节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-04-14
难易度:Medium
关键字:impact, despite, crack, explosion, nightmare, premonition, stern
Welcome back, friends.
When you have time, please take a look over at the right side of page 29 and
read some "Fast Facts" about the Titanic tragedy.
One fact you pet lovers will be interested in is about a dog named Rigel.
It turns out Rigel helped save some of the Titanic passengers, and so became a
hero.
OK. Let's finish with more amazing survival stories on line 12.
(Music).
Titanic.
"I was hanging on, getting higher and higher in the air, and I dropped in and
hit the water with a terrific crack." Prentice was rescued by a nearby lifeboat.
The ship's barber, K. Whiteman was blown off the ship by an explosion and was
eventually rescued from the freezing waters.
A false sense of security.
According to Edwina Mackenzie, "You could not get people to go on lifeboats.
They felt safer on the Titanic. ... But as we were rowing away, we could see
that Titanic gradually sinking....
That scream of death was worse than any sound." A trip that had begun as a dream
come true ended in a nightmare 100 years ago today.
Well, before we visited the Chat Room, we left off with a very interesting
story.
We see crew member Frank Prentice is holding onto the railing of the stern at
the back of the boat as it's lifting up out of the water.
Now that's not common.
This is definitely going to sink.
But what does he have to say about it?
Well, Kaylah, he says: I was hanging on, getting higher and higher in the air,
and I dropped in and hit the water with a terrific crack.
Ouch! That does not sound like fun.
So he's holding onto the railing.
Friends, you have to use your imagination to imagine this boat lifting up out of
the water,
and he's holding on, getting higher and higher because this is a very big boat.
So if it's big laying on the water, it's going to stand very tall as it starts
to sink.
And then a terrific crack happened, and he hit the water.
That's right.
And a "crack," of course, is a loud sound.
And when you hit the water, you can hear that sound.
But just imagine what you would feel like in that situation.
How would you feel, Kaylah?
I would be terrifying.
He uses the word - a "terrific" crack.
Now "terrific," we usually think of something great.
Here he means very large, very big because I think he would be terrified.
I would be so scared, Brandon.
I would be as well.
Well, we see that Prentice was rescued by a nearby lifeboat, so he was able to
survive.
That's right.
That's how we get his story.
We saw that yesterday that these boats were not very common.
They didn't bring enough of these boats.
But there was enough for this crew member to find a boat to survive.
And the ship's barber, K. Whiteman was blown off the ship by an explosion and
was eventually rescued from the freezing waters.
So there was an "explosion," Kaylah.
If there's an explosion, well, that means maybe something on the boat,
something in the bottom of the boat where they have all of the steam and all of
the different things that make the boat run,
if it explodes, there's some sort of fire involved.
And that is very dangerous and very scary.
That's right.
An explosion is when something is pushed or forced into a lot of little pieces.
And as Brandon said, it does usually involve fire.
It's big and loud, and would have caused a lot of problems.
But he was pushed, thrown from the boat by this.
Well, we have some more information about that, so let's visit the Information
Station.
Wow! Bryan, this is quite a story about Titanic.
And the 1997 film Titanic had all the drama, suspense, romance.
Hey, Jack.
Look! I'm flying.
I love you, Jack.
Jack...
You're not Jack.
Oh, thank you.
I didn't know Tango Bear was on the Titanic.
Well, he was.
See, Tango Bear knows how to swim.
But did you know Titanic wasn't the only ship to sink during this period in
history.
Oh.
Well, to find out more, let's go to...
Information Station.
Bryan, Titanic was one of three identical ships built by the White Star Line.
The other two were the Olympic and the Brittanic.
And those ships also had bad luck.
Yes. The Olympic had three collisions while at sea.
And it served as a troop transport ship in World War I.
The Olympic was finally scrapped the 1935 when the White Star Line went
bankrupt.
But the other ship, the Brittanic, was sunk during World War I.
It was serving as a floating hospital.
Yes. And it hit an explosive mine.
And then it sank in less than an hour.
Now all three of these ships were built to compete with the Cunard Line's
Lusitania and Mauretania ocean liners.
But in 1915, the Lusitania was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine, also
during World War I.
Now in the article, we learned that Titanic sank in three hours.
But the Lusitania sank in only 18 minutes.
Wow! More than half of the Lusitania's 2,000 passengers were lost.
Well, fortunately, today's ocean liners are equipped with better technology to
avoid such disasters.
And because of the lessons learned from the Titanic and the Lusitania, taking a
cruise today is safe and enjoyable.
Yes. That's right, Bryan.
In fact, I've been on several cruises, and I have enjoyed the experience.
Well, I think it's time for us to sail off into the sunset, Bill.
We'll see you all here next time at...
Information Station.
Well, we continue with "A false sense of security." If you have a sense of
security, you feel that you are secure, that everything is OK.
But if you have a false sense of security, security isn't actually there.
That's right. "Security" meaning safety, you feel safe in that place.
Well, "a false sense" means that you are wrong, you should not feel safe because
you are not.
Well, this actually makes sense to be talking about Titanic.
Brandon, everyone was so confident that they would be OK, that their boat
wouldn't sink.
And then we see that that was definitely false.
That was false.
People were not even thinking about this.
They thought: There's no way this boat can sink.
They were just thinking about having a good time and enjoying themselves.
Well, we begin this section with:
According to Edwina Mackenzie, "You could not get people to go on lifeboats."
And so we see here that some people were saying:
No, I refuse. I do not want to go on the lifeboat.
Why would people do that, Kaylah?
Well, they said they felt safer on the Titanic because the Titanic was bigger.
But as we were rowing away, we could see the Titanic gradually sinking.
So Edwina was on the Titanic as it was sinking; she got in a lifeboat and was
rowing away even though people were scared to get on the small boats.
They could watch as the Titanic was sinking into the water.
And she says: That scream of death was worse than any sound.
Now you can imagine being on that lifeboat, Kaylah, and you hear people
screaming.
That would be difficult to be in that situation.
Yes, it would.
It would have been very loud as it echoed off the waters and people were... were
dying.
There was a lot of people, so it'd definitely be hard to forget.
Well, this was a trip that had begun as a dream come true, and it ended in a
nightmare 100 years ago today.
Well, a "nightmare" is a dream that is scary and something you don't ever want
to experience.
That is exactly what Titanic was.
So today we remember the Titanic sinking 100 years ago.
Well, thank you for listening with us and learning about the Titanic.
Let's see today's skit.
Ladies and gentlemen, the unthinkable has happened.
Four days into its maiden voyage, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sunk.
The ship went down into the icy waters in less than three hours.
Oh. It was so scary.
This little girl is Eva Hart.
Tell us what happened, Eva.
Oh. My mama had a premo...
A premonition.
Yes... that something really bad would occur.
She was frightened and awake.
Oh... and Mama felt the impact... (Background Noise) when the ship hit the
iceberg.
She notified Daddy.
And he put Mommy and me in a lifeboat.
And what happened to your father?
We never saw Papa again.
Poor Daddy.
Oh, Eva, I am so sorry.
Still others survived despite the odds.
Frank Prentice was a crew member on the Titanic.
What's your story, Frank?
I was holding onto the railing.
The... the stern lifted up out of the water.
Oh... and then what happened?
I was hanging on and getting... it was getting higher and higher in the air, and
I dropped and fell into the water with a terrific... crack.
And then what happened?
I was rescued by a nearby lifeboat.
Well, what a story this is!
Folks, it's unthinkable.
The unsinkable Titanic has sunk, went down with 1,513 people that lost their
lives.
Only 711 were saved.
A trip that began as a dream has ended in a nightmare.
(Chinese).
And I guess that's all for today.
I'll see you soon. Bye-bye.
Even after 100 years, we are still fascinated by the sinking of the Titanic.
Is it because it was Titanic's first voyage?
Maybe it's because of the high loss of life - over 1,500 people?
Or because famous people were aboard?
Whatever the reason, the story of the Titanic and its doomed passengers will,
I'm sure, continue to fascinate.
OK. Tomorrow is the birthday of perhaps the most famous Italian who ever lived.
Join us Monday as we celebrate.
Until then, I hope youhave a great weekend.