节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-12-04
难易度:Low
关键字:luxurious, companion, amazing, journey, Academy Award, special effect
Hi, everybody.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
Thanks for joining us today.
My name is Steve.
Well, let's go to the movies.
Today we jump back into our sampling of nine films which we handpicked ourselves
that will hit theaters this holiday season.
Yesterday we previewed movies based on classic novels from Russia and France.
Today we'll continue this theme with a movie based on a famous American novel,
a novel which was, not too long ago, named the second best English-language
novel of the 20th century.
It's F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
So now let's open our magazines and read all about it on the left-side of page
15.
(Music).
Holiday Movies.
Leonardo Di Caprio stars in The Great Gatsby, the latest film based on the
classic novel.
Nick Carraway, played by Tobey Maguire, moves to New York's Long Island.
There he meets Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio).
For a while, Gatsby's luxurious lifestyle appeals to him.
But problems soon begin to show up.
The latest film by Academy Award winning director Ang Lee is also based on a
book.
Life of Pi follows Pi Patel as he travels from a zoo in India across the
Pacific.
(Music).
Hi, friends.
Thank you for joining us.
My name is Ryan.
And my name is Kaylah.
And we are in day two of our movies article.
That's right.
Now yesterday we showed you a couple films that were based on classic novels.
They're very beautiful.
That's right.
Now that is Anna Karenina, which is a classical Russian story, and Les Mis,
which is a classic French story.
So these are really impressive books.
And we're kind of sticking to this theme of classic novels today, but we're
moving to the United States and into India for our stories.
All right.
So we've got two more films we're going to talk about right now that are also
based on books.
The first one stars Leonardo DiCaprio; and it's called The Great Gatsby.
Now The Great Gatsby is a very famous novel from the United States.
It tells a very interesting story.
But really, Ryan, the reason I'll see this is because Leonardo DiCaprio is
probably my favorite actor.
I love him.
Yes, you've told me that many, many times.
I know you think he's very handsome and he's very talented.
And so, well, you can enjoy this movie which we've talked about being based on
classic novels,
but we never talked about what the word "based" actually means.
That's right.
It's based on something means it... comes from that.
That's where the basic part of the story or the important pieces of it come
from.
And so it's the story, the basic story comes from this novel.
Now we know in movies, quite often they change the story a little bit to make it
fit into the movie length and to make it interesting for us to watch.
OK. So let's take a look now at what the story actually is in The Great Gatsby -
the movie.
Well, it's a story of Nick Carraway.
Now he's played by Tobey Maguire whom you might recognize from the older Spider
Man movies.
Exactly.
Now in this story, he moves to New York's Long Island.
Now we know New York City is made up of different islands and mainland because
of the rivers and the ocean and the harbor around it.
So Long Island is a very famous place and holds a lot of history in it.
And that's where our story takes place.
All right.
Now the story here is in an older Yew York.
It happened many, many years ago.
That's right.
Well, he moves to New York's Long Island, and there he meets Jay Gatsby, who is,
of course, played by DiCaprio.
All right.
So Leonardo DiCaprio plays the main character Jay Gatsby.
And you see that his name is Gatsby, which is the title of the book.
Well, for a while, Gatsby's luxurious lifestyle appeals to him; and "him" is
referring to Carraway who moves to Long Island.
OK. Now it also appeals to Gatsby himself.
And if something appeals to someone, that means they greatly enjoy it.
And it makes sense that you would enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.
That's right.
The word "luxurious" is like the word "luxury" we studied earlier this year,
meaning very comfortable and usually very expensive.
OK. Now eventually, problems begin to show up.
When we say they begin to show up, it means they start happening and we see
these issues, these problems starting.
OK. So in this story, we see people who have a very wonderful and comfortable
life, and eventually things start to go bad.
Now I think this movie looks beautiful.
It is. It's going to be a very beautiful and yet again, another epic story.
Well, our next story, we're changing continents.
We're going to be watching a film by the Academy Award winning director Ang Lee.
And it's also based on a book.
OK. Now we know this movie is probably going to be pretty good because it's
directed by Ang Lee, who won an Academy Award.
Now an "Academy Award" is the highest award in the American film industry for
recognizing talent.
So you might recognize the term as the "Oscars." You win an Oscar, the Academy
Award, before being the best.
OK. Now we know an award is a prize you win for doing something great.
What about the word "academy"?
What does that word mean?
The "academy" refers to, in this situation, the group of people involved in
Hollywood, a group of people doing the same career or schoolwork.
OK. So let's take a look now at what actually happens in this movie.
OK. Well, it's based on a book; and the book is called The Life of Pi.
Now it follows Pi Patel as he travels from a zoo in India across the Pacific
Ocean.
OK. So we're going to watch actually some of his life as he's moving from a zoo.
And the zoo part is actually pretty important in the story.
That's right.
Now Pi is an interesting name.
And The Life of Pi is, of course, following him then.
So the zoo is going to be a very important part, but really it's a story of him
traveling.
And "to travel" means you go from one place to another usually on a very long
trip.
That's right.
So he's traveling across the... across the Pacific Ocean.
It's a huge ocean, and that is where the action takes place.
And we'll explain more of what happens after we visit the Chat Room.
Hey, Ken.
What do you think of this picture?
It's a nice picture.
What are you planning to do with it?
I think I'll hang it up somewhere.
You know, there are too many blank walls here in the library.
Hey, Bryan, I was just reading a movie review.
And it uses the word "picture" to refer to the movie.
Now that's obviously not the same kind of picture as the one you're hanging up.
No.
When we use "picture" to refer to a movie, we're using a shortened form of
motion picture.
Motion picture?
That's right.
A movie is basically individual images captured and stored on a single reel.
Because the reel is moving when the movie is being played, movies in the early
days were referred to as motion pictures.
Oh, I see.
Are there other terms we can use to refer to movies?
Why don't we go to Doris for an answer.
OK.
We often use the term "big screen" when talking about movies.
For example, if you hear someone say, "What's playing on the big screen?"
they're asking what movies are playing at the movie theater.
Or if they ask, "Who is your favorite big-screen star?" they're asking who your
favorite movie star is.
OK.
What about a small screen?
Is there such a thing?
Sure.
That would be a television.
OK. That makes sense.
So do you need help hanging up that picture?
No. Thanks, Ken.
I got it.