节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-04-13
难易度:Medium
关键字:luxury, walk of life, grave, unthinkable, maiden voyage, unsinkable
Welcome back, everybody.
April 10, 1912.
That must have been a very exciting day for the 2,200 people who boarded the
Titanic in Southampton, England.
Well, little did they know that roughly two out of every three people that
walked onto the ship would soon be dead.
Could the deaths have been avoided?
Let's pick up the reading on line 10 and find out.
(Music).
Titanic.
But that confidence led to a grave error in judgment.
With over 2,200 people onboard, the ship should have carried 32 lifeboats.
But believing lifeboats were unnecessary, those in charge decided to take only
20.
They didn't want to add too much clutter to the deck.
But the unthinkable happened.
Four days later the ship hit an iceberg and sank in less than three hours.
In the end, only 711 people were saved.
A total of 1,513 lives were lost.
Earlier we were talking about the confidence that the passengers had.
And we see that his confidence led to a grave error in judgment.
And I don't think it was just the passengers who were confident.
I think everyone involved in the ship, they were confident.
Whether it was the captain or the crew, they were all confident that the Titanic
would set sail and make it to its destination.
That's right.
It's even been said that the man who built the boat, the owner of the boat, said
that the boat was unsinkable, that God could not even sink the ship.
Well, he was definitely wrong.
And this confidence led to this grave error in judgment.
Now Brandon, this word "grave," I think the author picked this word very
specifically for many reasons.
That's right.
Well, first of all, here in this context, it just means that something is very
serious.
So it's a very serious error, a large error.
But also, as you think about the Titanic as it went down into the waters, it's
kind of like a "grave." People are buried in a grave.
Well, unfortunately, it's very sad that people were buried there under the
water.
That's right.
Now when... when we're talking about a... the noun "grave," that means it is a
place where you put bodies when someone has died.
So the Titanic did become a grave.
So it's a very clever way of writing by the author.
Well, this is our Grammar on the Go sentence, so let's visit Liz.
Hello, friends.
I hope you're doing well today.
My name is Liz, and it's time for Grammer on the Go.
I'm in St. Thomas in the Caribbean today.
This is a popular place for cruise ships to come through.
And speaking of cruise ships, our HISTORY article today is on the Titanic and
how people were so confident that the ship would never sink.
However, we read:
But that confidence led to a grave error in judgment.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our attention will be on the phrase, led to or lead to.
Usually, "to lead" means to be in front to guide someone or something behind you
as in:
The tour guide led us through the museum.
But when a subject leads to something else, that means the subject created the
chance for something else to happen.
This confidence that people had in the Titanic brought about the result of grave
error in judgment.
Let's have a look at some example sentences.
Suppose a dishonest business manager had pocketed his company's money and
thought no one would know.
However, he was eventually caught and sent to jail.
So we can say:
The manager's dishonesty led to his jail sentence.
Or, before 1799, no one could read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
But the discovery of the Rosetta Stone gave scholars a chance to figure out how
to read this ancient Egyptian writing.
So we can say:
The discovery of the Rosetta Stone led to the deciphering of Egyptian
hieroglyphics.
If you want to see some more example sentences, they're available in today's
Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That's all the time we have for today.
This is Liz with Grammar on the Go, signing off, in St. Thomas. Bye-bye.
Thanks, Liz.
Well, with over 2,200 people onboard, the ship should have carried 32 lifeboats.
Now Kaylah, we see here it should have carried 32 lifeboats; and we find out
that it didn't, actually.
That's right.
Now a lifeboat, Brandon, is the boat... it's a smaller boat that sits on that
deck of the ship.
In case of an emergency, you can get into the small boat and survive.
You can live; you won't drown.
So that's what they're called "lifeboats," they will save your life.
Well, they should've had 32.
But believing lifeboats were unnecessary, the people in charge decided to take
only 20 boats.
That's right.
We talked about before that people were very confident that the Titanic would be
successful, that this maiden voyage that it would work out very well.
And so they said: Oh, we'll just a 20 lifeboats. That should be fine because we
don't think the Titanic will have any problems.
Well, they didn't want to add too much clutter to the deck.
Brandon, that was their reason!
They didn't want to add clutter to the deck.
Now clutter is when you have piles of random things around.
So they thought that a lifeboat would just look like junk, clutter.
It would make it not look as beautiful.
So instead of worrying about people's lives, Brandon, they were concerned about
what the boat looked like.
That's right.
They were not so concerned about safety.
They were just concerned about: Oh, does the boat look pretty?
And we see that the unthinkable happened.
Now if the "unthinkable" happens, it means that something that you do not want
to happen actually happens.
Maybe it's something that you could not even think about is so bad, it actually
happened here because we know that the Titanic went down into the water.
That's right.
That "unthinkable" is very much like "unsinkable." They are different words.
Be careful with your pronunciation there.
"Unsinkable" means it will not disappear under the water.
"Unthinkable" means you could not think of it.
So be careful with your pronunciation, but use both of these words.
And what happened was that four days later, the ship hit an iceberg and sank in
less than three hours.
So it hit that iceerg, and it caused big problems for the Titanic.
They thought this boat was unsinkable, but it's sunk.
It went down.
It sank underwater in less than three hours.
Well, in the end, only 711 people were saved.
A total of 1,513 lives were lost.
Well, we are going to talk much more about the Titanic tomorrow.
But right now, please enjoy our skit.
This voyage will be a historic journey, one that the world will remember.
Right you are, Captain.
In a few hours, the Titanic will set out on its maiden voyage.
Yes, Titanic.
It's the largest passenger ship of all time.
It's the "ship of dreams." It offers the finest luxuries.
Yes, luxuries for all our wealthy passengers.
Yes, sir. And there are many very rich people onboard.
Yes, I thought so.
But not all the passengers are well-off.
People from all walks of life are onboard the Titanic.
Do you have the passenger list?
Yes, sir. It's right here, Captain.
There are over 2,200 names on it.
2,200!
And no doubt each one is filled with excitement and confidence.
Ooh. Wait a minute, Captain.
2,200 passengers. We should have 32 lifeboats.
But we only have 20.
Extra lifeboats would add clutter to the deck.
And besides, the Titanic is unsinkable.
Unsinkable! Yes, sir.
And this historic voyage will be unforgettable.
Yes, unsinkable and unforgettable.
Yes, sir.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
And that concludes our Language Tips today.
I'll see you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.
Thank you again, Michelle.
We always appreciate those tips.
So from today's lesson, we learned that there are not one, but actually two,
tragedies in the Titanic story.
The first is an avoidable yet excusable accident - the ship hitting an iceberg.
This incident, though, exposed a second and more fatal tragedy - a lack of
lifeboats.
Without lifeboats, it didn't take very long for the doomed passengers to start
sinking.
Well, tomorrow we'll look at the accounts of some people who were there that
terrible night and lived to tell about it.
Untill then, I hope all of you have a great day.