AS IT IS 2015-12-17 One Direction, Cast of Star Wars Sing on Late Night TV

AS IT IS 2015-12-17 One Direction, Cast of Star Wars Sing on Late Night TV

This is What’s Trending Today.

Cast of Star Wars in “a capella” video

Everyone is excited for the new Star Wars movie coming out on Thursday night.

Cast members like Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Lupita Nyong’o, Harrison Ford¹ and Carrie Fisher are making appearances on all the TV shows.

The group teamed up with comedian² Jimmy Fallon, the host of “The Tonight Show,” to record an “a capella” using the music from Star Wars. An “a capella” performance means the singers are performing without being accompanied by instruments or recorded music.

Fallon’s show is known for producing these amusing³ concerts with singers like Adele and Mariah Carey. The Star Wars actors, storm troopers and famous robots like R2-D2 joined Fallon and his band, the Roots, to sing “A long time ago in a galaxy⁴ far, far away…”

The Star Wars “a capella” received over 500,000 views during its first day on YouTube.

One Direction, too!

Not to be outdone, British comedian James Corden made his own video with the boy band One Direction.

Corden hosts “The Late Late Show,” and is known for a routine called “Carpool Karaoke.”

In the routine, Corden and a celebrity⁵ drive around Los Angeles singing along to songs on the car’s radio.

In the past, Corden invited Justin Bieber, Stevie Wonder, Iggy Azalea and others to ride along.

On Tuesday’s show, he asked the four members of One Direction to join him.

The hashtag #1DCarpoolKaraoke was the top trending item on Twitter during most of the day Wednesday.

Check out band members Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Harry⁶ Styles singing along with Corden.

Panda Bei Bei Makes His Debut⁷

There are only about 2,000 giant pandas in the world. The black-and-white creatures from China are one of the world’s most famous endangered species⁸.

Four giant pandas live at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

The panda cub⁹ Bei Bei was born in August. His parents are Tian Tian and Mei Xiang.

After four months, he was introduced to the media on Wednesday. Bei Bei weighs about 8 kilograms.

The zoo showed Bei Bei to get people ready for the giant panda exhibit’s re-opening next month.

Spiders in a hole

Halloween was back in October. But everyone has time for a scary video, right?

That’s what one blogger for the TV channel “Animal Planet” must have thought when she posted a video Tuesday.

A video titled “Crazy Scary Spider Hole” has almost three million views on YouTube, and most of them came in the last couple days.

The video shows children investigating a hole in a rock wall.

They’re saying “it’s not poisonous. They’re not poisonous.”

And then one of the kids’ fathers says “stand back, I’m going to pull them out” and reaches into a hole and pulls out a handful of insects that people call daddy longlegs.

People think they are like spiders and poisonous. But they are not. The mass of insects drops to the ground and scatters¹⁰.

Words in This Story

galaxy – n. any one of the very large groups of stars that make up the universe

karaoke – n. a form of entertainment in which a device plays the music of popular songs and people sing the words to the songs they choose

shriek¹¹ – v. to make a loud, high-pitched cry

outdone– v. to do better than (someone or something) : to be more successful than (someone or something)

routine – n. a series of things (such as movements or jokes) that are repeated as part of a performance

celebrity – n. the state of being famous or celebrated

1 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

2 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

3 amusing   

adj.有有趣的，好玩的

参考例句：

• The girl was amusing herself with a doll.那女孩在玩洋娃娃自娱。
• He related some amusing stories in his childhood to his children.他向孩子们述说了他少年时代的一些趣事。

4 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

5 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。

6 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

7 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

8 species   

n.物种，种群

参考例句：

• Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗？
• This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。

9 cub   

n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人

参考例句：

• The lion cub's mother was hunting for what she needs. 这只幼师的母亲正在捕猎。
• The cub licked the milk from its mother's breast. 这头幼兽吸吮着它妈妈的奶水。

10 scatters   

v.（使）散开， （使）分散，驱散( scatter的第三人称单数 )；撒

参考例句：

• He scatters money about as if he were rich. 他四处挥霍，好像很有钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Truth raises against itself the storm that scatters its seeds broadcast. 真理引起了反对它自己的狂风骤雨，那场风雨吹散了真理的广播的种子。 来自辞典例句

11 shriek   

v./n.尖叫，叫喊

参考例句：

• Suddenly he began to shriek loudly.突然他开始大声尖叫起来。
• People sometimes shriek because of terror,anger,or pain.人们有时会因为恐惧，气愤或疼痛而尖叫。