节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-01-25
难易度:Medium
关键字:miserable, revenge, stoop, mutual, betray
In this month's POINT OF VIEW article, two sisters are talking.
And one of them had a friend who spread some secrets about her to other people.
Well, let's continue listening to Kelly and Sara's conversation.
(Music).
Betrayed!
Yeah, I do know some of Veronica's secrets, but if I tell them, I'll be just
like her.
I don't know if I want to stoop to her level.
But she has been a terrible friend.
Do you really want to keep being nice to her?
Well, it is the right thing to do.
Besides, if I remember right, your plan to get revenge backfired.
Well, yes, a lot of our mutual friends did get mad at me, and I developed a
reputation for gossiping.
See?
That's why I don't know if trying to get revenge will help.
Well, Sara and Kelly have continued to discuss revenge as something that Kelly
might be able to do to Veronica.
So let's continue to read this.
Get ready, Sis.
All right.
Yeah, I do know some of Veronica's secrets, but if I tell them, I'll be just
like her.
I don't know if I want to stoop to her level.
Oh, stoop.
We have another key word. Hang on, hang on.
We've got another key word "stoop," and it's this phrase: to stoop to someone's
level.
And if you stoop to someone's level, that means that you do the same thing as
them.
And it's usually pretty bad because if you stoop, you go lower.
So you go down to a lower level.
Actually, Nathanael, can you show us what stoop looks like?
Yeah.
I would love to stoop.
Stooping goes something like this.
Just lower yourself a little bit.
You might think that I'm squatting.
But actually, Gabe, could you show us what squatting actually looks like?
Me?
Yeah, so we can tell the difference.
OK, squatting. Uh, right.
This is stooping.
This is squatting.
You see that he's lower.
Yeah, it's a lot lower, and it's a little more uncomfortable.
I don't really like squatting.
S-Q-U-A-T. Yeah, that's... that's right.
I'm squatting right now.
Um, Carolyn, would you rather stoop or squat?
Well, I think I'll just sit.
Right.
It's a good idea.
Yeah. I think I will too.
Yeah, maybe you guys should sit down.
Excellent.
Well, now that we know what stooping is, and you can stoop to someone's level.
That means you are taking your standards a little lower.
You're not being as good as you should.
You're going down to someone else's level.
It's not a good thing.
Well, um, shall we continue, Kelly?
I think so.
All right, excellent.
But she has been a terrible friend.
Do you really want to keep being nice to her?
Well, it is the right thing to do.
Oh, the right thing to do.
So here, that just means that it's something that you should do.
So you should be nice to her, not mean and try to get revenge.
Gabe, can you think of something else that might be the right thing to do?
Um, yes.
Many times you can use this phrase: it's the right thing to do.
Like for instance, if you are walking and you see somebody else drop their
money, but they don't know it.
Then you can go and pick up that money, and give it back to that person.
That is the right thing to do.
Of course you can pick up the money and put it in your pocket, but that's not
the right thing to do.
So there is... there are different instances where you can use this phrase, the
right thing to do.
Well, it's the right thing for us to go and enjoy some time with Steve and Ken
right now in the Info Cloud.
Hey, guys.
Hi.
Hi, teachers.
There's that little four-letter word again: well.
"Well" is not a noun.
It's not a verb, adverb, adjective or pronoun.
It's not even an article.
So, what is it?
"Well," it's a particle.
Particles are used to facilitate communication.
They're kind of language oil that keeps conversations moving along.
Nice.
Now there are different categories of particles like interjections, like "Wow!"
and conjunctions like "although." Those are two examples.
But today's word "well" falls into the third particle category - sentence
connectors.
Right.
Sentence connectors do just what they say: They make a connection from the
previous sentence to the next sentence.
They also indicate the speaker's attitude or mood to what's just been said or to
what is likely to follow.
Other examples of sentence connectors include "so," "yet" and "still." Now,
because particles like "well" don't have a precise definition of their own, they
are often overlooked.
But they really do add meaning to what's being said.
So the more you pay attention to them, the richer your experience with English
will be.
(Chinese).
Well, thank you, Ken and Steve.
That was the right thing to teach.
Anyway, back to Kelly.
Besides, if I remember right...
Wait... Sara, you were saying my line.
Oh, no! OK. You go ahead and say Kelly's line.
It's your turn.
OK. Go ahead.
Besides, if I remember right, your plan to get revenge backfired.
Oh!
It backfired.
Backfired.
I remember a time when my plan backfired, and I was trying to do something nice.
I was trying to help my sister.
I really wanted to surprise her by painting her room pink because she loves
pink.
But I bought the wrong color paint.
And it was purple.
And she hates purple!
So my plan really backfired.
Oh, shoot. OK.
Well, now you know what it means to backfire.
If your plan backfires, you want to do one thing, but then it ends up hurting
you instead.
It backfires.
Well, now is it my turn, Nathanael?
I think so.
OK, good.
Well, yes, a lot of our mutual friends did get mad at me...
Oh, mutual.
"Mutual" is another key word.
Sorry, sorry. We have to stop.
Mutual.
So "mutual" means that you share the same thing.
And here they have the same friends.
Can you think of something else that might be mutual, Nathanael?
Sometimes the feeling is mutual.
We feel the same way about something, we would say: Our feelings are mutual.
That's right.
The feeling is mutual.
Or we have some mutual friends.
Well, I'm going to continue now.
Yes, a lot of our mutual friends did get mad at me, and I developed a reputation
for gossiping.
Oh. That's not a good reputation to have.
And "reputation" is also an important word.
So if you have a reputation for something, then you are known for something.
And you were known for gossiping!
Yes, it's true.
A reputation for something, you can use this to talk about people.
A reputation for...
Well, my boss has a reputation for giving.
She's a generous person.
Carolyn, you have a reputation today for interrupting us in our conversation.
Well, it would seem that I have developed that reputation.
All right. Well, let's continue.
Nathanael.
Certainly.
See?
That's why I don't know if trying to get revenge will help.
Excellent.
I don't know if trying to get revenge will help.
Maybe it's not a good idea.
Well, I think it is a good idea for us to go and enjoy Michelle in the Language
Lab.
(Chinese).
And let's get back to teachers.
Thanks again, Michelle.
Well, we've talked about Sara and Kelly and their ideas about revenge and
betrayal.
But Gabe, I wonder, have you ever been betrayed by a friend?
Have I ever been betrayed?
Um, probably.
I can't really remember being betrayed, but I can remember saying things about
other people, and I think they felt betrayed.
I didn't really mean to.
I thought I was just expressing my anger about something to somebody else, but
that's not always a good idea.
I think I need to be careful about who I talked to other people about and what
I'm saying about them,
because sometimes you can end up giving other people an impression about someone
they don't even know.
I think maybe that happens to a lot of us.
So we need to be careful with our words.
But Carolyn, have you ever been betrayed?
I don't want to talk about it.
But I do want to talk about what happens to Kelly and Sara in our next lesson.
So until then, we'll see you next time.