节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-03-27
难易度:Low
关键字:dramatic, moderate, lead, rumored, institute, stardom
(Music).
Hi, everybody.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
Thanks for joining us.
My name is Steve.
Sam Worthington is the star of the most financially successful film of all time.
Of course, I'm talking about Avatar.
When he auditioned for the role of Jake Sully, Sam Worthington was living in a
car.
Needless to say, not too soon after he got the role, he made it a point to find
himself a more comfortable place to live.
Yesterday we learned about Worthington's trials and challenges as a 17-year-old.
Now let's fast forward 2 years and see what he did at 19 on page 49.
Sam Worthington.
When he was 19, Worthington was accepted into Australia's National Institute of
Dramatic Art.
After graduating he had moderate success acting in Australian TV shows and
movies.
But his decision to sell everything prepared him for his next step.
When James Cameron asked him to come to America, he went.
He had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Hello, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us right here in the studio as we're talking about
Sam Worthington.
Yes. Now yesterday we saw how he sold all of his possessions, moved into his
car.
But of course, he eventually became a cast in the movie Avatar.
Now we started to talk about his beginnings as well.
Kaylah, what did we talk about?
Well, we saw that he had humble beginnings.
He was born in England but lived in Australia.
But most importantly, when we last saw Sam Worthington, he was 17 years old,
and his father sent him to the other side of Australia and told him he had to
get back home using just his own earnings.
Ha! Ryan, what an adventure!
It does sound like an adventure.
And I... if I were his father, I might not be so sure he would make it home.
But we do see that he did because when he was 19, he was accepted into
Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art.
What an honor... (Yeah...) at the age of 19 to be accepted to such a nice
academy.
Now an "institute" is an organization where people do a particular kind of
thing.
Usually it is either doing something with arts or doing something with science.
But this institute has to do with the arts - the dramatic arts.
Exactly. And something that is "dramatic" is relating to acting.
Usually you think about someone being dramatic.
What does it mean if someone is, the adjective, dramatic?
They are very expressive.
They use a lot of emotions and hand gestures and facial expressions; they...
Everything comes out and expresses what they're talking about.
OK. Now this institute is about dramatic art, which is about acting.
And people are very expressive when they're acting.
OK. So now after graduating, he had moderate success acting in Australian TV
shows and movies.
"Moderate," meaning slight, a little bit but still very limited.
Yeah. Now Kaylah, sometimes if something is moderate, that means it is not as
much as you had hoped. Correct?
Hmm. That's right.
So that could also apply here.
Maybe he has some opportunities but not as many as he thought he would have
after graduating from a National Institute of Dramatic Art, you know.
Yeah. So this is... like you said, a national institute.
And that means that it is very well-known, probably a very good acting school.
So you would expect, or he would expect to get a great job.
Maybe get a role in a movie as big as Avatar, but he only came out with moderate
success.
Now Ryan, I did study dramatic arts as well.
It was part of my major at university.
Well, I know a lot of people who that is... what... that's what they study...
completely was dramatic arts.
Now a lot of them do end up with very limited job options.
So it's not a surprise that there's only slight to moderate success for a lot of
people because a lot of people do want to be actors.
Yeah. So we should look out for you then on popular movies.
No... not for me.
I enjoy English-teaching.
Well, me too.
All right.
Now we see he was only in some Australian shows and movies.
But Sam Worthington's decision to sell everything had prepared him for his next
step.
Now we say his "next step." That does not mean he is walking somewhere.
This means what this... what comes next in his life.
We talk about life being different steps in life.
If we go back to the beginning of his, the first step would be moving to
Australia.
And then he grew up.
And a big step in his life was making his way home.
And then another step would be the dramatic arts.
And so we see as he's progressing along, well, what comes next?
Right. Well, first I think, Kaylah, this article is trying to show us how much
he has learned from his childhood.
He has learned a lot through selling his possessions.
And he grew a lot through being, well, dumped off on one side of Australia and
told to find his way home.
So now let's find out how is this going to help him in his next step.
That's right.
Well, when James Cameron asked him to come to America, he went.
So even though it's a hard decision to make to leave your home country to go
work somewhere else...
Maybe you've never been there before.
Maybe you don't know anybody there.
But if someone gives you an opportunity, are you willing to take that leap of
faith to do the next step in life?
And we see from his past that he understood what that meant to have a leap of
faith.
Exactly, yeah.
And he was in a great position to move across the world since he had prepared
himself so well.
He had learned a lot in his childhood.
But Kaylah, before he got this phone call to audition for this movie, he had
sold all of his possessions and moved into his car.
So he was easy... easily mobile.
He knew he was ready to go should the opportunity present itself.
So that's what he did - he moved to America.
And he had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
So this is an interesting phrase: nothing to lose, everything to gain.
Well, some people usually just shorten it to: I've got nothing to lose.
Now that phrase means that you don't actually have anything that you need to
give up to do something.
In other words, you should do it because you can't lose.
And everything to gain.
It's a great phrase separate from "nothing to lose" as well.
It means no matter what happens, I... only good things can come out of this
because I'm not going to lose it, but I can gain, I can get just about anything.
Exactly, yeah. Like you said, the word "gain" means to get something, so.
You combine these together - you got nothing to lose and everything to gain -
that means you probably should do something.
Now I think we can also take encouragement from his story because most of us
won't get dropped off on one side of Australia and asked to return to the other
side.
Also, most of us won't live out of our cars.
But we can be encouraged that someone who has such humble beginnings can make
such a great jump in life throughout his steps.
Through leaping in faith, really, is exactly what he's doing.
Well, let's take a break from right here and go on over to the Chat Room, and
we'll be back.
Hey, Bryan.
Hey, Ken.
What's up?
You know, I've been looking at that woman for some time now.
Ken, I'm shocked!
You are a married man!
No, Bryan. I mean I've been looking at those cookies in front of her.
They look so good.
Hey, I wonder if she's going to eat all of them.
Well, why don't you go up to her and ask her if you can have one of them.
But I might look like a fool.
Ken, you have nothing to lose.
What do you mean, I have nothing to lose?
I have lots of things I could lose.
I'm not that poor.
No, Ken. That's just an expression.
If I say you have nothing to lose, I mean nothing bad will happen to you.
The worst that can happen is the woman says: No. You can't have a cookie.
Oh. So I'll come out unharmed.
That's right.
You probably won't ever see her again.
In fact, I've never seen her here before, so you have nothing to lose.
OK, I have nothing to lose.
So I should just go ask her?
You have nothing to lose, Ken, except face.
See? I have something to lose!
I can lose my face.
How is that possible?
No, not lose "your" face. Lose face.
If you lose face, you do something which makes other people lose respect for
you.
Oh. Is that what it means?
No worries then.
I don't mind if I lose face.
I really want one of those cookies.
Go for it then.
OK. Give me a minute.