[ti:Successful People 'Take the World by Storm']
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:07.32]Now, Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English.
[00:12.52]Every week, we explore common expressions in American English.
[00:18.56]Thunder storms. Rain storms. Snow storms. Electrical storms!
[00:26.24] If conditions get bad enough,
[00:28.48]almost any kind of weather can become a storm.
[00:32.64]Stormy weather can cause people to cancel their plans.
[00:37.72] It can cause major events to be postponed.
[00:41.68]And severe stormy weather can be dangerous to people, property and animals.
[00:49.34]"Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky,
[00:57.32]stormy weather since my man and I ain't together,
[01:07.00]keeps raining all the time."
[01:12.28]Now, let's flip around the term "stormy weather."
[01:17.72]If you weather the storm, or ride out the storm,
[01:22.12] you survive and move on without harm or injury.
[01:27.92] For example, let's talk about Tornado Alley,
[01:31.88] the name for part of the central United States.
[01:36.52] During springtime, this area often has a large number of powerful tornadoes.
[01:44.04] People who live there are taught to hunker down
[01:47.80]in the safest place they can find and wait for the storm to pass.
[01:54.56]People who live in Tornado Alley are used to weathering many storms!
[02:01.12]You can also weather a storm, they doesn't involve actual weather.
[02:07.76] "To weather the storm" can also mean to make it through a difficult experience or trying times.
[02:16.72]So, if the stock market crashes, you might have to weather a financial storm.
[02:24.24] If you are a politician who gets discredited in public,
[02:28.84]you may have to lie low and weather the political storm.
[02:34.56]Often before a big storm, conditions are calm.
[02:40.24]The calm before the storm can happen anytime.
[02:44.68]It is the time before something bad happens.
[02:48.96]For example, at the beginning of a family reunion,
[02:52.88]the adults were all talking happily.
[02:55.96]But the older children knew it was just the calm before the storm.
[03:01.72]They've seen it happen before.
[03:04.24]The adults talk happily for about an hour.
[03:07.44]Then they start arguing about events from the past
[03:11.52]-- things that should really stay buried!
[03:15.36] But after the storm begins and you find yourself in the middle of it,
[03:20.64]you are in the eye of the storm.
[03:24.40]In the world of weather, the eye of the storm is the calmest part,
[03:30.12]in the center of a hurricane, for example.
[03:33.72]However, in the English language, if you are in the eye of the storm,
[03:40.16]you are in the most intense part of a conflict.
[03:44.68]For example, she had no idea that walking into the meeting
[03:49.92]would put her in the eye of the storm.
[03:54.00]Now, a storm can cause great destruction,
[03:58.28]but it can also cause excitement.
[04:01.20] It's something people talk about.
[04:04.56] If you want to give people something to talk about,
[04:07.96]you might want to use the following "storm" phrasal verb.
[04:13.44]Combining a verb with "up" and then the words "a storm"
[04:18.40]gives you a very useful phrasal verb.
[04:22.24]It means doing something to a great extent or degree.
[04:27.44] For example, if you danced all night,
[04:30.64]you can say you danced up a storm.
[04:34.12]If you spend the whole month writing a book,
[04:37.04]you can say you wrote up a storm.
[04:40.40] If you are at a party and meet someone who won't keep quiet,
[04:44.56]you can say they are talking up a storm.
[04:48.28] I think you get the idea.
[04:51.28] Let's look again at the verb "to storm."
[04:55.64]It can also mean to attack.
[04:58.88] If soldiers storm a military base, they are attacking it.
[05:05.00]Used another way, you could say one storms into a place.
[05:11.32]We only do this when we are angry and/or full of purpose.
[05:18.60]For example, if you find out that someone at the place where you work
[05:23.52] is making twice as much as you do while doing less work
[05:28.40] -- you might storm into your supervisor's office and demand a raise.
[05:35.08]But I would suggest that you call,
[05:38.10]make an appointment and calmly walk into the meeting.
[05:43.72]There is another very useful expression involving the word "storm."
[05:49.20]But it has two very different meanings.
[05:53.92]Taking something by storm can suggest a sudden,
[05:58.32]perhaps violent attack.
[06:01.00]For example, the police took the bank by storm and arrested the bank robbers.
[06:07.96]But this term can be used in another way.
[06:12.12] "To take something by storm" can mean to have great and sudden success in a certain field.
[06:20.96]And that field can be just about anything.
[06:25.04]Let's say you are a great cook and open a new restaurant.
[06:29.96]Everyone loves it and it quickly becomes a big success.
[06:35.36] You can then say you took the restaurant world by storm.
[06:42.68]Or maybe you are a gifted violinist and perform in over 100 cities.
[06:49.28]Critics love you and they say you are taking the classical music world by storm.
[06:55.88]So, taking something by storm is a good thing.
[07:00.64]But a perfect storm is not.
[07:03.80]In the world of weather, a perfect storm is a violent storm
[07:09.00]that results from a rare combination of severe weather events.
[07:15.36]We can use this expression in other situations, but the meaning is the same.
[07:22.04] It's when a particularly bad or critical situation
[07:26.44]arises from several bad and usually unpredictable events.
[07:33.28]Let's hear this one in an example.
[07:37.12]You are going on a trip and you are very excited!
[07:41.20]You have no idea that a perfect storm is building to ruin your vacation.
[07:47.24]First, the city where you're going has an unexpected electrical outage.
[07:53.36]Then when you arrive you find that the airline has lost your luggage.
[07:59.28]And finally you discover that a person you really don't like
[08:03.68] is staying in the same hotel and wants to hang out the whole time!
[08:09.52]There are other kinds of storms.
[08:13.00]Firestorm is also another "storm" word that can used
[08:18.44]when talking about the weather and real life.
[08:23.00]An actual firestorm is a strong, damaging fire
[08:27.60]that often has tornado-like columns of fire.
[08:32.27]In conversation, a "firestorm" is a violent outburst
[08:38.12]or disagreement that causes damage.
[08:42.20] For example, the movie star created a firestorm
[08:46.64]when she made comments about the political situation in her home country.
[08:53.32]However, a brainstorm does not exist in the world of weather.
[08:58.92]To brainstorm means to try to solve a problem by talking with other people.
[09:06.32]And that's Words and Their Stories for this week.
[09:09.18] I'm Anna Matteo.
[09:10.80]And I'm Bryan Lynn.
[09:12.52]And don't worry. If we have trouble thinking of an idea for the next program,
[09:17.68]we can always brainstorm with you!
[09:20.28]"Riders on the storm, riders on the storm.
[09:28.12]Into the house we're born, into this world we're thrown." 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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