.
You have one dollar to spend, and you want to spend it so you can buy more
things with it and not just one thing.
That would be stretching a dollar.
All right.
Stretching a dollar. I like that example.
You can try to use your money wisely so that you can actually buy more valuable
things with it.
You stretch a dollar.
And the professor is talking about stretching time.
I don't think it's possible to actually stretch time to make a second longer
than another second.
But you can use this word to talk about filling up your time with good things.
Well, right now it's time for us to spend our time with Michelle in the Language
Lab.
I think she is waiting for us.
Uh, let's not keep her waiting.
OK. Hi, Michelle.
Hi, Michelle.