【话匣子英语】令人怀念的加拿大儿童节目

 安德鲁和莫拉格今天讨论的是令人怀念的加拿大儿童电视节目.....

Andrew: And I guess I should catch everybody up with what this episode¹ will be about

today. We’re going to do a Chatterbox episode. And this is where we have a

natural conversation. We use 100% natural English, just like we would in our

everyday lives, but we speak just a touch slower and we are conscious² of the

fact that you are English learners. We keep that in mind to make our

conversation a little easier to understand than maybe a conversation on the

street, for example. But our topic today is nostalgic Canadian kids’ TV.

 

Morag: I’m so excited.

 

Andrew: Yeah, so I guess a little background: The other day I was hanging out with

some of my Korean friends and we were speaking in Korean, and the topic

of TV came up. We were talking about TV and I know a little bit about current³

Korean TV, some of the popular celebrity⁴ talk shows that are on the air now.

 

But my friends started talking about TV shows that are now off the air and I

had no idea what they were talking about. I wasn’t able to participate in the

conversation. And it struck me that, you know, cultural knowledge, knowing

about the pop culture of the language you’re trying to learn, is very important.

 

And so this made me realize, whoa, there is a lot of really weird⁵ Canadian

TV, especially from the 80s and 90s that our generation grew up with, that if

you’re not aware of it, you might find yourself in a situation that is similar to

the one that I was in.

So here we have it today, nostalgic Canadian kids’ TV.

 

Morag: I don’t know, Andrew, though, I think you’re really right about cultural

knowledge being incredibly important for communicating with other people.

When I was a kid, I was sort of not allowed to watch TV, but my parents knew

that if I had no idea what the other kids were watching, I wouldn’t be able to

make friends the same way or have the same shared experience, so I did get

to watch a little.

 

Andrew: OK, so that is very interesting. And what we’ll do to start this episode is we’ll

talk about some of our TV-watching habits when we were kids. So, yeah,

that’s interesting. You said that your parents didn’t really let you watch TV.

Could you talk a little bit more about that?

 

Morag: Sure. Let’s put it this way: I did not have access to unregulated, unsupervised

television, and for a long time I wasn’t even aware that there were kids’

shows. I was allowed to watch some movies or some things that were prerecorded,

or I was allowed to watch things with my parents.

 

But the reason for that was actually they were worried about advertising⁶ and

me being literate⁷ in the sense of understanding what marketing⁸ was and, you

know, how some things can be taking advantage of you, or presenting

something that’s kind of messed up, you know? So I had somebody, usually

my mom, sitting with me and sort of asking me questions about—even when

I was a really little kid—asking me questions about what I was watching, and

seeing if I was thinking critically⁹ about it.

 

Andrew: Mmhmm.

 

Morag: It’s a pretty cool way to go about it, honestly. Like, I’m quite thankful for it

now. But my favourite stuff¹⁰ and the stuff that I really remember, I was just

enjoying, like kids do, you know?

1 episode   

n.（作品的一段）情节，插曲，系列事件中之一

参考例句：

• The episode was a huge embarrassment for all concerned.这段小插曲令所有有关人员都感到非常尴尬。
• This episode remains sharply engraved on my mind.这段经历至今仍深深地铭刻在我的心中。

2 conscious   

adj.有意识的，自觉的；有意识的，神志清醒的

参考例句：

• I was not conscious of having made a mistake.我没意识到犯了错误。
• He is badly hurt but still conscious.他伤得很重，不过神志还清醒。

3 current   

n.涌流，趋势，电流，水流，气流；adj.当前的，通用的，流通的，现在的，草写的，最近的

参考例句：

• Electric current is often powerful enough to kill a man.电流常强得足以致命。
• There is a story about her in the current number.最近一期上有关于她的故事。

4 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

5 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

6 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

7 literate   

n.学者；adj.精通文学的，受过教育的

参考例句：

• Only a few of the nation's peasants are literate.这个国家的农民中只有少数人能识字。
• A literate person can get knowledge through reading many books.一个受过教育的人可以通过读书而获得知识。

8 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

9 critically   

吹毛求疵地；重要地

参考例句：

• Last night she was critically ill in intensive care. 昨晚她病危，处于重病特别护理中。
• The plane was critically disabled when one of the engines caught fire. 有一台引擎起火，使飞机严重受损。

10 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。