节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-12-26
难易度:Medium
关键字:numb, virgin, the Divine, dazzle, mute, descend, the Magi
Hi, everybody.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
My name is Steve.
Thanks for joining us today.
These past two days we've been talking about gift giving, always an appropriate
topic during the Christmas season.
Well, it was over 2,000 years ago that God himself set the gift giving precedent
by sending down from heaven the person of Jesus Christ.
Now as our author said yesterday, for us to truly appreciate a gift, we need to
experience the need it was meant to fill.
That would mean, then, that to truly appreciate Christmas, we need to understand
our need for Jesus.
Let's talk about some of the needs Jesus meets in today's reading "When the Gift
Meets the Need" on page 44.
When the Gift Meets the Need.
It's not like we don't know we have needs.
We know them all right - patience, love, self-control, strength, courage,
faithfulness, forgiveness - it's just that we have become experts at numbing
ourselves to our needs.
We mute them by shopping, eating and never-ending activities.
The true gift of the season is a perfect fit for our every need.
The lasting gift of Christmas is that God took on flesh and bones and was born
of a virgin in a stable amid sheep and cattle and straw.
Hello, friends.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
My name is Kaylah.
My name is Ryan.
And of course, many of you are probably enjoying your new gifts today.
Ooh, how exciting!
Did your gift meet a need?
Mmm. Well, that is what this article has been talking about for the last couple
days.
We saw a story that the author was telling about what her children received for
Christmas one year.
That's right.
Her parents gave them a brown paper bag with food in it, but the kids did not
actually appreciate it.
They had no context for the story.
But I think she's using it as an example, Ryan, for a gift maybe we don't have
context for, we don't appreciate.
Yes. And that gift is talking about the true gift of Christmas - the birth of
Jesus Christ.
So since we don't understand the need that this is filling, we don't appreciate
it.
We put it in the back of this fridge, and we just have no context for it.
Ryan, does that mean then that since we don't know the need it's filling, does
that mean we just don't have any needs?
Oh, well, that's not true at all.
In fact, the author agrees.
She says: It's not like we don't know that we have needs.
We do know we have needs.
That's right.
She's saying we have needs, and we know that we have them.
But you know, do we know what they all are or how to fill them?
Well, she says: We know them all right.
Now here she put in the phrase "all right," which kind of means "definitely." We
definitely know them.
That's right.
It's more casual to say "You know this all right." It's emphasizing that you
might want to not know it or might want to ignore it,
but you cannot deny the fact that our needs come down to basics like patience.
Mmhm. Yes. We definitely know these needs well like patience, which means you
are willing to wait,
love, which means you truly care about other people, and self-control.
As well as strength, courage, faithfulness forgiveness; these are all things we
need.
Ryan, you've broken most of these apart for us.
But there's a couple more:
Self-control does... means you are not always wanting and going and getting.
You are controlling your desires and your needs.
Exactly. You are making sure that you are under control.
Now a strength doesn't mean how much muscle you have.
It's strength of will, strength of your mind.
And courage is your ability to get out and do something that maybe you're a
little afraid of but to stand up for what is true, as well as faithfulness.
Which means you are willing to commit, willing to promise to continue serving
other people.
And of course, forgiveness, which is hard for everyone to give, but it's so
important.
Forgiveness means when someone has done wrong to you, you can move past it.
And even if it hurts, you're willing to move on and not get angry or bitter
towards them.
Yes. Now we as people all know that these are very important needs.
It's just that we have become experts at numbing ourselves to our needs.
OK. Well, that's really sad.
If you "numb" yourself to something, that means you can't feel it anymore.
Usually you think of this as being cold.
If something is extremely cold, you can't feel it.
But this is numbing us, numbing our emotions, meaning we don't have these
emotions anymore.
We don't let ourselves need these things, which means we don't appreciate the
gift of Christmas.
Well, how does this actually happen, Kaylah?
How can we lose the emotions for these needs?
Well, we mute them out by shopping, eating and never-ending activities.
Think, friends.
How many activities did you have this Christmas?
How much shopping did you do?
And you can mute them out by this.
Now to "mute" something means to turn the noise off to create silence.
And in this... in this context, it's referring to we have this need.
When you have a need, you can tell it.
But instead of listening to the need, you turn it off.
You don't listen to it.
You make it silent.
OK. So through all of these activities and all the food that we eat, we are
turning off our emotions to those needs.
We're forgetting about them.
And then the true gift of the season...
You know, it really is a perfect fit for our every need.
But since we don't recognize our needs, we don't take this gift.
Exactly. Now we already know what the true gift of Christmas is.
And it is the perfect fit for our needs.
That's right.
Now a perfect fit means it takes care of it just exact the way you need it to.
It's exactly what you need.
Exactly.
The lasting gift of Christmas is that God took on flesh and bones and was born
of a virgin in a stable amid sheep and cattle and straw.
Now this is, of course, the Christmas story.
Now to take on flesh and bones means that God went from being supernatural to
being a human.
And a human is made of flesh, which is your skin and meat, and bones.
And He became human by the birth of a virgin.
Exactly.
Now a "virgin" is someone who has never had sex.
And so you think, well, that would be difficult for someone to have a baby as a
virgin.
That's right.
It's impossible to have a baby if you've never had sex.
But this is the story of Christmas.
And of course, this is the gift of God.
And so God can do anything.
Exactly. And so the flesh and bones was Jesus.
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary amid sheep and cattle and straw.
And that's right.
It was in a stable, which is kind of like a barn.
And to be amid something means in the middle of or surrounded by sheep, cattle
and straw.
OK. Cattle, of course, is cows.
And straw is the food that they eat.
Now we're going to talk more about this true gift of Christmas and the birth of
Jesus after we visit the Chat Room.
Hi, Ken.
Hey, thanks for the shirt you gave me for Christmas.
As you can see, I'm wearing it today.
You're welcome.
I'm glad it fits.
I wasn't sure what size to get you.
Well, as you can see, it fits well.
It's also a good fit because I had been thinking I needed more shirts this
color.
Oh, I'm glad you like it, Bryan.
Hey, did you use "fit" as both a verb and a noun just now?
Yes, I did.
And by the way, "fit" can also be an adjective.
For example, I could say that the water in a certain area is fit to drink.
And I think that right now is a fit time to give you an English lesson.
I think so too.
So could I say that "That is a fit shirt for you"?
No. We couldn't say that.
When we use "fit" as an adjective, we usually mean that something is suitable
for a certain purpose.
We don't use "fit" as an adjective to talk about size.
Oh. So does the noun form of "fit" talk about size?
Sometimes.
You might say that a piece of clothing has a loose fit or a comfortable fit.
Or the noun "fit" can refer to the way that two things fit together.
So I could say something like: Bill's job is a good fit for him.
I noticed that the noun "fit" usually has an adjective before it.
Is that right?
Yes, that is true most of the time.
Well, I'm glad to see the shirt fits.
Oh. Yes, it does.
Thanks again.