节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-12-24
难易度:Medium
关键字:recall, sparkle, discriminating, mound, the Depression, palate
Hi, everybody.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
My name is Steve.
Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to study English with us.
We appreciate it.
Well, you used to see it mostly in the Western world, but now it's pretty common
in the East too.
It used to start in the first or second week of December, but now it happens as
early as October.
What am I talking about?
I'm talking about Christmas.
Now friends, you do know that ringing bells, evergreen trees,
talking snowman and flying reindeer have nothing to do with the real meaning of
Christmas, right?
Oh! You don't know that yet?
Well, then let's find out what this Christmas holiday is really about as we open
our magazines to page 42 and begin reading When the Gift Meets the Need.
When the Gift Meets the Need.
The joy of Christmas.
My parents grew up during the Depression attending small country churches.
At the close of Christmas Eve services, children were called down front.
Each one was given a brown paper sack containing an apple, an orange, nuts still
in their shells and several chocolates.
Years later, whenever Dad recalled that tradition, his eyes sparkled reliving
the memory.
My mother not so much.
She always said she suspected the chocolates had been pre-sucked; they tasted
cheap and old.
You can't blame the woman.
Hello, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us here in the studio.
My name is Kaylah.
My name is Ryan.
Friends, merry Christmas Eve.
It is the day before Christmas.
And it's time to start thinking about When the Gift Meets the Need.
That's right.
Now hopefully, your Christmas shopping is done by now.
But did you really think about getting a gift that meets the need?
Now when someone meets the need, that means it fulfills or solves whatever the
need would be.
That's right.
It does what it is supposed to do.
So we're looking not only at gifts, but specifically at the joy of Christmas.
That's right.
Today our author is going to talk about giving gifts and how to give gifts that
have meaning, that have importance.
She starts off with telling us a bit about her family.
That's right.
Most of this article is written as a story; and the author's name here is Lori.
She says: My parents grew up during the Depression attending small country
churches.
Now "the Depression," you see "Depression" is capitalized.
This is a proper noun referring to a time in American... actually, in world
history,
during the 1930s when there were serious economic problems in the United States
and in Europe.
And especially in the United States, people were extremely poor.
And they even... they were in a country, so Ryan, it would've been even worse
for them.
Exactly.
They're in the country.
That means they're outside of large cities.
And this was a time in people's history where it was difficult to get jobs and
make money.
That's right.
So a lot of families didn't have very much money.
It was a time of extreme poverty.
People were very poor.
Now, they went to church, though.
So churches worked as a community, especially during these hard times.
Exactly.
She says at the close of the Christmas Eve services, that means at the end of
the Christmas Eve services, children were called down front.
Now at church, we do a Christmas Eve service to celebrate Christmas the next
day.
It's time to gather... to come together as a church and a community.
Now they would have the children come down to the front, which means they were
called out of their seats to the front of the church.
Right, to go to the front of the church.
Even though we say "down front," that means they walk down the aisles or down
the middle to the front.
Now each one, each child, was given a brown paper sack containing an apple, an
orange, nuts still in their shells and several chocolates.
OK. So they got gifts here including usually food; and what does it mean if a
nut is still in its shell?
That means that it's still covered with the hardcovering.
You can't just put it in your mouth and eat it.
You need to open it up before you eat it.
All right.
Now she says: Years later, whenever Dad recalled that tradition, his eyes
sparkled reliving the memory.
OK, when Dad recalled this.
Now to "recall" something means to bring the memory of a past event into your
mind and to think about it, to be thinking about a specific event.
So you recall the memory.
He's thinking about times, this time in his life.
That's right.
And in this case, he is also telling them a story again.
And you can see that he is remembering it, and his eyes sparkle.
Now to "sparkle" means to shine brightly with a lot of small points of light.
Or when we're talking about your eyes, it means they're very energetic, very
interested or exciting.
So his eyes would sparkle; you can see him remembering.
Now several days ago, we defined the word "twinkle." Sparkle is actually very
similar.
That's right.
So it's beautiful, it means his eyes are kind of lighting up.
Well, it was exciting to remember this.
But my mother not so much.
So her Dad is recalling it with sparkling eyes; but not so much her mom.
No, not so much.
Now we have more information on that phrase with Liz in Grammar on the Go.
Hi there, friends.
Welcome to Grammar on the Go.
My name is Liz.
In our CHRISTMAS article today, our writer describes how her father still thinks
very fondly of a certain church tradition.
But then the writer continues on with: "My mother not so much." That's our
Grammar Tip sentence.
It just means her mother does not feel so much fondness like the way her father
does.
Now take a look again at today's sentence.
Normally a sentence should have a subject and a verb.
Basically, it needs to say who or what is doing something.
In today's sentence, the subject, or the "who," is my mother.
But then we don't see a verb after that.
Instead, we have the phrase, "not so much." What we have here is a form of
creative writing.
The writer is writing as if she were talking.
Normally, you should watch how you form your sentences.
However, in creative writing, there is room to play around with the language.
For example, let's say Bob and Billy are opposites.
Instead of saying "Bob loves sports, but Billy hates it," you might see this
instead:
Bob loves sports; Billy no way.
Or, instead of saying "Billy enjoys art exhibits, but Bob doesn't," you might
see:
Billy enjoys art exhibits; Bob not a chance.
If you want to see more example sentences, you'll find them in today's Grammar
Tip section in your magazine.
Remember, there is room to play with the language when you do creative writing.
But if you're writing a report for school or for work, remember to follow the
grammar rules.
This is Liz with Grammar on the Go signing off.
Bye-bye.
Well, even though her mother has the same memories,
it's not as exciting for her because she always said she suspected the
chocolates had been pre-sucked.
OK. If you suspect something, that means you think something might be wrong.
She said that the chocolates might be pre-sucked.
That means someone had already tasted them before.
Eww! That's disgusting.
And I can understand.
That is definitely suspect.
You don't want anyone eating your candy first.
She said they tasted cheap and old.
That's right.
They might not be already, well, nice chocolates because they taste very cheap
like they're not expensive enough.
That's right, that they're not very good quality chocolates.
And I would suspect that as well.
She's not thinking this is a good thing.
She says... but our author doesn't really blame her.
She says: You can't blame the woman.
OK. Now if you say you can't blame someone, that means...
Well, the word "blame" means that you think something is wrong with someone.
So "it is not her fault" would be another way of saying it.
You can not put the blame or the fault on her because probably other people
think so as well.
Well, what can't we blame her for?
We'll find out after the skit.
I love church!
Me too, especially on Christmas Eve.
Yeah! Look, we each got a brown paper sack.
I can't wait.
Let's look inside and see what we got.
Yeah.
Wow! Look at this.
I got an apple.
Hooray! I got an apple, too.
There's an orange in my bag.
Wow! There's an orange in my bag, too.
Let's see if there's anything else.
Ooh! There are some nuts with the shells on.
Nuts! And they're still in their shells. Wow!
Oh, look, some chocolates!
I love chocolates.
They look pre-sucked.
Yeah. They smell... cheap and old.
Oh, well. Chocolates.
Cheap or not, these paper sacks with goodies are a Christmas event.
Yeah.
Gifts during this Depression are so rare.
Yeah, especially in large farm families like ours.
Yeah. Oh, oh, let's go tell our brothers and sisters.
Maybe they can get bags, too.
Yeah. Johnny loves apples; and Mary loves oranges.
And Susie loves nuts.
And Peter loves chocolates.
Yeah. And Bobby loves brown bags.