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
OK. I hope you had a great break.
Welcome back.
Now when is the best time to vacation in Washington's Skagit Valley?
Well, the best time is right now in the springtime.
That's because right now is when Skagit Valley's world-famous tourist attraction
is happening.
Of course, I'm talking about the Tulip Festival.
Let's learn more about how Skagit Valley explodes with color every spring down
on line 6.
(Music).
Washington State's Skagit Valley.
Visitors have been coming for years to enjoy the colorful fields of flowers.
The festival makes this experience even more fun.
There are sites to visit and things to do all over the valley, so it's best to
see the area by car.
But for visitors who like exercise, bike tours are another popular option.
There is even the Tulip Pedal, a bike-riding event for the whole family.
This event follows 20-, 40- and 60-mile routes past the tulip fields.
(Music).
So Skagit Valley, Washington State, is a beautiful place to visit, especially in
the spring.
Now Brandon, I imagine it's a beautiful place all the time with the mountains
and the ocean.
But this time of year, this April, is a time to visit for the Tulip Festival.
That's right. So if you love flowers, well, this is your place to go.
And many people, as we've already learned, are going there.
So if you want to go there, check out... check it out.
Maybe you want to go online and find out more information about this festival.
Well, we see the visitors, they have been coming for years to enjoy the colorful
fields of flowers, Kaylah.
That's great.
That means it's a developed thing.
It's not just a first-time festival.
This is something that happens every year.
And visitors, as we said earlier, from around the world come to see this
beautiful valley as the flowers begin to bloom.
And the festival makes this experience even more fun.
We talk about an experience.
There are many experiences in our... in our lives, and some are not so good and
some are... are very good.
But in this case, the flowers kind of make this experience maybe come alive a
bit more.
If they weren't there, maybe people wouldn't visit the valley as much.
That's right.
Well, what's exciting about this is instead of just going... I don't think it
sounds like very much fun to just go and watch flowers bloom.
But now this area, this community has made an entire festival out of it, so
there are all kinds of things to do.
That's right. There are sites to visit.
So there are many different places.
A "site" is talking about a place that you can go to.
And so there's, like you said, Kaylah, not just flowers are there; there are
other things to do.
So when you're tired of looking at the flowers, you can go to another site,
another place.
That's right.
A site is a location where a building was built, is being built or will be built
as well as something important could have happened there.
So you know, "site," here you could see we... another extra word we could learn
is "sightseeing," which means you go see these places.
Which is exactly what you should do here: Visit the sites and do things all over
the valley.
So it's exciting.
That's right, so... and visit many different places.
And then we see "so it's best to see the area by car." So it's best to get in a
car and drive around.
Maybe there are long distances between one site and another site.
So in order to save time, you need to drive a car.
That's right.
Skagit Valley is not a small place to visit, so you do not want to walk
everywhere through these fields.
As beautiful as that would be, it's much more convenient to use a car.
But there are other options as well.
That's right. There's other choices here.
If you like to exercise, well, how about taking a bike tour?
Kaylah, do you like to ride bikes?
I think I enjoyed riding bikes more as a kid.
But I think in an experience like this, visiting nature, it makes more sense to
ride a bike.
I think this is a great option because yeah, you can get on your bike and take
your time, and then be outdoors, beathe in the fresh air and see the flowers.
I would like to take a bike tour through Skagit Valley myself.
Well, that's why they're a popular option.
So these tours, you can be lead through the valley.
You could follow different areas by just riding your bike.
It's definitely a popular option.
People tend to enjoy being out involved in the nature since they're already in
such a beautiful part of the world.
And they even have a bike riding event called the "Tulip Pedal." This is an
interesting name.
We have the word here "pedal." It makes us think of a flower, that colorful part
of the flower.
If you take a piece of that off, you call that a "petal." But also, it can be
used in a different way, right?
That's right.
Now this is a little confusing, so you have to use your pronunciation very well.
It is a flower "petal." And this is a bike "pedal." So there's a "t" and a "d"
difference in the sound.
But a bike pedal is the part of the bike you push with your feet to get the bike
to move forward.
So this is a fun way of playing with the words to be bike-riding near flowers.
And we see that this event is actually for the whole family.
We could say it's family-friendly.
You can go with your children and enjoy this bike ride.
It's for all different ages.
Well, this event follows a 20-, a 40- and a 60-mile route past the tulip fields.
So there are different ways you can go.
Maybe if you have small children, 60 miles is not what you want to do.
That's right.
It may be a bit much.
So maybe you would like to try the 20- or even the 40-... 40-mile route.
And you can go past the tulip fields.
So again, you're able to see the flowers as you're riding your bike.
That's right.
And this is the way you go through them, which, Brandon, I think this will be
more exciting than a car because in a car, you're more stuck on the roads.
And here you can drive through and past the tulip fields instead of just
bypassing them quickly.
That's a good point.
And I'm sure a lot of this depends on the weather.
If it's a rainy day, maybe you want to take the car.
But if it's a beautiful sunny day and it's kind of warm, then take a bike.
Well, that's a good point to make.
Washington State is famous for having a lot of rain, which explains why the
flowers do so well.
But it also means you need to be prepared to be in this part of the country.
Well, Kaylah, this is in the country as... we were talking about.
We learn in the deck it's country living. And we also learn about the word
urban.
And I just wonder, what do you think?
You live in a big city, right? We both do.
What is it like to leave a big city and go to the countryside?
What is that experience like?
Well, I enjoy visiting the country.
I grew up more in the countryside, and now I live in a big city.
So it's fun for me to visit the country.
It's also good for your health to get out and exercise and enjoy the fresh air.
So I think this festival... this Tulip Festival would be a wonderful experience.
That's a good point.
And maybe you can think about places you can visit in the countryside.
Maybe you live in a big city as well, and you can think of places you could go
and go on a bike event, or join a bike event and enjoy nature.
I encourage you to do that.
Sometimes we don't want to take the time to do that.
That's a good point.
Well, we're going to talk more about Skagit Valley tomorrow.
But now we want to watch a video.
The small corner of the world we call home, there is no better place for tulips,
tourists and tracks.
Mount Vernon, WA, in the Pacific Northwest Region of the United States of
America is nestled at the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range,
and sits at the gateway to the San Juan Islands and Puget Sound.
We sport hundreds of acres of blooming tulips each spring, which vie with
nesting bald eagles,
migrating trumpeter swans and the occasional glimpse of an orca whale pod for
the visitors' attention.
Operating a quarter of the century, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival has grown
into a premier destination event.
Each year we are proud to welcome people from around the world to share the
spectacular beauty of Skagit County.
(Music).
(Chinese).
And I guess that's all the time we have for today.
I'll see you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.
Thank you so much, Michelle.
Friends, get a second taste of simple country living in our TRAVEL feature
tomorrow.
Now before we go, let me remind you of the Talk About It questions at the top of
page 13.
Use these to review the lesson or jumpstart a short conversation in English.
We've even given you a few sentence patterns so you can formulate your answers
more quickly and easily.
OK, everyone, let's meet again tomorrow for more of Washington State's Skagit
Valley.
Bye-bye.