节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-01-31
难易度:Low
关键字:vision, cone, forbid, protection, bird of prey, pesticide
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And I'm Nathanael.
And we're continuing to learn about "The American Bald Eagle" today.
Our lesson starts out with a question "Did you know?" That means we're going to
be finding out different facts about the bald eagle,
which makes me wonder about different animals.
And I think Carolyn actually knows a lot about different animals.
I'm going to ask her about an animal and see what she knows.
Carolyn, what can you tell me about an ostrich?
An ostrich? Ooh.
Well, they live in Australia.
OK.
And that's the only place that they are native to.
They're also very tall birds with long necks; and they can run very fast.
That is so cool.
Nathanael, do you have another animal to ask her about?
Hmm... How about a cheetah?
Oh. Cheetas are very large cats that live in Africa.
And they can run up to 70 miles per hour.
Oh, my goodness.
OK. I think Carolyn knows a lot about different animals.
Maybe we can ask her every animal fact we need to know.
Today we are going to learn more about eagles with our lesson.
Did you know?
What do you know already?
You will learn a lot more today.
Let's get started with our first reading.
The American Bald Eagle.
Did you know?
The bald eagle is one of America's largest birds of prey and has keen vision,
spotting objects a mile away.
The birds mate for life and usually return to the same nest every year.
Their nests, some of the world's largest, are often cone-shaped.
In the spring, the female will lay one to three eggs.
Then she and her male take turns warming the eggs and guarding the nest.
Did you know?
The bald eagle is one of America's largest birds of prey and has keen vision,
spotting objects a mile away.
Carolyn, can you tell us a little bit about birds of prey?
Yes. So birds of prey refers to a specific type of bird that's found all over
the world.
But in the United States, we have eagles, hawks and falcons are all different
kinds of birds of prey.
All right.
Actually, this reminds me of a story of bird of prey is a bird that will eat
meat for sure and it usually finds smaller creatures,
or maybe creatures even the same size and they... they hunt them and kill them.
And once... actually, my parents had a cat, and they were watching this cat
outside.
And they noticed the cat was looking up on top of the fence.
The cat saw a hawk, and the hawk also saw the cat.
And so my parents really, they rushed outside, and they went and grabbed the cat
because they knew that the hawk would go and try to get that cat.
So that hawk was a bird of prey.
The cat was saved from the bird of prey.
What's another bird of prey?
You guys uh...
I think owls, right?
Owls are also birds of prey because they hunt, but they hunt at night and
usually eat mice.
All right. OK.
There are many different kinds of birds of prey.
Um, what else is unique about the eagle, Nathanael?
What do we find out here?
Well, eagles also have keen vision.
That's what we see there in the article.
Now what does that mean, keen vision?
Well, "keen" is much like sensitive or also exact.
But this other word "vision" is a key word for today.
Let's look at that word: vision.
It simply means the ability to see or your ability to see.
So keen vision is very sharp, very exact and sensitive vision, which allows an
eagle to spot or see things, even very small things, from a mile away.
All right.
So an eagle has keen vision, very sharp vision, much better than we do,
actually, I think.
They can spot things for a mile way.
I don't know of anybody else who can spot maybe a mouse a mile away.
Um, but the opposite of maybe keen vision is blurred vision, B-L-U-R-R-E-D, or
blurry, B-L-U-R-R-Y, blurry vision.
And if you have blurry vision, you probably need contacts or you wear glasses.
Your vision is a little bit blurred without glasses or contacts.
So you can have keen vision, really sharp vision, or blurry vision.
And a question you might ask a friend is: How is your vision?
Or if you're wearing glasses, what... what is your vision like?
There's usually a degree.
How is your vision?
So an eagle will have keen vision spotting objects a mile away.
And we find out that these birds mate for life and usually return to the same
nest every year.
Carolyn what does it mean to mate for life?
Well, if you mate for life, that means that the eagles pair up for the rest of
their lives.
So one male eagle and one female eagle form a family, and they are together for
the rest of their lives.
And many other animals mate for life.
Of course, humans also should find a mate - a husband or wife, but we don't say
the phrase "mate for life." We just call that being faithful.
Animals mate for life, or some animals mate for life.
Humans should be faithful to their spouses.
Now the birds usually mate for life and return to the same nest every year.
And we find out more about their nests.
Their nests, some of the world's largest, are often cone-shaped.
Cone-shaped.
Um, Carolyn, what do you think of when you think about this key word "cone"?
Well, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word "cone" is ice
cream cone because when you get some ice cream and it's not in a cup,
you have it on a cone, and you can eat it with your hands.
Hmm, ice cream cone.
Is there everything else that is cone-shaped?
You know, sometimes when they're working on the street, they'll put up cones to
warn you that they're working in this area.
That's right.
And those are called traffic cones.
They're usually orange or kind of red.
Traffic cones, ice cream cones.
What else has a cone shape?
Think about that.
Talk about it in English.
Let's continue on.
In the spring, the female will lay one to three eggs.
Then she and her male take turns warming the eggs and guarding the nest.
So they warm the eggs, and then they guard the nest.
What does that mean to guard something, Carolyn?
Well, if you guard something, then you want to protect it and make sure that
nothing bad happens.
So usually I think of a soldier standing guard to make sure no one attacks.
Well, Nathanael, is there anything else that we might guard?
Sometimes we would say that we need to guard our hearts to make sure that bad
things don't get inside of us.
All right. That's good advice, actually.
Guard your hearts.
Make sure you're being careful about what you think about and where you go.
Guard your heart just like an eagle guards its nest.
Hmm.
Well, right now it's time for us to learn something new with Steve and Ken in
the Info Cloud.
Here we go.
Hello, guys.
Hey.
Hi.
OK. We're going to quickly look at some bald eagle fun facts.
The bald eagle is, in fact, not bald.
It actually has short, white feathers on its head.
Incidentally, bald eagles have feathers on their legs too to protect them while
they hunt.
Speaking of hunting, it's not uncommon for adult eagles to swoop down and use
their talents to catch animals that weigh as much as the birds themselves,
and then carry them back to their nest for a family feast.
A 6-kilogram eagle flying away with a 6-kilogram fish, that's amazing!
Ken, that would be like me catching a 90-kilogram pig and then carrying it home
with my feet.
I know. That would be a great day for you, Steve.
You know, bald eagles aren't just master hunters, they're master builders too.
That's right.
Eagle couples have been known to spend years working on the same nest,
continuously adding twigs, moss, grass, feathers and branches.
Sometimes the nest becomes so heavy the tree branches break and the nest comes
crashing down, forcing the pair to start building all over again.
So they persevere.
That's another positive trait.
Little wonder the bald eagle is an American symbol.
(Chinese).
Thanks, guys.
Those were some fun eagle facts.
Well, right now it's time for us to join Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hello, Michelle.
Hi, Michelle.