节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-01-23
难易度:Low
关键字:tribal, challenging, annual, unforgettable, seaweed, ride, migration
(Music).
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
And I should say, "Gongxi, gongxi." Happy Chinese New Year.
My name is Steve.
And my name is Ryan.
It's Lunar New Year.
So that means it's time again for fireworks, red envelopes and festivities.
Around the world there are many traditional ways to celebrate the beginning of a
new lunar year.
For example, you could shop till you drop at the Dihua Jie in Taipei.
You could immerse yourself at Singapore's River Hong Bao or enjoy the fragrance
of the Guangzhou Flower Fair.
Also, if you're not in Asia, you can join the Lunar New Year Festival and Parade
in San Francisco, California.
So, with so many ways to celebrate,
we thought we could stop and listen in on some stories on how a few Studio
Classroom teachers have enjoyed the holiday in past years.
Let's take a look then on page 42.
(Music).
Lunar New Year's Memories.
A look at how some teachers have celebrated the New Year's holiday.
Doris.
New Year's vacation in 1952 seemed like a good time to make a trip.
I was told you could hike from Wushe in the west of Taiwan to Tungmen on the
east coast in two days.
Three tribal friends went with me.
It became difficult when we found earthquakes had destroyed part of the trail.
We had to cross high ridges by holding onto the mountainside with deep valleys
below.
It was also challenging to cross ancient swinging rope bridges.
I decided to celebrate at home the next year!
Steve.
The Spring Festival holiday in China is known for creating the world's largest
annual human migration.
In 2000, as a foreign student in Harbin, I decided to join it.
Hello, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us here in the studio.
Happy New Year.
My name is Kaylah.
And my name is Ryan.
Gong xi, gong xi.
It's that time of year again to celebrate Lunar New Year.
And there are many different ways to celebrate.
Kaylah, what's your favorite way to celebrate the Lunar New Year?
Oh, I like sleeping.
I like going on vacation and resting during Lunar New Year.
What about you, Ryan?
Oh. Well, I also like the "Hong Baos." Those are nice... to get a little money.
And I do like vacation as well.
But I think today we're going to spend some time looking at how some teachers
from Studio Classroom has celebrated the New Year's holiday.
And they are not like Ryan and I; they got out and did something exciting.
We're starting with Doris.
Doris says New Year memory is New Year's vacation in 1952.
And it sounds like she had a lot of fun.
It seemed like a good time for her to make a trip.
She's telling us about a story, this one time in 1952 which seemed like a great
time for a trip.
That's right.
And Doris was already living in Taiwan at that time and was friends with a lot
of local people, a lot of Chinese and aboriginal people.
That's right.
She says, "I was told you could hike from Wushe in west of Taiwan to Tungmen on
the east coast in two days." Now Kaylah,
what does it mean if she's hiking?
That means she is walking.
She's taking a long walk.
We see it's here at least two days, but is through... usually through mountains
or kind of the terrain you have to work across.
It's not just walking down the street.
It's walking through the forest and the trees.
OK. So Doris is definitely not wanting to sleep in in 1952.
She wanted to get out and have some adventure, and travel from these two cities
in two days.
That's right.
That is also our Grammar on the Go sentence, so let's visit Liz.
Hello, friends.
How are you today?
My name is Liz and it's time for Grammar on the Go.
Our article today is all about memories of Lunar New Year.
In Doris's story, we read:
I was told you could hike from Wushe in the west of Taiwan to Tungmen on the
east coast in two days.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence for today.
Doris is the one telling the story, so the word "I" refers to Doris.
But what about the word "you"?
She is not telling us readers directly that we could do the hike.
Instead, the "you" just means anybody or people in general.
In other words, she was told that it's possible for people to hike from Wushe in
the west of Taiwan to Tungmen on the east coast.
Using these pronouns could seem confusing for some people because it goes from
"I" to "you." And this makes it seem like one person is talking to another
person.
However, in the casual story telling situation where the storyteller has to
explain or describe a certain condition,
the use of "you" is often a popular choice for native speakers.
So rather than saying "When I was a kid, children could never interrupt an adult
at the dinner table," you can say:
When I was a kid, you could never interrupt an adult at the dinner table.
Or, instead of saying "When I was touring Europe twenty years ago,
people still had to change money when they traveled from country to country,"
you can say:
When I was touring Europe twenty years ago, you had to change money when you go
from country to country.
That's it for today.
Thanks for joining me here.
This is Liz with Grammar on the Go, signing off. Bye-bye.
Thank you, Liz.
So after Doris heard that she could hike from these two cities in just two days,
then she started to talk to three tribal friends.
That's right. Three tribal friends went with her.
They went with "me" because it's... she is the one talking to us in this
article.
Well, we talk about a tribal friend.
Now what is that?
Well, uh, something that is "tribal" means that it comes from a place that is
away from a town or a city.
We were talking about aboriginal people before.
That's right.
It is a "tribal" means it is from a tribe.
Now maybe you can even have tribal pottery or pots or decorations or clothing.
But these are "tribal friends," which means they are probably aboriginal.
They are people from a local tribe.
Yeah. And usually tribal people don't live in towns; they live out in their own
community.
And so these three people went with Doris.
She said: It became difficult when we found earthquakes had destroyed part of
the trail.
Now that sounds definitely very scary because earthquakes are very common in
Taiwan where she was hiking.
And when the earth shakes, it can make trees fall and rocks fall and blocks the
trail, which usually means there're some sort of danger.
Exactly, yeah. She was out hiking.
She was on a trail, like a path that you hike on.
And an earthquake where the earth shook, like Kaylah said, destroyed it.
So she said: We had to cross high ridges by holding onto the mountainside with
deep valleys below.
Now let's talk about what a "ridge" is.
A ridge is the very top raised edge of something.
In this case, a mountain.
So she's... has to like work her way across the walls very carefully so she
doesn't fall.
She says it was also challenging to cross ancient swinging rope bridges.
And that does sound challenging.
And "challenging" means it is difficult, very hard.
She says: I decided to celebrate at home the next year.
It sounds like an exciting adventure.
But she did want to celebrate at home less adventurous next year.
Our next teacher is Steve.
And Steve says: The Spring Festival holiday in China is known for creating the
world's largest annual human migration.
Of course, we know something that is "annual" happens every year.
That's right.
It happens every year around the same time.
And a "migration" is when lots of people or animals move or travel from one area
to another.
And in 2000, as a foreign student in Harbin, he decided to join it.
We'll talk more about his adventure after the break.
Before we go, let's visit the Chat Room.
So Ken, what else is going on with you?
Well, I just got a postcard from my friend Jonathan.
Oh.
Here, take a look.
Wow!
Where is he?
Well, he's traveling around the U.S., but this postcard is from Los Angeles.
Oh, I see.
So does he like it there?
Yeah, he's having a great time.
Um, I actually have a question about something in his postcard.
Sure. What is it?
Well, he said this is his first time visiting the West Coast.
But he's capitalizing "West Coast." Now "west coast" isn't a proper noun, is it?
Actually, sometimes it is.
If you're using west coast to refer to the actual shoreline of an island or
country, then you're using it as a common noun and you don't need to capitalize
it.
But when you're talking about a region in the United States, it's a proper noun.
OK, I get it.
So West Coast, as a proper noun, refers to all the states in America that are
located along the west coast.
You're exactly right.
So if I say that Boston is on the East Coast, should that be capitalized too?
Yes. East Coast should also be capitalized since it's a specific part of the
U.S.
We refer to most regions in terms of directions.
You might hear about the South.
Ah, yeah, I do!
Is every state in the southern half of the U.S. part of the South?
Not really, Ken.
When we talk about "the South," we mostly mean the southeast.
Arizona and New Mexico were on the southern border of the United States, but
they're in the west.
So we would call them part of the Southwest, and not the South.
OK. What about the part of America that's called New England?
Is that a region too?
Yes, Ken.
New England is a region in the Northeast where the English first settled in
America.
Hmm, very interesting.
I've really learned a lot about American geography today.
Thanks.
No problem.