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A New Life 全新的生活(上)
空中英語教室 20240923
修正下文英文文法，但是保留其中的中文
Sure! Here’s a corrected version of your text while keeping the Chinese parts intact:
Hello friends, and welcome to Studio Classroom!
We’re so glad you are here.
My name is Ann Marie.
And my name is John, friends.
Today is a great day to learn something new! It certainly is.
And it’s also a great day for a discussion.
John, how would you define a high-pressure job?
Okay, I’ve heard this one before. High pressure is something difficult, right? But a high-pressure job is a job where you don’t have a lot of time, and if you make mistakes, a lot of people are expecting things from you, right?
How would you define a high-pressure job?
Yeah, I think a high-pressure job for me would be a job where I couldn’t mess up at all, or where everyone was counting on me and had a lot of different expectations for me. I also think of the word "deadlines" when I think of high-pressure jobs.
That’s right! A deadline is when something is due, like when a project is due or a class or grade sometimes has a deadline.
Today, we’ll talk more about how high-pressure jobs can affect us. We’re going to hear an interesting story about a guy named Jason.
That’s right! Our lesson today is called "A New Life."
Let’s get into our first reading:
A New Life
Find out how Jason turned his life around. For years, Jason had thrived in high-pressure jobs that kept him focused on work. Every day was a race against the clock, with success measured in completed tasks and conquered deadlines.
Yet, despite his rise up the corporate ladder, Jason felt empty. It was as if he were running out of time to find true fulfillment.
Hi everyone, welcome to Language Lab!
I’m Jack. 首先来看名词 “deadline”，意思是截止日期或是最后期限。
譬如 "The manager emphasized the September thirtieth deadline to ensure the product’s introduction to the market went as planned."
结果，经理强调9月30日是最后期限，以确保该产品如期上市。
或是 "Eric set a personal deadline to finish reading his book before the weekend so he would have some leisure time."
Eric给自己设定的最后期限是在周末结束前要读完他的书，这样他才会有一些闲暇时间。
或是 "As the deadline for students to hand in their essays approached, many could be found working on the library’s computers."
随着学生提交论文的截止日期即将到来，许多人都在图书馆里打电脑赶工。
再来看名词 “fulfillment”，意思是完成或是满足。
例如 "After years of hard work, Melissa experienced a deep sense of fulfillment when she opened her own bakery."
经过多年的努力，当Melissa开设了自己的面包店时，她体会到深深的满足感。
或是 "The fulfillment of Ben’s dream to hike around Europe for two months gave him a new perspective on life."
实现了两个月徒步环游欧洲的梦想，这让他对生活有了新的看法。
“Fulfillment”的动词是 “fulfill”，它的过去分词 “fulfilled” 可以当形容词用，意思是满足的。
譬如 "Brenda felt fulfilled as she checked each item off her day’s to-do list."
当Brenda完成当天代办事项清单并在上面一一打勾时，她感到很满足。
All right, friends, let’s find out who Jason is. We read here, "Find out how Jason turned his life around."
Before we get into the story, we have to talk about this phrase.
What does it mean to turn your life around?
To turn your life around means to make a big change in your lifestyle or the way you’re living normally. It’s a really good thing! Your life is in trouble, but you turn it around.
There’s another expression, "to turn over a new leaf," that you might hear.
The idea of turning means to go in one direction and then find a new, hopefully better, direction.
That’s right! A lot of times we talk about turning your life around when someone was involved in something maybe bad or illegal, and then, after they turn their life around, they’re doing the right thing.
We read here that for years, Jason had thrived in high-pressure jobs that kept him focused on work.
Well, if you thrive in a situation, it means you’re doing really well and generally like to be there.
But we read here that this was a high-pressure job—multiple jobs, actually—and these high-pressure jobs forced Jason to focus on work.
That’s right! Again, "high pressure" means something that’s very difficult, with a lot of responsibility and relationships.
So he thrived, but it kept him focused on work. And what did it feel like?
Well, we read here that every day was a race against the clock, with success measured in completed tasks and deadlines.
Okay, a race against the clock just means time is going, and you need to do something quickly. It’s like you’re racing against the clock.
But we also have this word "deadlines" that we learned a little bit more about.
How did Jason feel because of this?
Well, it sounds like because his success was measured by how much he was doing and completing, it says here that despite his rise up the corporate ladder, he felt empty.
We need to talk about the idea of a corporate ladder. We usually use the verb "to climb the corporate ladder" in this situation.
What that means is that as you are in your career, you are getting higher and higher in the rankings, not just within the company but maybe in the fields you are in.
So if you’re climbing the corporate ladder, it means you’re actively working towards promotions and maybe some type of pay raise, or becoming more important in your career.
That’s right! The noun version of "corporate" is "corporation." Sometimes you’ll talk about a corporation making this or that project.
So he’s climbing the corporate ladder, but he feels empty.
That’s just a way of saying he doesn’t feel happy; it’s not fulfilling him.
"Fulfilling" is the opposite of feeling empty.
Yeah, that’s right! And we find out here it was as if he were running out of time to find true fulfillment.
We have another time-related phrase here, friends: "to run out of time." If you run out of time, it means you don’t have a lot of time left.
I always think of something called an hourglass with this phrase.
An hourglass is one of those little jars that you flip upside down, and sand drops out.
That time is literally running out into the bottom of the hourglass.
Friends, have you ever felt like you’re running out of time?
I know as a student, a lot of times time is running out, and you have all these deadlines. We hope you’re doing okay!
Let’s see what Jason does in our next section here:
A New Life
Realizing that he was living on borrowed time hit Jason in the blink of an eye during a late-night project.
Once again, he was working in the dead of night. He started thinking about his life, only to find it lacking. The never-ending cycle of meetings and projects had left him yearning for a moment of peace and quiet.
He desired a chance to lose track of time and not feel the pressure of finishing a task.
接下来看看 “desire” 这个字。它可以当动词或名词，意思是渴望或欲望。
譬如 "Inspired by his recent trip to Rome, Ernie desired to learn Italian."
而Ernie受到最近罗马之行的启发，想要学习意大利文。
或是 "Barb and Paul desired a quiet evening at home after an extremely busy week."
经过非常忙碌的一周，Barb和Paul希望在家中度过一个宁静的夜晚。
或是 "Shelley’s desire to win drove her to practice tennis every evening after work."
Shelley对胜利的渴望驱使她每天晚上下班后练习网球。
Friends, as you might have guessed, this lesson is all about phrases and idioms relating to time.
We have a few more that we are going to talk about in this next section.
The first one is "to live on borrowed time."
I’m going to define it first before we read the sentence. When you live on borrowed time, it means that you are likely to die or be forced to stop doing something soon.
So dying, of course, is more serious, but it could also mean that you are forced out of a position or forced to change in some way.
Keeping that in mind, let’s read this sentence:
"Realizing that he was living on borrowed time hit Jason in the blink of an eye during a late-night project."
We have another phrase we need to talk about: "in the blink of an eye." A blink is when you close your eyes really quickly, by the way. A wink, with a "w," is when you close one of your eyes. A blink is with both eyes.
You can remember that because of the "b" for blink.
So when you blink your eyes, it normally happens super quickly, right?
So "in the blink of an
eye" as an idiom means as quickly as it would take to blink your eyes. He gets hit with an idea.
So what’s that realization or idea? We read here:
Once again, he was working in the dead of night. First of all, "dead of night" means in the middle of the night, usually when everything is dark outside and everyone is sleeping.
He was working in the dead of night. That’s crazy! His job truly is high pressure if he has to keep these kinds of hours.
He started thinking about his life, only to find it lacking. "Lacking" means not having something, so he’s missing something; he’s feeling empty.
What is he missing? Well, we learn that the never-ending cycle of meetings and projects had left him yearning for a moment of peace and quiet.
If you’re reading this article, you’re looking for a theme here. This is a good theme sentence: the never-ending cycle means things don’t stop; they keep happening one after another.
Do you know what never ends in my house?
John: Laundry!
How did you know?
Having kids at home means that the laundry is never-ending. As soon as you finish one load, there’s another one waiting for you.
But Jason’s never-ending cycle was meetings and projects. We see an interesting word here: "yearning." If you yearn for something, it means you really, really want it—usually deep down inside you. This is a very important desire for you, something that you truly want.
And what he wants is peace and quiet.
"Peace and quiet" is something that we all need sometimes. "Peace" means there’s no conflict, and "quiet" means silence.
But how is he going to get peace and quiet? Well, we learn that he desired a chance to lose track of time and not feel the pressure of finishing a task.
So we’re getting into his thinking here. "Desire" we already learned about, and he wants the chance to lose track of time.
Here’s another really useful time idiom: to "lose track of time." This means you don’t know what time it is or how long you have spent on something. For example, sometimes when you’re doing a hobby or something you really enjoy—like for me, it’s talking to a good friend—I sometimes lose track of time. I realize, "Wow, I’ve been talking to this person for a really long time!" I had no idea it was time to go home.
The point here is that Jason doesn’t have a chance to do this in his current life. He’s always looking at the time, getting to meetings on time, and meeting deadlines. He doesn’t have a chance to just relax and lose track of time.
That’s right!
It’s because he always feels pressure. We talked about high pressure. The word "pressure" has another verb in it: to "press," which means to push. So if you’re always feeling pressed by stress, it’s hard to live that way. I hope I’m not feeling stressed by this lesson. So let’s read on and see what else is happening. First, though, it’s time for our Info Cloud.
Hello, friends!
Welcome to Info Cloud. Hey, Garrett! Have you ever heard people say they are living on borrowed time?
Sure, Rex. It’s an interesting phrase. It can mean that someone is in a situation where they could die soon, but it can also mean someone is fortunate to be alive, having survived a risky situation. The idea is that everyone has a limited amount of time in life, so it’s sort of like saying that you have used all your time, but you are still alive, so you must have borrowed some extra time.
Exactly. It’s like saying someone has been given extra time they weren’t supposed to have. So it’s a bit like saying you have defied the odds or cheated fate. Can you give me an example?
Sure! Imagine someone survives a serious illness or a dangerous accident. You might say they are living on borrowed time because they are alive despite the odds. That is similar to the idea of being given a second chance in life.
Would you say people who survive near-death experiences are also living on borrowed time?
Absolutely, Rex! It’s a reminder to cherish life and make every moment count.
living on borrowed time不久于人世生命的每一刻都值得我们珍惜。
今天跟大家分享的用语是 living on borrowed time，字面上就是用借来的时间生活。
"Living on borrowed time" 可以用来表达一个人因为某种原因可能不久于人世，活着的每一分钟都是宝贵的。
Grandpa is sick, and he’s living on borrowed time.爷爷生病了，他剩下的时间不多了。
如果一个人奇迹似的生存下来，你可以说 he was given a second chance in life.他获得第二次机会，生命得以延续。
这就是今天的 Info Cloud。咱们下次云端见。
A New Life
In a move that surprised even himself, Jason decided it was about time for a change. He longed for a life where he could enjoy mornings at the crack of dawn without any pressure. With a mixture of fear and excitement, he resigned from his job.
最后来看动词 "resign"，意思是辞职。
譬如，after much thought, Deb decided to resign from her job to pursue further studies abroad.经过深思熟虑，Deb决定辞职，出国进修。
"Resign" 也有放弃的意思。
譬如，when her mother got sick, Annie resigned herself to not going on her trip to California. Annie的母亲生病后，她就放弃不去加州旅行了。
"Resign" 的名词是 "resignation"，意思是辞职。
譬如，feeling her job was just too demanding, Betty wrote a letter of resignation and looked for a better work-life balance. 贝利感到工作要求太高，于是写了一封辞职信，并寻求更好的工作与生活平衡。
Jason is going to make a change. We read here that in a move that surprised even himself, Jason decided it was about time for a change. When we see that he surprised even himself, it means he didn’t even know that this is what he was going to do or that this is what he wanted to do. Other people around him were surprised; he himself was also surprised. But he had decided it was about time for a change.
What does it mean if it’s about time to do something?
Well, it means it’s the right time. But if you don’t want to give a specific moment, you can say, "Hey guys, it’s about time to eat." This means the time is pretty much here, but you don’t have to be too specific.
Here’s another example:
"Whoa, you got a new phone!"
"It was about time!" If we say it that way, it means that you really needed to get a new phone; it was time for it to happen. That’s similar to how the phrase is used in this lesson as well. Jason feels that it is time for a change, so he’s going to make it.
He longed for a life where he could enjoy mornings at the crack of dawn without any pressure. The "crack of dawn" is very early. Sometimes we use the word "daybreak," which means the light from the sun is coming up over the planet and begins to shine.
So "the crack of dawn" or "daybreak" can also be referred to as "the breaking dawn" or "the breaking of the dawn." What Jason is saying is that he does not want to have to get up as soon as the sun does to start working.
I’m sure we can all relate to that, right? When you’re a student, some people are really morning people; they like to get up at the crack of dawn or at daybreak. Maybe people want to get up and exercise at the crack of dawn.
Yeah, I wish I could get up at the crack of dawn and do what I wanted to do. But you know, for most of us, we have to go to school or work. So I do understand where Jason is coming from.
That’s right! So how does he feel about this? What did he do?
Well, we learn that with a mixture of fear and excitement, he resigned from his job. We already learned that to "resign" means to quit. It’s kind of a nicer way of saying that. If you resign, the idea is that you very politely say, "I’m going to step back from this; I’m not going to work here anymore." Of course, this is different from being fired. If you’re fired, you don’t have a choice to leave your job; it means your boss has decided that you can’t work here anymore.
That’s right! So anytime you quit a job or things change, you’re not just feeling one emotion. You feel a mixture of emotions. What does Jason feel? Well, he feels a mixture of fear and excitement when he resigns.
I wonder, that certainly is a big move. What will happen next? We’re going to find out tomorrow, but right now, it’s time for today’s fun fact.
Hello, fact friends!
I am Detective Ernest Finder, and I have a fun fact for you today. Did you know that humans are always under pressure?
Atmospheric pressure.
What is atmospheric pressure?
Well, atmospheric pressure is the weight of air as it pushes against you.
Uh, so much pressure! Ugh!
Actually, it’s not too bad, but it’s always there, and that is today’s fun fact.
It is time to put those magazines away and put your notes down because we’re going to take a quiz.
I need you to fill in the blank. We learned a phrase in our lesson today that was "living unborrowed."
Here are three choices for you to choose from: "living unborrowed land," "living on borrowed space," or "living on borrowed time."
Okay, I know that if you borrow something, you can’t keep it forever.
"Borrowed time" is the expression. That’s a really good guess, considering most of our expressions in this lesson were all about time.
That’s right! What can I say? So "living on borrowed time" is when your time is running out.
Well, John, our time is running out for today’s lesson. So friends, we’re going to say goodbye, but we will see you next time right here on Studio Classroom!
A New Life 全新的生活(下) 空中英語教室 20240924
修正下文英文文法，但是保留其中的中文
I’m happy to help! Here’s the revised text with corrected grammar while retaining the original Chinese:
Hello, friends,
and welcome to Studio Classroom!
It’s great to have you with us on the program today.
My name is Ann Marie,
and my name is John. Friends,
today is a great day to learn something new,
so let’s do that together! That’s right,
we are learning something new about Jason.
Jason is a character from the story we started reading
yesterday in our article called "A New Life."
We found out that Jason generally worked in high-pressure jobs
for most of his life.
He had to race against the clock to meet all his deadlines.
That’s right; he was rising up the corporate ladder.
As you get promotions and better jobs,
you’re going up that ladder.
But he felt like he was living on borrowed time.
This was his big problem.
That’s right, and then suddenly, in the middle of the night,
he decided to make a change.
And that is where our lesson ended.
Yesterday, we found out that Jason resigned from his job.
What’s going to happen next?
Let’s go to today’s first reading and find out:
"A New Life."
Jason moved to a town far from the busy city life
he had known. He took a job at a local bookstore,
a huge contrast to his former life. The pace was slow,
allowing him to have time on his hands to connect with the community.
Hi everyone, welcome to Language Lab! I’m Jack.
我们先来看“pace”这个名词。
意思呢是节奏、速度或步伐。
例如，"The pace of technological change is so fast
that it can be difficult to keep up with the latest developments."
科技变革的速度太快，让人很难跟上最新的发展。
或是，“Emma set a fast pace early in the race,
hoping that the other runners would get tired quickly."
比赛一开始，Emma就快步迈开，
希望其他选手很快就会感到疲倦。
“Pace”如果当动词，则是踏步的意思。
譬如，“Aaron paced back and forth in the hall
before entering the room where his interview would take place.”
Aaron在进入面试房间之前，在大厅里来回踱步。
Jason resigned from his job, and what did he do? Well, we read here
he moved to a town far from the busy city life he had known.
Already we see from this sentence that there’s a really big change going on.
A city is, of course, a really big place to be; there are a lot of cars,
a lot of traffic, and big buildings.
You get the idea that life is very busy there.
But a town has a totally different feel, doesn’t it?
That’s right! Sometimes we talk about this word "life"
with another noun in front of it.
You can use that casually.
Sometimes you could talk about "party life,"
or "the peaceful life,"
"the quiet life,"
"the country life."
So sometimes you’ll just see different words put together.
But city life is very busy, and Jason had a lot of pressure.
So what does he do? Well,
he took a job now at a local bookstore,
and that is a huge contrast to his former life.
A lot of times, we use this phrase "to take a job"
when this isn’t like a permanent career.
So, for example,
in college, I took a job cleaning the local library on campus.
That really was one of my jobs in college.
I wasn’t planning on cleaning that college library
for the rest of my life,
but for the time being,
I took that job to help pay my way through college. Now,
this might be a permanent move for Jason,
or it might just be a temporary job as well.
We don’t know,
but it is very different from the career he had before.
It is a big contrast, right? So if something is a contrast,
it means it’s very different.
You can also use this as a verb to contrast two things,
but you pronounce it a little bit differently as a noun and a verb.
Yeah, that’s right! You might have heard
John just say the noun "contrast" and the verb "contrast."
You do need to make sure you pronounce
those differently depending on
which form of the word you are using.
But we find out about
what working at the bookstore was like here:
the pace was slow. You learned about "pace" in the Language Lab,
and this just refers to how fast you do something.
And here we find out it also refers to how he’s doing his job.
You can imagine working at a bookstore,
the pace might be slow
if you don’t have people constantly coming in.
People like to take their time at bookstores
and really look for what they want,
taking the time to find exactly the book that they want,
maybe asking him questions.
We’re going to learn more about that here in a minute.
But the pace was slow,
and this allowed Jason to have time on his hands.
Let’s talk about what that means.
Yeah, so there’s a great time expression.
You can use this phrase with other things besides time.
You could say, "Wow, I had a lot of extra food on my hands. Do you want some?"
It literally means something that you own or possess.
But if you have time,
this is a very common way to say you have too much time.
"I have too much time on my hands."
But I think for Jason,
this is a good thing. It definitely is.
And here’s another example of how to use that phrase:
you could say to your classmate,
"I have some extra time on my hands.
Do you need help with your homework?"
That’s saying that you’ve got all your homework done
and you have time to help them.
Well, Jason has time on his hands, and now
he can connect with the community.
Seems like something that would be very important to Jason,
since he’s trying to get away from high-pressure situations.
All right, friends, let’s continue learning with our next reading:
"A New Life."
In this peaceful setting,
Jason discovered the joy of losing track of time
among the rows of books.
He also enjoyed engaging in unhurried conversations
with customers who shared his love for literature.
The stress that had been his regular companion in the city
disappeared; it was replaced by a contentment
he had never known.
He found pleasure in the town’s simple routines.
接下来我们来看名词。
“Literature”意思是文学。
譬如，
“Susan dedicated her career to studying Russian literature.”
Susan的工作是致力于研究俄罗斯文学。
或是，“Students often find Shakespeare difficult to understand,
but studying his plays helps in understanding English literature.”
学生往往觉得莎士比亚的作品难以理解，
但研究他的戏剧有助于理解英国文学。
或是，“Grace enjoyed nothing more than drinking a cup of tea
and reading some classic literature.”
Grace最喜欢做的事情就是喝一杯茶，
阅读一些经典文学作品。
All right, thank you so much, Jack!
Well, we find out that this bookstore was a peaceful setting.
We need to talk about that word "setting,"
because we do use it in several different ways.
Here we’re using it to say the place where Jason worked,
what his surrounding environment was like.
Yeah, sometimes
"setting" can be the time and place where something happens.
Like you say the surrounding environment.
There’s a word you might know when we’re talking about a movie
being filmed; you say, "What is the set like?"
And the set is the made-up setting
where a movie is happening.
So actors act on the set—a kind of fun word.
That’s the noun version. Another noun for "setting."
We learned that Jason really likes this new setting, doesn’t he?
He really does! And we read here
that he discovered the joy of losing track of time
among the rows of books. Well,
the joy of something is just the enjoyment that you can get from doing something.
Yeah, and we have this phrase again: "to lose track of time." Friends,
a track is a path; sometimes it’s the path that happens behind something.
So let’s say you were walking in the snow;
you would leave tracks, and someone could follow your tracks.
But if they lost your tracks,
they wouldn’t know where you are.
And that is like time; if you don’t know what time it is,
you’ve lost track of the time.
So he loses track of time
among the rows of books in his bookstore.
He also enjoyed engaging in unhurried conversations
with customers who shared his love for literature.
"Unhurried" is just what it sounds like, right?
Yeah, it means that the conversation is happening in a slow,
natural way.
A hurried conversation might be done in just a few minutes,
and everyone only gets to the point of what they want to say.
But the idea of an unhurried conversation is that people are really talking about
and exploring their thoughts and feelings about a certain topic.
In this case, we are talking about a love of literature.
What a great place to work if you love literature—a bookstore!
That’s right!
And this is good for Jason; his stress starts to go away.
We’ve all experienced stress, right?
But we learned the stress that had been Jason’s regular companion in the city disappeared.
Wow, this is great! Okay,
but what does it mean that stress is your companion?
Well, usually, "companion" is a positive thing,
like, for example, I often think of a cat or a dog
that people have as their companion—
something or someone that’s always with you,
it never leaves your side.
Here, it’s used in a negative way, though;
if stress is your companion,
it has the idea that you can’t get rid of the stress,
that that stress always follows you.
That’s right; it never leaves you.
So "companion" is a word that means someone that’s together with you.
You get this word used in the word "company," right?
A company is a group of people that are kind of companions in doing something for business. But stress is leaving him as a companion—that’s great! What does it get replaced by, though? It gets replaced by a contentment that he had never known. That’s beautiful!
What is contentment? Well, contentment is a state of happiness and being satisfied with where you are. If you’re a content person, it means you’re not trying to find the next thing, or buy the next thing, or try to change your life situation in any way. You’re just happy right where you are. You could use that in a sentence: you could say, “I find contentment in gardening.” Bob found contentment when he thought about the things he was thankful for. That’s a good point!
Okay, so he had never felt contentment before—Jason, that is—but now he has found it. He found pleasure in the town’s simple routines. I like this idea! A town usually has a much slower environment than a city. A city is very fast-paced, and Jason really enjoyed that the town was not as busy as the city and had simple routines.
All right, friends, it’s time for us to learn something new in today’s Infocloud.
Hello, everyone! Welcome to Infocloud. Garrett, do you ever feel like you just don’t have enough time, like life is just too short?
Absolutely! Sometimes I start my day with a full to-do list, and then before I know it, the day is over in the blink of an eye.
Oh, yeah, I hate that! But I don’t hate that phrase you used. When we describe something that appears and then is gone in a short period of time, we can say that it happens in the blink of an eye. You blink when you close an eye and open it again. We blink thousands of times every day, but we do it so fast we don’t even think about it. So if something happens in the blink of an eye, it must happen very quickly. You might say, “I saw the train coming, and in the blink of an eye, it was gone again.”
Here’s another: “I sat down to write my homework, but it was time for dinner. In the blink of an eye…” The saying is a good reminder to make the most of each and every day because life is short.
I agree! You don’t want the days to pass by in the blink of an eye without doing anything important.
in the blink of an eye一眨眼间 当一件事情很快地发生又很快地结束，你可以用今天分享的用语 in the blink of an eye 来形容. In the blink of an eye 就是一眨眼的瞬间，那就是来得快，去得也快。Sarah’s purse was stolen in the blink of an eye. Sarah 的皮夹突然之间被偷了，也就是说这件事情发生得太快，她完全没发现。这个用语也可以形容时间过得很快的感觉。
“Before I knew it, the day was over in the blink of an eye.” 在我发现之前，一整天的时间很快就过去了。这就是今天的 Infocloud，我们下次云端见。
A New Life
As months turned to years, Jason often reflected on his decision to leave the city. It would have been only a matter of time before that pace would have taken its toll. He felt fortunate to have made the leap in the nick of time. His life now was measured not in deadlines and promotions, but in moments of personal fulfillment.
再来看片语 take its toll，意思是付出代价或造成伤害。例如，years of working long hours finally began to take its toll on Ruby’s health. 多年来，长时间的工作最终开始影响了 Ruby 的健康。或者是，financial pressures took such a toll on the small business that the owner had to let people go. 财务压力对这家小企业的影响很大，老板不得不解雇员工。或是 the heat took a toll on the runners in the race, and many had to slow down or stop. 高温影响了比赛中的选手，许多人不得不减速或停下来。
最后来看 promotion 这个名词，意思是晋升或是促销。譬如，to celebrate her promotion, Lucy invited her close friends and coworkers to a dinner party at her favorite restaurant. 为了庆祝高升，Lucy 邀请了好友和同事参加她在最喜欢的餐厅中所举办的晚宴。派对。或是，the company announced a promotion that offered fifty percent off of all outdoor gear. 公司宣布了一项促销活动，所有户外用品都打 5 折。
Promotion 的形容词是 promotional，也就是促销的。譬如，the store’s promotional campaign featured a buy one, get one free offer to attract customers during the holiday season. 这家商店的促销活动主打买一送一的优惠，好在假日期间吸引顾客购物。
All right, friends, let’s find out how Jason’s story ends. We read here that as months turned into years, Jason often reflected on his decision to leave the city earlier. I said I’m not sure if Jason is going to stay at the bookstore permanently. Well, friends, it looks like he’s staying there for at least a few years.
Months turned into years means originally the time was passing maybe slowly, and months were going by, but then years started going by. You could use that expression with any other two measures of time—small to big. You could say minutes turned into hours, hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks. So it’s just talking about the passage of time or the movement of time.
So Jason stays, and he often reflects on his big decision: his decision to leave the city. Reflecting is something that mirrors do—do you see your face reflected? But here it’s not used that way. Reflecting is talking about it and has the idea of thinking about something later. So you’re thinking about something that already happened, and you’re thinking about it after you had time to process it or think about how maybe you would do things differently or just thinking about a time in your life that was different.
For example, I often reflect on my time spent in college, and I wish I would have spent more time with my friends. Hmm, I see. Reflecting, looking back on something, is another way to say that.
So he’s reflecting, and he thinks it would have been only a matter of time before the pace would have taken its toll. That pace would have taken its toll. Okay, “only a matter of time” is kind of like the expression we used on borrowed time. But if you say it’s only a matter of time before something, it means that time is running out. That’s right, and it means that this thing is eventually going to happen for sure; there’s no question about it.
Here’s an example of how you could use “only a matter of time” in a sentence: “The work environment at that company was so bad, it was only a matter of time before she quit.” It was definitely going to happen.
All right, what we read on here: he felt fortunate to have made the leap in the nick of time. Another great time-related phrase! That’s right. By the way, a leap means a jump, but it doesn’t have to be a physical jump. It can just mean a change; a leap is a big change.
But in the nick of time—another great expression! It means just in time; there’s no extra time. In the nick—a nick is like a little cut—so it means you barely escape something, usually.
Well, we read here in the very last sentence: his life was now measured not in deadlines and promotions, but in moments of personal fulfillment. Let’s define what personal fulfillment is, friends. This is talking about the achievement of your goals that are important to you as a person, in contrast to the expectations of society or family.
So maybe family or society has certain expectations for you; they have a certain life path for you, and that’s fine. But your personal fulfillment refers to the goals that you have for yourself. That’s right! You could use it in a sentence: “Lee finds personal fulfillment in making art, even though he doesn’t make a lot of money.”
Friends, how do you measure your happiness? What is your personal fulfillment? Well, think more about this question, but for now, it’s time for our fun fact.
Hello, fact friends! I’m Detective Ernest Finder, and I have a fun fact for you today. Did you know that a deadline comes from an actual line that you should not cross because you would die? Thankfully, most deadlines will not kill you—depending on your boss! And that is today’s fun fact.
I have a thought-provoking question to ask us as we finish our article.
Okay, what is it? Have you ever made a big decision that turned your life around or changed your life in some significant way?
Well, yeah, and recently.
Okay, what was that? The decision to move from the west to the east was a really big decision for me. This is where my wife is from, and we have three kids, so it was a big decision. What kind of language are we going to have the kids practice? Where are we going to live? But I’ll tell you what—I feel very fulfilled personally that we made that decision.
You stole my answer!
Oh yeah? I was going to say the same thing! The decision to move to Asia really changed the way my life was heading. My life would look totally different if I was raising my kids in the United States.
Yeah, sometimes a big move can make a difference.
But sometimes you don’t even have to move far to make a big change. Maybe you’ve been really stressed, and things seem very difficult, and it’s a matter of changing the way you think about a problem.
That’s a really great point, friends! We hope you have enjoyed this lesson. We have a brand new lesson for you next time, so make sure you come back and join us right here on Studio Classroom!
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