节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-01-26
难易度:Medium
关键字:take advantage of somebody, confront, discourage, out of line, apology
Well, hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
Um, Nathanael, where is Carolyn?
Well, I... she... she was getting ready but uh... she's not here.
She's usually not late.
I know. She's usually a very punctual person.
Really, she is.
You know what, yesterday she kept interrupting us.
She did keep interrupting us yesterday.
She kept doing that.
She was... she was all... she was so...
It was a bit unusual.
Yeah, I thought so.
Hey, guys.
Oh.
Carolyn!
Hey! What are you guys talking about?
Uh, well, nothing.
We're just glad you're here.
We're glad you're here.
Oh, great! Well, are you ready to start?
Yes. Now we can introduce ourselves.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I am Nathanael.
And you are here today.
We're continuing a lesson called Betrayed.
Yesterday we enjoyed hearing a conversation between two sisters - Kelly and
Sara.
What were they talking about?
Well, one sister thought that her sister should take revenge on one of her
friends.
We're going to continue listening to this conversation.
Let's do that now.
(Music).
Betrayed!
Well, you have to do something.
Otherwise, Veronica will keep taking advantage of you and telling your secrets.
I don't know if I would say she's taking advantage of me.
She probably just forgot that I told her to keep it secret.
That seems very unlikely.
This is not the first time you've come home upset that Veronica betrayed your
trust.
Yeah, maybe you're right, but I don't want to confront her.
It might hurt our friendship.
Well, it sounds like Kelly is having a really hard time.
So are you guys going to do the role-playing again? Are you Sara?
Yes, I'm Sara.
OK. Who are you going to be?
I'm still Kelly.
OK.
OK, good. Let me start. OK.
Well...
Well, you have to do something.
Otherwise, Veronica will keep taking advantage of you and telling your secrets.
Oh.
Huh?
Taking advantage.
That's a key word.
So let's take a minute and look at this phrase: taking advantage of somebody.
So here it sounds like Veronica is taking advantage of Kelly's friendship, which
is not a very nice thing to do.
No, it's not.
Can you think of another way that you might take advantage of something that's a
little more positive?
Oh. Well, yeah. Actually, usually I think of this at a negative way.
But I guess you're right, it can be positive too.
If you take advantage of something, that could be positive.
You can take advantage of something that you have.
That means you put it to good use.
I have a car and a bike.
I should take advantage of these things that I have.
I don't want to just let my car sit there.
I should drive my car.
And I should ride my bike.
I'm putting these things to good use.
I'm taking advantage of them.
So that's the positive way that you can use this phrase.
Absolutely.
That's a very good thing that you should take advantage of.
So Nathanael, can you think of any other things that you could take advantage
of?
Yes. I'd take advantage of my extra time to get a short nap.
Oh. So you like to take a rest when you have a little extra time.
And you take advantage of it. That's great.
I think that's a good idea to take advantage of the... the free time that you
have to relax, do something different.
Um, so those are the positive ways that you can use this phrase, but how is it
different from the negative, Carolyn?
Well, here we see that they're taking advantage of someone being their friend.
So rather than helping someone, you might be hurting them, taking advantage of a
situation.
That's right.
So you can take advantage of something, that's a good thing.
But if you talk about taking advantage of somebody, that's almost always a
negative thing.
You don't want to be taken advantage of.
And so that's what Sara says.
Veronica will keep taking advantage of you and telling your secrets if you don't
say something or do something.
Well, Nathanael, I think it's time for you to continue as Kelly.
I don't know if I would say she's taking advantage of me.
She probably just forgot that I told her to keep it secret.
That seems very unlikely. This...
Oh, unlikely.
So it probably isn't true?
Is that what you mean?
Yes.
It seems unlikely, probably not.
That's what "unlikely" means.
If something is unlikely, it means it probably is not true.
It probably won't happen.
So how else can you use this word?
Well, it's unlikely that it will rain today.
The weather forecast said it was going to be good weather.
How else could you use this word?
It's very unlikely that it would snow in July.
That is extremely unlikely, very unlikely.
So yes, Sara says it seems very unlikely because this is not the first time
you've come home upset that Veronica betrayed your trust.
Oh, betrayed your trust.
Now here we have another key word, guys.
We have to... to take a moment and look at this.
Betray someone's trust, or betray one's trust is not a very good thing to do.
And it's very similar in meaning to just saying: betray.
OK, yeah, the words betray and betray someone's trust.
Well, how are they different?
Our lesson is called "Betrayed!" And that's an adjective.
I feel betrayed.
To betray is a verb.
And then we see here another phrase: betray someone's trust.
Well, how are these things different, Carolyn?
Well, they're not too different.
But if you say "betray one's trust," then you really want to point out that this
person has really hurt you because you trusted them with something,
and then they did something they shouldn't have.
Yeah. I like that.
Sometimes maybe someone tells you: Oh, I won't do this.
And then they go and do it.
Then that is betraying your trust.
But if they didn't say "I won't do this," if they hurt you, you still feel
betrayed, but maybe it's not betraying your trust.
Maybe it doesn't feel as bad as if they said I won't do it.
This is very true.
Well, I really want to find out what happens next.
Will you guys keep going?
Of course. Kelly?
Certainly.
Yeah, maybe you're right, but I don't want to confront her.
It might hurt our friendship.
Oh. We have another key word.
Thanks, Nathanael, for bring up "confront," so.
Here if you confront someone, then you approach them and talk to them about a
problem.
Have you ever confronted anyone, Nathanael?
Yes, there have been times when I've confronted people.
I directed some plays when I was in college.
So sometimes when they weren't doing something right, even if I thought that
maybe they wouldn't like what I was going to say,
I would have to confront them and say: I need you to do this differently.
Oh. Well, it's very important till there's a problem, then you should confront
them.
What do you think, Gabe?
Oh, no.
Oh, no. I don't like confronting people.
I mean, I know I need to sometimes, but it's not easy to confront people because
I don't like pointing out that they did something wrong.
I would like to think that it's easy for people to confront me.
I want people to tell me if I did something wrong, but I know that's not always
the case.
Some people don't like confronting me too.
But I think confronting is something we should all learn how to do.
Well, maybe they just don't want to hurt your friendship.
Mmhm. It's true.
Sometimes you just don't want to hurt a friendship.
Well, with that, I think it's time for us to do something a little different.
Let's go and hang out with Michelle.
She is in the Language... Lab waiting for us.
Let's go and find out what she has to say.
Hey there, Michelle.
Hi, Michelle.
Hi. I'm Michelle.