节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-04-12
难易度:Low
关键字:escape, cube, destroy, mineral, algae, patrol, microscopic
Welcome back, everybody.
If you ever find yourself on a boat sailing through the cold ocean waters and
you spot some floating ice,
take a deep breath, stick your head under the water and take a look at the other
90 percent of the iceberg.
Did you know that in doing this, you still wouldn't see everything?
Let's learn about one more iceberg secret starting on page 24.
Secrets of the Iceberg.
The large underwater parts of icebergs are hard for ships to avoid.
They have destroyed and sunk many ships, including the Titanic.
As a result, the International Ice Patrol now monitors icebergs in areas with
heavy ship travel.
But there's yet another side to icebergs.
Many microscopic animals live inside icebergs and in the water around them.
These creatures feed on minerals that the icebergs store and release as they
melt.
Scientists are still studying all the ways icebergs affect sea life.
(Music).
Well, as we said before, icebergs can be very dangerous for ships, especially
the large underwater parts of icebergs because if you're on a ship,
you can't really see that part, and you don't really know how big it is just by
looking at the surface.
That's right. It makes it hard for ships to avoid.
When we say you avoid something, that means you don't go near it, you stay far
away from it.
Sometimes we'd like to avoid a car accident; we always should.
Avoid a car accident means you do not go into one.
You have protected yourself from it.
So ships should protect themselves from icebergs.
That's right.
They have to watch out for the icebergs.
And these icebergs they've actually caused some problems for some ships.
We talked about the Titanic before.
Some ships have went... have sunk into the water as a result.
They have been destroyed.
If something has been "destroyed," it has been... just been totally... damaged
in such a way that it can't be repaired.
That's right.
There's no way to be repaired if you have been destroyed.
So some ships have been destroyed and sunk many ships.
So the icebergs not only rip open these ships, but as you imagine, once they
have been damaged so badly, they would fill with water and sink.
And as we said, that includes the Titanic.
Well, as a result of all of this, the International Ice Patrol now actually
monitors icebergs in areas where ships are traveling through.
So it's monitoring, this "patrol," they're looking out for the icebergs, and
they can call the captains on the ships and tell them:
Hey, there's an iceberg ahead.
That's right.
They are a patrol.
Now they're called "The Ice Patrol." That means they are watching out for them.
So that's... that's their job really.
But they can... they do this in areas with heavy ship travel.
Now Brandon, does this mean the ships are actually very heavy ships?
No, although the ships are heavy, that's not what it's talking about.
It's talking about they are areas where lots of ships are traveling through.
If we say there's heavy traffic, that means there are lots of cars on the road
at one period of time.
Or there can even be heavy foot traffic, which means there are lots and lots of
people walking in the same place.
So "heavy ship travel" would be the amount of ships going through there.
And they monitor that, they patrol that so that it's safer for those ships.
But there's more, Kaylah.
"There's yet another side to icebergs." If there's another side to something,
that means there's more to it than what we have already discussed.
That's right.
And that's our Grammar on the Go sentence, so there's more to that.
Let's visit Liz.
Hi, friends.
Welcome to Grammar on the Go.
My name is Liz, and I hope you're all doing well today.
So what do you think about our "icebergs" article?
It's quite interesting with what we've read so far, isn't it?
However, our writer writes:
But there's yet another side to icebergs.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Does it seem strange that we have the word "but" and "yet" in the same sentence?
Normally, don't these two words mean the same thing?
Actually, in this case, "yet" has a different meaning.
It normally is used in a formal way to mean "but." However, in today's sentence,
the word "yet" is combined with "another" to mean: "surprisingly," there is
something more.
It is there to stress how there really is another side to icebergs.
We use the word "yet another" like this when we want to inform our audience some
additional and surprising information about something.
For example, let's say there is a group of bank robbers that have robbed so many
banks,
and you want to report on how another bank got robbed by these robbers
yesterday.
So you can say:
Yesterday, the bank robbers have robbed yet another bank.
Or suppose an epidemic has swept through a country and people are dying from it,
so the newspaper might say:
Last week, the epidemic claimed yet another life.
Now friends, if you'd like to see some more example sentences, then check out
today's Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That's it for today.
This is Liz with Grammar on the Go signing off.
Bye-bye.
Well, thank you, Liz.
There's more to icebergs than what we have been talking about already.
And we see why: Many microscopic animals live inside icebergs and in the water
around them.
I did not know that, Kaylah.
No, neither did I.
I thought they were just water... floating ice. I didn't think anything of them.
That's right.
And "microscopic" meaning something tiny, very, very small.
So we have these microscopic animals living there within the ice.
And these creatures, well, they feed on minerals.
That's right.
Now it's interesting, we don't often think about iceberg is giving life so much
as taking and destroying things.
So it's cool to see that the fish and other animals live off of them.
Well, they don't just live off of the ice themselves.
Inside the ice, we say "feed off," they feed off of minerals.
And to "feed off" means they eat, they survive.
And a "mineral" is just a chemical substance.
So the chemical substance within the ice is what they are eating.
That's what they are feeding on... the minerals that the icebergs store and
release as they melt.
Now Brandon, we think about this for just animals, but actually, as humans, we
too have to eat certain minerals to stay healthy.
So just like us, these animals need the... this mineral base to come off of it.
And it's cool because as it... as it melts, it releases them, but it also keeps
hold onto them, stores some of that mineral just by being frozen.
That is amazing.
And we see here that icebergs, they're actually affecting sea life.
Scientists are still studying all the ways icebergs affect sea life.
That means we still have more to learn.
We don't know everything yet.
Of course, we don't.
There's always more to learn.
And it's exciting to see that icebergs are more than just giant blocks of ice
that get in the way.
They actually help sea life in many different ways.
And scientists are still studying, they're still finding out exactly what that
means.
Well, we have learned a lot about... about icebergs.
They are beautiful, they are dangerous, and they can help sea life.
Thanks for joining us.
Right now we have a skit.
Professor, what else do you know about icebergs?
I know the secret of their colors.
Colors?
Aren't icebergs white?
Most icebergs are white.
But some are blue.
Blue? What's the secret?
Blue icebergs melt and freeze again.
This allows air bubbles to escape, and the icebergs turn blue.
Oh. So icebergs can be white or blue.
And some have brown, black or yellow parts.
What's the secret?
Sometimes dirt is mixed with the ice.
Dirt is the secret!
And some icebergs have algae trapped in the parts that are underwater.
These icebergs look green.
Oh. So icebergs can be different colors?
And different shapes!
Wait... aren't they all mountain-shaped?
No... icebergs can be flat or cube-shaped.
Oh, like an ice cube.
Yeah. Some are round-shaped.
Oh, like a turtle shell.
And some are U-shaped.
Yeah, like a... a U.
Wow! Icebergs have many secrets.
Yes. And there's yet another side to icebergs.
Another side?
Oh, I know!
The outside and the inside.
Exactly. Many microscopic animals live inside icebergs.
Any creatures live inside icebergs?
Yes. They feed on minerals released from the icebergs.
Icebergs have many secrets.
Yes, and I will continue to find out more secrets.
Shh.
Shh.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
And time really flies.
Make sure you come back next time for more Language Tips.
Thank you, Michelle.
We always appreciate those tips.
Friends, to say that icebergs are large is an understatement.
These gigantic islands of ice officially become icebergs right as they break off
from a glacier and crash into the ocean.
Icebergs are dangerous because they're mostly underwater and we can't see them.
But they have a friendly side to them too - they help sea creatures survive.
Now tomorrow we'll look at perhaps the most famous victim in all of iceberg
history - the Titanic.
Until then, friends, I hope all of you have a great day. Bye-bye.