节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-02-03
难易度:Low
关键字:bullying, beat somebody up, count, frequent, victim, insult
(Music).
Hi, everybody. Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
Thanks for joining us today.
My name is Steve.
And my name is Ryan.
For so many years, the ugly behavior of bullying has been looked upon, well, as
something all kids must go through.
It's just a natural part of growing up that, as unpleasant as it is, will help
make a child's character stronger.
But now this kind of thinking is changing.
Finally, teachers, school counselors, parents and students are saying no.
Bullying will no longer be tolerated.
Why this change in thinking?
Well, when bullying is linked to things like school shootings, teen suicides and
so much more, people are beginning to speak out.
So let's kick off our SOCIAL ISSUE feature now by reading today's lesson: The
Dangers of Bullying on page 16.
The Dangers of Bullying.
Sometimes classmates are one's worst enemies.
A girl sits alone at lunch and tries not to cry.
Her classmates are pointing at her and laughing.
A boy walks quickly home with his head down.
He hopes the older kids who often beat him up won't see him.
These kinds of incidents are too frequent when children are together.
Bullying is not limited to a single country or culture.
A British study in 2003 indicated that 51 percent of British fifth graders had
reported being bullied.
And 28 percent of eighth graders had also been bullied.
Hello, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us here in the studio.
My name is Kaylah.
And my name is Ryan.
And now we're looking at our SOCIAL ISSUES article for the month where we are
talking about bullying.
That's right. Bullying is a big problem.
Now it's a big problem both among students and adults; but today we are focusing
on students.
Ryan, what is bullying?
OK. Well, "bullying" is when one person hurts or makes fun of someone who is
smaller or weaker than them.
So bullying is a big problem.
It's when you make someone feel bad about themselves or you hurt them because
you want to feel better about yourself.
So this is a big problem.
It's unfortunate.
It's a terrible thing.
And we're talking about it today because we need to find a way to stop it
because there are great dangers in bullying.
Yes. Now like Kaylah said, this happens most often among students.
So we're seeing how sometimes classmates can be each other's worst enemies.
Now Kaylah, let's start with a couple of examples.
OK. For example, a girl sits alone at lunch and tries not to cry.
Her classmates are pointing at her and laughing.
Oh, this is a very sad situation, but this happens very often.
Here's another example.
A boy walks quickly home with his head down.
That's right. Now this is a good sentence, not only for the example of what it
means but also the grammar in it.
It's a good sentence to look at when you are writing with an adverb ending an
"-ly." This is well-written, and you should remember this for your writing.
Exactly. Now Kaylah, this boy would be walking quickly home to get away from
something.
And so this is a good example of how bullying can affect someone.
Let's take a look at another one.
That's right. Well, it's actually the same one, Ryan.
He's walking home because he hopes the older kids who often beat him up won't
see him.
So first we see a girl alone, sitting alone and people are standing around her,
pointing at her and laughing at her.
And now this boy is running home because he does not want to be beat up.
Yeah. Now when someone is "beat up," it means that someone hits them very hard
over and over again.
So that is definitely not something you would want to have happened to you.
That's right.
Often when you get beat up, you're kicked, you're punched, you're hit, your hair
is pulled, you get thrown to the ground.
It is a very terrible thing that happens.
And this is a large part of bullying.
But Ryan, we see that there are two different kinds in these situations.
One is actually physically hurting, and the other one is the pointing and the
laughing and making fun of someone.
Yeah, these are both very sad.
These poor kids have other children who are either hitting them or are making
fun of them, laughing at them and pointing at them.
Well, these kinds of incidents are far too frequent when we're talking about
children and them being together.
So when something is "frequent," that means it happens very often.
And this happens too often, we say too "frequently." This... this really
shouldn't happen.
Well, yeah, it should never happen, right?
But the fact that it happens not only sometimes but a lot, they are too
frequent, too often, is really sad.
Now Kaylah, were you ever bullied as a kid?
I was bullied as a kid.
I was never beat up by anybody, but I was definitely one of the kids that they
would point and laugh at at school.
I was actually... I'm not... I wasn't a very good student, so they made fun of
me for that.
But bullying is a situation that most people do go through at some point in
their life because bullying is not limited to just one country or culture.
That's right, yeah. It happens in countries all around the world.
In fact, here's an example.
A British study in 2003 indicated that 51 percent of British fifth graders had
reported being bullied.
That is a lot.
And especially considering that young! They're in fifth grade.
That's actually about the time I was bullied.
People start been very mean at a very young age.
So we need to be... parents encouraging our kids to not be mean to each other
and teachers being on alert.
But students, it's your responsibility.
Exactly. Now this report, it indicated - or meaning that it showed that
something could have happened - it also indicated that 28 percent of eighth
graders had also been bullied.
So this is a problem, fifth all the way up to eighth graders.
Well, we see this is not just one age group, one culture or one country, so this
is a big problem.
We're going to continue talking about it.
But first, let's check in with the Chat Room.
OK. Here you go, Ken.
Thanks, Bryan.
I like how this library lets me take out as many books as I want.
You know, I went to one library once where we were limited by five books.
Ken, I think you mean that you were limited "to" five books.
Oh, that's strange. I'm pretty sure I've heard people say they were limited by
something.
People do say that.
But when they say that they are limited by something, it means that that thing
is causing them to be limited.
For example, gold fish can grow to be very large, but their size is limited by
the size of the tank you put them in.
So at that other library, the number of books I could check out was limited by
the rules.
Yes. But you were limited to five books because you could not check out more
than that.
When something is limited to a certain amount, it can't go beyond that amount.
So when my wife goes on a diet, she is limited to a certain number of calories
per day.
Yes, good example.
Thanks.
I think I've also heard the preposition "in" used with limited.
You probably have.
You can say something is limited in some way when you want to describe what
aspects of that object have limits.
So something can be limited in size or limited in number.
So could I say that when I fly, my bag is limited in weight?
That sounds a little strange because usually when we use "limited in," it
doesn't mean that there are rules limiting it.
It just means that the thing is not very big or very plentiful.
So if you say your bag is limited in weight, it just means that it isn't very
heavy.
Well, the books I just checked out are certainly not limited in number.
That's right, Ken.
Hey, do you need any help with those?
I think I'll be OK. Thanks.
And thanks for your help.
Conversations like this help me to avoid having my English learning limited to
reading books.
Well, I'm glad to be of help.