节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-06-26
难易度:High
关键字:devastation, catastrophe, toxic, operational, oil spill, unmanned
Hi, everyone.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
So happy you've joined us today.
My name is Steve.
You probably remember back in 2010, there was a massive oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico.
For weeks on and a broken underwater oil well gushed millions of barrels of
crude oil up from the ocean floor.
Well, the enormous damage the oil cost along with the costs and dangers of
cleaning it up started many people to think:
Can we do it in a safer, cheaper, more reliable way?
Well, one engineer had an answer.
So let's open up our magazines to page 48 and read about it in Protei: An Answer
to Oil Spills.
(Music).
Protei: An Answer to Oil Spills.
This developing technology promises a safer, more reliable way to clean up oil.
In April 2010, a massive oil spill caused environmental devastation in the Gulf
of Mexico.
The spill poured out enough oil to fill 4.9 million barrels, causing tremendous
damage to the local wildlife.
Cesar Harada, an engineer doing research at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT),
was horrified by this catastrophe and by the problems with current methods for
cleaning up oil.
Those methods endangered the health of workers and could only remove about 3
percent of the oil from the water.
(Music).
Hello, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us here in the studio.
My name is Kaylah.
And my name is Ryan.
And we are now here with our TECHNOLOGY article.
And we're looking at a little bit of a mixture between technology and saving the
environment.
We've done this before with our Biofuel article.
That's right.
We've talked about some technology that can help save the environment.
And today is just like that.
Today we're talking about Protei.
It's an answer to oil spills.
All right.
Now first of all, "oil spills" are referring to when ships that are carrying oil
crash and spill the oil into the ocean.
And that's why it's called an oil spill.
Or when there is digging or mining for oil on a floating rig that can break.
Sometimes those break down and the oil spills out into the ocean.
So both of them, Ryan - a ship would be carrying a lot of oil,
and a drill would, of course, be having oil coming out of the earth.
So it's a lot of oil.
It's not just a small amount.
Right, right. It's not small.
And in fact, the oil drill problem did happen in America just a couple of years
ago.
So we know a lot about that.
And we know that it can cause a lot of problems, and we need to find a way to
clean up all of that oil.
That is what we're going to talk about today.
That's right.
And oil spill can cause all kinds of problems for the environment,
not just affecting the water but affecting all of the wildlife around that,
and both in the water and the animals that rely on that water area.
So it's very important that we develop technology.
And this developing technology has a promise for a safer and more reliable way
to clean up oil.
OK. So let's get started.
In April 2010, a massive oil spill caused environmental devastation in the Gulf
of Mexico.
And that's what we were talking about earlier; and it did cause a lot of
devastation.
And "devastation" is damage and destruction.
So it's not just... it's not just broken; it's ruined for a very long time if
not forever.
And that's definitely what happened in the Gulf of Mexico.
When this spill happened, it was awful.
Lots of wildlife died.
But it also causes a lot of fire problems because there's oil, it does catch on
fire.
So it's very dangerous.
Right, it's very dangerous.
And this particular spill poured out enough oil to fill almost five million
barrels.
And a barrel is pretty large, which... that caused tremendous damage to the
local wildlife.
That's right.
Now the barrel is how we do collect oil and we... we use it after that.
So they are large... large, large, large amounts of... of oil.
So you can imagine the effect this would have had.
Yeah. And that can cause a lot of damage to the local wildlife.
And it did during that oil spill.
Now let's take a closer look at that sentence with Liz in Grammar on the Go.
Hello, friends.
Welcome to Grammar on the Go.
My name is Liz.
Oil is such a precious commodity.
And whenever there is an oil spill, it really is a terrible thing.
Not only does it cost a lot of money to clean it up, but it's also a threat to
the immediate environment.
We read about a particular oil spill in today's article.
According to the writer:
The spill poured out enough oil to fill 4.9 million barrels...
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Today we're looking at the sentence pattern: To [do] enough [something] to have
a certain result.
In the case of today's sentence, we can see two parts.
Part 1: The oil spill poured out a lot of oil.
How much oil?
Part 2: There was enough oil to fill 4.9 million barrels.
Put these two parts together and you get:
The spill poured out enough oil to fill 4.9 million barrels.
So whenever you want to talk about how you have an object and there is enough to
do something with it,
then you can give this sentence pattern a try.
For example, let's say you've bought a lot of food for a huge party, and someone
asks you if you have enough food or not,
you can say in a joking way:
Don't worry. I bought enough food to feed the entire neighborhood.
Or let's suppose Donna always travels with a giant suitcase because she likes to
bring a lot of clothes. We can say:
Donna wants to make sure she has enough clothes to last her for the entire trip.
If you'd like to see some more example sentences, then check out today's Grammar
Tip section in your magazine.
That's it for today.
This is Liz with Grammar on the Go signing off.
Bye-bye.
Thank you, Liz.
Well, we know that an oil spill can cause lots of problems for wildlife.
So research needs to be done to learn how to clean up these oil spills so we can
return nature back to the way it was.
Exactly. And so these spills, we saw, in this most recent one in the Gulf of
Mexico,
it caused tremendous damage to nature, which means a lot of damage to nature.
And Cesar Harada, who is an engineer doing research at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, he was horrified by this catastrophe.
That's right.
Now he is working at MIT, which is a well-known university and research facility
for technology.
And he's there, realizes, sees the effect it's had and is just horrified by the
catastrophe.
And "horrified" means he's just completely disgusted with the way things have
gone.
Yeah. Many people were horrified by this event.
They felt sad.
They felt angry.
And this was a "catatrophe," which is an event that happens suddenly and can
cause a lot of damage.
That's right.
The key to a catastrophe is it happens very quickly, you can't expect it.
Well, he was horrified by it and by the problems with current methods for
cleaning up the oil.
Those methods endangered the health of the workers and could only remove about 3
percent of the oil from the water.
OK. So workers were in danger.
That means they were put in a state of danger; they were not safe.
And like we saw here, only three percent of the oil was cleaned.
It is now cleaned in the Gulf of Mexico.
At least I think almost 100 percent is clean, but it took a very long time to do
it.
Well, he was horrified by this.
And since he is an engineer who does research decided to look into it.
And we're going to look at what he found after we visit the Chat Room.
Hey, Bryan, I was wondering if I brought my 10-year-old niece into the library,
do you think you could show her how to find some books?
I sure could.
What kind of books does she need?
She's writing a research paper for school about giant pandas.
Hmm, I'm sure we have some books on pandas.
I'd have to look up where they are, though.
Did she pick the topic herself?
Yes. Her teacher told the students to pick one in danger species to write about.
I'd be glad to help.
But I think you mean "endangered" species, not "in danger" species.
But they're species that are in danger, right?
You could say that.
But the term actually comes from the verb, endanger.
To endanger something means to put it at risk.
Oh. So how is that verb spelled?
E-N-D-A-N-G-E-R.
So when something is put at risk, it is endangered.
Oh. So the term means that these species have been put in a dangerous position.
Right. Experts think it's possible that they will go extinct.
And what does "extinct" mean?
It means that all the members of a given species have died out.
So for example, dinosaurs are extinct.
They died out millions of years ago.
So could you say that endangered species are in danger of going extinct?
Yes, but you can't say they are endangered of going extinct.
You can use "of" with in danger when it's two words but not with the verb
endanger.
Got it.
Thanks for the explanation.
And thanks for agreeing to help my niece with her project.
You're welcome, Ken.
That's what I'm here for.