节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-04-02
难易度:Low
关键字:urban, tulip, bloom, site
Hello, friends.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
Thanks for joining us.
My name is Steve.
Well, Washington State in the Northwestern United States has a lot more to it
than just fish markets and world-famous coffee.
For the next three days, let's go just a little north of Seattle to a place
called Skagit Valley.
Skagit is one of those rare places that have both mountains and ocean - making
it an ideal getaway destination.
Now let's open our magazines to page 12 and learn more about what to do and see
at Washington State's beautiful Skagit Valley.
(Music).
Washington State's Skagit Valley.
This spring, valley visitors get a taste of simple country living and more.
North of Seattle lies Skagit Valley, Washington, a peaceful escape from urban
life.
Mountains, farmland and the sea make this area a quiet, scenic vacation spot.
Although the valley has lots to offer, one experience in particular is most
famous.
Experiencing the Tulip Festival.
It's April and that means one thing for Skagit Valley: the Tulip Festival!
Tourists come from around the world to watch this beautiful valley burst into
color.
During this month, millions of tulips bloom.
(Music).
Hello, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us here in the studio.
My name is Kaylah.
And today we have a special guest teacher, Brandon.
Brandon, thank you so much for being here with us this month.
Well, I'm very happy to be here today, Kaylah.
Oh, thank you very much.
Well, we're starting off this month with my favorite article of the month, which
we all know is the TRAVEL article.
That's right. And we're talking about Washington State's Skagit Valley.
Now Kaylah, we have Washington State.
We don't usually have the word "state" after one of the states in the U.S.
But we say "Washington State" so you are clear which Washington we are talking
about because people also know Washington D.C.
But we're actually talking about Washington State in the northwest corner of the
U.S.
That's right.
That's a good point to make.
This is the state, not the city area where the capital is.
Well, this spring, the visitors to this valley - the Skagit Valley - will get a
taste of simple country living and more.
So there... we're talking about vacationing to this area in Washington.
That's right. And they will get "a taste of," meaning they will experience this
place in Washington State.
Well, where is this Skagit Valley?
Well, it is north of Seattle.
So we know Seattle is on the coast... on the northern coast of this state, so
it's really close to Canada would be where this valley is.
That's right.
And again, it's Skagit Valley, Washington.
It's a peaceful escape from urban life.
Now if we say something is a peaceful escape, Kaylah, that means we're getting
away from something, but it's in a very good way.
We live in big cities.
If you live in an urban area... area, it's a large city.
And sometimes we want to get away from that and go to a quiet place.
And that's a good point.
This quiet place is escape from urban life.
Now when we say something is "urban," that means it has to do with the city.
So if you live in an urban area, you live in a very city-like area.
Or if you dress very urban, you wear very city-style clothing.
So this is an escape from all the life around the city.
But what is actually there in Skagit Valley?
Well, we learn that there are mountains, there's farmland and the sea.
All of this makes it a very quiet area.
And it's also a scenic spot.
It's lots of nature, lots of trees.
It sounds like a wonderful place to visit, Kaylah.
Absolutely. Brandon, you see there's mountains, farmland, sea.
It's like they have everything.
Everything non-urban is in this area, so I imagine it would be very beautiful.
Wow. I want to go there right now.
Maybe we should go after the show or sometime later next week.
Maybe we could take a trip. What do you think?
Oh. That sounds exciting.
Well, we see that it is a vacation spot.
Of course, if you want to go there for vacation, you can check it out and enjoy
the nature.
Although the valley has lots to offer, there's one experience in particular that
is most famous.
That's right. We say "in particular," that means we're specifically talking
about one experience that is going to be the most famous, the most popular.
And that is the Tulip Festival.
That's right, the Tulip Festival.
Now a "tulip," of course, is a flower.
It's a brightly colored flower.
And it kind of looks like a cup at the top, very beautiful.
So you can go there and look at those flowers.
And it is April, Kaylah!
And that means it's springtime, so many flowers will be there.
That's right.
Well, the Tulip Festival happens this month in Skagit Valley.
And if you'd like to see pictures of fields of tulips,
look on page 12 in your Studio Classroom magazine to get a better picture of the
color and the beautiful flowers in the valley.
And tourists, they come from around the world to watch this beautiful valley
burst into colors.
So Kaylah, people are coming from all around the world to see these beautiful
flowers.
And they burst into color.
Now I like that word, "burst." That means... you can think of a burst as kind of
an explosion, and we're talking about color.
So all of a sudden, there's color everywhere.
And as you can imagine when flowers start opening up in the spring that the
colors are going to be very beautiful.
So it's all these colors happening at one time.
Kaylah, you just said these flowers open up in the spring.
We have a word here for that.
And that means that the flowers "bloom." We see during this month, millions of
tulips bloom.
So there are lots and lots of flowers.
We see the word "millions" here.
You can take a long time, take a stroll or walk and see the beautiful flowers
right after they bloom.
Yes, that's right.
And "bloom" is when a flower or even a tree opens up.
After winter, when all the leaves fall off, it gets cold, so blooming is what we
get to see in the springtime.
Well, Skagit Valley is definitely the place to see these tulips bloom into
beautiful colors.
Now Brandon, I never would have thought of Washington State as a place to see
very many tulips.
There's other famous tulip places around the world.
That's true.
I learned that as well in this article, Kaylah.
I had no idea that you could go to this place in Washington State to see the
beautiful flowers.
But not only the flowers are there, what I like most so far is that it's a quiet
place.
There are mountains around, and you can just take a rest and kind of be relaxed
in a beautiful place.
I'm loving the pictures in our magazine this time.
All the colors, the... the bright blue sky, the bright greens and all the colors
that these flowers bring to the valley.
And we keep talking about a valley.
Maybe we should emphasize a valley is a certain kind of area of land.
That's right.
Well, if you have two mountain peaks, and between those areas, and between those
two peaks is the valley.
That's the lower areas there between the two peaks.
So this is definitely a valley surrounded by both mountains and ocean,
an escape from the busy life of the city of the urban area of most likely
Seattle since we're just north of it.
Well, there's a lot we're going to talk about for this valley.
That's true, and we have much more to talk about.
But right now it's time for us to visit Ken in the Chat Room.
Hey, Bryan, what's going on?
There's a bunch of police cars outside, and the library is a mess.
You just missed all the excitement, Ken.
Some guy burst into the library yelling about something.
And I asked him to leave but he wouldn't.
He started throwing things around.
Oh, no.
Did somebody call the police?
Yeah, somebody did.
The police came and they arrested him a few minutes ago.
Wow. I can't believe somebody would do that.
But Bryan, what did you mean when you said he burst into the library?
I thought "burst" meant to break apart.
Well, it usually does.
But when we talk about someone "bursting into" a place, it means they entered it
suddenly and with a lot of force.
Oh. Well, that makes sense now.
Most people who visit the library are really nice, but some of them do crazy
things.
They sure do.
Do you remember that woman last year who stood on the table and burst into song?
Yes, I do. She was a terrible singer.
Hey, you just used "burst" in another way.
Yes, "to burst into song" is to suddenly start singing.
Are there other ways to use the word "burst"?
Well, you can say that something burst into flames.
Let me guess.
Does that mean that it suddenly started burning?
Right. Good job, Ken.
Most of the phrases using "burst into" talk about things that happen quickly and
without warning.
Well, that helps a lot.
Thanks.
Now I'd better get back to work cleaning this place up.
OK. I'll help you in a minute.
OK.