【英语趣味课堂】让孩子远离科技产品-Keeping Technology away from Children

Rebecca: Alright, so today we're going to talk about kids and technology. So Gareth, you're a father. Do you have any opinions on when children should be introduced to technology?

 

Gareth: Yeah, I have a lot of opinions. I'm really interested in parenting, being a parent, and also technology, so it's interesting, and I often wonder whether or not I should let my kid play with computers and when I should start introducing these kinds of technologies like a cellphone and that kind of stuff¹.

 

Rebecca: So do you have any interesting stories about this and children?

 

Gareth: In the last two weeks, my sons -- we've -- his grandfather actually, they are in cahoots about it. They destroyed, nearly destroyed, my computer. So I have a laptop computer, an apple laptop computer, and I left it at home, and I went to work, then I received an e-mail from my wife saying, call me as soon as you can, and I panicked and I called her as soon as I could, and she said that her father-in-law² and my son were eating dinner and my father-in-law had glass of milk, and he spilled it all over the computer.

 

Rebecca: Oh, know.

 

Gareth: Yeah, so when I heard this I thought, "Oh, know, it's probably damaged, destroyed" I probably need to send it to apple care and get them to retrieve³ my data, but luckily I got home and it works⁴ fine. I haven't noticed any damage, so far, but because it's water and it's coming into contact with metal, I'm worried that it's gonna rust⁵ over time, and start to damage it. So that's the kind of first story that I have about that. The second story, it happened today.

 

Rebecca: Today?

 

Gareth: Yeah, so yeah, I love apple products and I often want to buy the latest product, so I bought an iPad, and last night it came, so I downloaded some apps and I put some music on there, some photos on there and I found this really, really good app for my son, and it's about toy story, and he loves toy story, and it's a great app. It's like a book, but you can color the pictures and it reads the book to you, and you can record your own voice over the top of it, so I can later on get him to record his voice and act out some of the parts, so I've got this app loaded onto the iPad and I left it with him this morning when I came here, and my wife called me to say that he's already damaged to connector. Like he's bent⁶ the connector, and I don't know if it's damaged the iPad. Hopefully it hasn't but I'll find out soon.

 

Rebecca: Oh, my goodness⁷. So maybe trying to keep kids away from technology when they're young is better.

 

Gareth: That's what I've learned⁸.

 

Rebecca: At least cheaper.

 

Gareth: Exactly. If you had asked me this question two weeks ago, I would have said yeah, give them technology. Let them play, but now no.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

in cahoots

 

 

They are in cahoots about it.

 

When people are in cahoots, that means they are working together with a plan. People are often in cahoots to do something negative. Notice the following examples of cahoots:

 

The students were in cahoots to fool the teacher.

The husband and wife were in cahoots to commit the crime.

spill all over

 

 

He spilled it all over the computer.

 

When you spill something all over a surface, that means you cover it with the spilled item. If you spill something 'on' a surface, it is usually a small area, but if you spill something all over, them most of the area is covered. Notice the following:

 

I spilled coffee all over the table.

There was trash all over the floor.

retrieve my data

 

 

I asked them to retrieve my data.

 

When you retrieve something, you collect something that went away or was lost. If we retrieve data, then we get data back that we lost. Notice the following:

 

My dog retrieves⁹ the stick after I through it.

After the power outage we lost some data, but we were able to retrieve all of it.

over time

 

It's gonna rust over time.

 

When something happens over time, that means it happens eventually or in the future. Something might not happen immediately, but over time it will happen. Notice the following:

 

We all tend to forgive other people over time for their mistakes in life.

Over time, we all tend to get wiser.

over the top of

 

You can record your own voice over the top of it.

 

When you do something over the top of something else, that means you write or record over it. Often when we record over the top of something, we erase¹⁰ the original content and replace it with new content. Notice the following:

 

Don't record over that tape. I still want to watch it.

He wrote his name over the top of the picture which ruined it.

1 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。

2 father-in-law   

n.岳父，公公

参考例句：

• He met his future father-in-law during his visit to Boston.他在波士顿小住期间遇见了他未来的岳父。
• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。

3 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

4 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

5 rust   

n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退

参考例句：

• She scraped the rust off the kitchen knife.她擦掉了菜刀上的锈。
• The rain will rust the iron roof.雨水会使铁皮屋顶生锈。

6 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

7 goodness   

n.善良，善行，美德

参考例句：

• Would you have the goodness to turn off the radio?劳驾，请你把收音机关上好不好？
• Thank goodness,we've found a cure for the disease.好了，这病有救了！

8 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

9 retrieves   

v.取回( retrieve的第三人称单数 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• The mole comes in later, retrieves the item and packs it back in his gear. 鼹鼠随后到达，找回东西然后用他的传送装置返回。 来自电影对白
• Retrieves the pitch of the current image, in bytes. 得到代表目前图像斜度的字节数。 来自互联网

10 erase   

v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹

参考例句：

• He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
• Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。