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From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes
從事實到虛構：奧勒岡沙丘(上) 空中英語教室 20241129
dune KK[djun] DJ[dju:n] （風吹積成的）沙丘[C] clay dunes 土丘
"奧勒岡沙丘"指的是位於美國奧勒岡州的沙丘，這些沙丘是由風沙積累而成的巨大沙堆，分布在該州的太平洋沿岸地區。這些沙丘以其壯觀的景象而聞名，並且成為了許多生態學和地理學研究的重點。奧勒岡沙丘不僅在自然界中具有重要意義，也在文學和電影中擁有特殊地位，例如作為科幻小說《沙丘》（Dune）及其改編電影的靈感來源。 奧勒岡沙丘的範圍廣泛，其中有些地方的沙丘可以達到數百英尺高。這些沙丘在自然環境中扮演著重要的角色，提供棲息地給各種動植物，並且是許多戶外活動如沙灘車、滑沙等的熱門場所。
修正英文文法，保留中文部分，同時將簡體中文修改為繁體中文 Here is your text with the requested corrections:
Hello, friends, and welcome to Studio Classroom!
It’s great to have you with us 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!
We have a very interesting article for you today, friends.
It is called From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes.
Okay, so have you ever seen a sand dune before, John?
If you don’t know what a sand dune is, friends,
it’s kind of like a big hill, and it’s all made out of sand.
That’s right! Oftentimes, a big desert will have dunes,
but sometimes in the U.S.,
there are big sand dunes near lakes where there is a lot of wind.
I love going to the sand dunes. In college,
I went to a college in a town called Holland, Michigan, and there are beautiful sand dunes near the beach there.
So, I love climbing on sand dunes.
They get really hot, though— they do get super hot.
I went to visit sand dunes for the first time when I went to Japan with my family a few years ago.
There are some really huge, beautiful sand dunes on the coast of Japan.
I didn’t know about them until I visited,
but we are going to talk about some very specific dunes in today’s article—
the Oregon dunes. Let’s get right into our first reading of the day!
From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes
The environmental efforts that inspired a novel and what has happened since.
In March of 2024, audiences flocked to Dune Part 2,
the second part of a trilogy of movies based on Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel Dune.
Although the novel and the movie are set on a fictional planet called Arrakis,
their inspiration came from a real place—
the sand dunes in the U.S. state of Oregon.
Hi, everyone, welcome to Language Lab!
I’m Jack. 首先我們來看Dune這個名詞，意思是沙丘，譬如：
As far as the eye could see, sand dunes covered the entire area
放眼望去，沙丘覆蓋了整個區域，
或是The wind constantly changed the shape of the dunes,
reminding Isaac and Amelia of the changing beauty of nature
風不斷改變沙丘的形狀，讓Isaac和Amelia想起大自然變化的美麗。
來學一個相關的名詞：Dune Buggy，也就是指沙灘車，譬如：
The boys left a trail of dust as they raised their bright red dune buggy out onto the beach
男孩們開著輛紅色的沙灘車，在沙灘奔馳，留下了一道塵土飛揚的痕跡。
Okay, thank you so much, Jack! Before we get into our article, friends,
we have to talk about a pronunciation fact here for a minute. Now,
I say Oregon. What do you usually say, John?
I say Oregon, yeah.
I say it very similarly. Sometimes you can say Oregon or Oregon,
but it kind of depends on the area of the U.S. youre from.
Definitely! I have even heard it said Oregon before, too.
Now, I’m not sure what the exact way of saying it is if you are from Oregon,
and that is probably the most correct,
but I’m from the Midwest, and in the Midwest,
we do usually say Oregon.
So, that is how I’m going to pronounce it for this article,
but just know you might hear a few different pronunciations, friends.
But let’s get into our article. How do we begin here, John?
Well, we read The environmental efforts that inspired a novel and what has happened since.
So these dunes are famous for a very specific reason,
and we talk about this word inspired.
Inspired means to fill with a desire to do or create something.
So, what did these dunes inspire?
We’re going to find out in just a minute! I want to give you guys one more example
here for that word inspired, because it is a key word here in our article today,
and tomorrow we’re also going to see the word inspiration a little while later.
So here’s another example:
The poem inspired her to paint a picture.
So the idea here is that there is one thing,
and it makes someone want to create something else.
What in the world could dunes inspire?
Let’s read on.
Believe it or not, a movie— we read in March of 2024,
audiences flocked to Dune Part 2,
the second part of a trilogy of movies based on Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel Dune.
Okay, if you flock, it means you come together in a big group.
Flock by itself, as a noun, is a big group of birds. So when people flock together,
it’s almost as if they’re acting like a big group of birds moving together.
Yeah! So you could say The birds flocked to the place where the farmer was sowing seeds,
or you could say The people flocked to the department store because of the sale.
So people were flocking to Dune Part 2.
And this is the second part of a trilogy now.
A trilogy is a specific word that we use when it’s related to novels,
plays, or films,
and the idea here is that there are three of them in the series.
Yes, you know that there are three of something if you see tri at the beginning of it—
triceratops or a tricycle. And this movie was incredibly popular;
it made a lot of money.
We don’t necessarily encourage you to see this movie;
it is R-rated, there’s a lot of violence in there,
so I don’t really recommend that you see the movie,
but it was very famous,
and it was based on a very famous book Dune by a man named Frank Herbert.
Now, actually, this isn’t just one book,
and I don’t know if the movies were just inspired or based off of one book or the series,
because it is quite a large series, actually.
The two movies were based off of the first book,
and Frank Herbert wrote less popular books after that.
What’s interesting about this movie is that, well,
we read Although the novel and the movie are set on a fictional planet called Arrakis,
their inspiration came from a real place.
This science fiction movie was also the inspiration for George Lucas,
who wrote Star Wars, if you remember.
Yeah, those movies begin on a sandy, dune-like planet.
So that came a lot later. Dune was the original,
but the original—original—where did the inspiration come from?
Well, apparently Dune, which is largely regarded as a forerunner in the science fiction
genre of literature, means it was one of the first,
got its inspiration from the sand dunes in the U.S. state of Oregon.
Now, friends,
I just want to say here that we aren’t really talking about Dune,
the books and the movies, for most of our article.
We’re going to be talking about sand dunes in Oregon,
because they have a really truly interesting story.
So make sure you stick around!
Let’s get into our next reading right now.
From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes
Near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, piles of sand form hill-like mounds that shift with the wind.
The amount of sand in these dunes is immense—
so much so that people once feared that it would cover nearby towns.
再來看mound這個字：
當名詞是指土堆或是小丘，譬如：
To protect her delicate flowers from the winter winds,
Matilda piled mounds of dirt around them
為了保護嬌嫩的花，不受冬天寒風的侵襲，Matilda在周圍堆積了土堆，
或是The team carefully dug up an ancient mound,
uncovering items from a lost civilization
團隊小心地挖掘一個古老的土丘，發現來自失落文明的物品。
當動詞mound的意思呢，是堆成土堆，譬如：
The little girls laughed with delight as they mounded wet sand into castles on the beach
小女孩們在沙灘上快樂地笑著，把濕的沙子堆成城堡。
Okay, friends, let’s learn more about these Oregon dunes!
We read here:
Near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, piles of sand form hill-like mounds that shift with the wind.
Now, the state of Oregon is against the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of the United States. That’s right,
it’s a really beautiful state, and it has a lot of wind on the beach,
so it makes these piles... a pile is a great word.
A pile is a heap of things lying on top of one another.
And Marie, I know, at our house,
we have lots of piles of toys and clothes.
We do too!
And sometimes we have piles of trash if we haven’t taken the trash out very many times that week.
So yes, a pile means a lot of things on top of each other.
These piles of sand are special because they shift with the wind.
That’s right! If something shifts with the wind,
it means it changes based on the wind.
You could also use this metaphorically:
You could say Oh, his opinions shifted with the wind,
it just means something changes irregularly.
That’s right, and the word shift doesn’t mean to move in a big way;
it usually means to just move very slightly, change a little bit, or go in another direction.
So, the idea I get here is that these dunes are slightly moving a little bit at a time.
The amount of sand in these dunes is immense—
so much so that people feared it would cover nearby towns.
That’s a lot of sand!
Let’s talk about this phrase:
so much so. It’s a great phrase.
It means to such an extent that something else.
That’s right. Here’s an example:
He loves coffee so much so that he drinks it three times a day.
So, you can see in this example, friends,
that the second part of the sentence kind of proves the first part of the sentence.
I can say that he loves coffee,
but you really believe me when you hear that he drinks it three times a day.
So here we see a fact, right?
The amount of sand in these dunes is immense,
and what proves it is that people feared it would cover nearby towns.
Wow, so this will become the problem that we’re trying to fight!
But what does Frank Herbert,
the author of Dune, have to do with this book and this place in Oregon?
We’ll find out!
That’s right! We’re going to find out in just a moment, right after today’s InfoCloud!
Hello everyone,
Welcome to InfoCloud!
Have you ever been to the circus?
Once, when I was a kid,
I remember being amazed by the acrobats and tightrope walkers.
They are a favorite!
They amaze people with their skill and bravery.
When you are walking a tightrope,
you are high above the ground.
You have to keep your focus and balance, otherwise,
you might fall down.
So the phrase walking a tightrope can be used to describe tricky situations.
Maybe you are caught between two groups with different ideas,
and you have to find a way to make them both happy.
Maybe you are working on a tight deadline,
but still need to check carefully for mistakes.
When you are in a situation
that is challenging and requires focus,
you can say you feel like you are walking a tightrope.
Tightrope walkers don’t just walk—they often dance or do tricks
while balancing on the rope or wire.
So do you have what it takes to walk a tightrope?
To not only face a challenge but to look good doing it?
walk the tightrope 進退兩難 當一個人處在一個進退兩難的艱難處境，你可以用今天分享的用語 walk the tightrope來形容這種狀況。
walk the tightrope 就是走鋼索的意思，通常需要非常專注，一不小心就會跌下來。
walk the tightrope就可以形容一些需要非常專注、小心處理的挑戰和問題。
Tony is walking the tightrope in his business now.
Tony在事業上正面對進退兩難的處境。
這就是今天的 INFO Cloud。
下次雲端見！
From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes It was these fears that took Frank Herbert to Oregon in the 1950s.
He was a journalist planning an article on the risk of dunes
swallowing up towns
and ecologists efforts to prevent this from happening.
These efforts involved planting European beach grass,
hoping the plant’s long roots would hold the sand in place
and stop it from drifting into the town.
By the time Herbert arrived, the plants had been growing for decades,
and the plan was working.
Herbert found the ecologist’s plan impressive and inspiring.
His article was never published,
but the human attempt to tame the drifting sands
caught his imagination, inspiring his famous novel,
which he dedicated to ecologists.
接下來我們看 journalist 這個名詞，
意思是記者，譬如：
The journalist went into the war-torn country
determined to report on the human cost of the conflict
記者進入這個饱經戰亂的國家，
決心報導衝突所帶來的傷亡損失。
或是 The young journalist launched her career
by getting an interview with the pop star
這位年輕的記者透過採訪明星，
開始了她的職業生涯。
另一個相關的名詞 journalism 是新聞業的意思，
譬如：
Stephanie decided to pursue a career in journalism
because she had always enjoyed storytelling
Stephanie 決定從事新聞業，
因為她一直喜愛講故事。
最後來看動詞 dedicate 意思是獻給或奉獻，
例如：
Marlene dedicated her first novel to her grandmother
whose stories had inspired her love of writing
Marlene 將她的第一部小說獻給祖母，
因為是她的故事啟發了 Marlene 對寫作的熱愛。
片語 be dedicated to 意思是致力於，
譬如：
The museum exhibit was dedicated to the history of flight,
showing the development of airplanes
這個博物館的展覽致力於飛行的歷史，
展示了飛機的發展過程。
形容詞 dedicated 是指敬業的，
譬如：
The dedicated doctor spent hours trying to find a cure for the rare disease
that one of his patients was suffering from
這位敬業的醫生花了好幾個小時，
試圖找到治療他病人的罕見疾病的方法。
Alright, thank you so much, Jack! We read here:
It was these fears that took Frank Herbert to Oregon in the 1950s.
So this fear that we’re talking about here is
the fear that the sand was going to cover the nearby towns.
Wow, that’s kind of scary to think of your town
being covered by piles of sand. Well,
let’s see—he was a journalist, right?
We read a journalist,
we learned someone that’s writing news articles,
and he was planning an article on the risk of
the dunes swallowing up towns
and ecologists efforts to prevent this from happening.
Okay, swallowing up here means covering over completely.
Here’s another example of how you could use that in a sentence:
The big whale swallowed up the tiny fish.
You can imagine, right? The whale has a really big mouth,
and it completely covers—
it completely consumes that poor little fish.
So the fear here is that the dunes would swallow up towns,
but ecologists were trying to keep that from happening.
Now, an ecologist is someone
who studies the relationships and interactions
between organisms and their environments.
I see.
An ecologist is a very important role for figuring out people
and their environments.
What happens? Well,
what is the plan?
First of all, these efforts involved planting European beach
grass,
hoping the plant’s long roots would hold the sand in place
and stop it from drifting into the town.
And this was a plan that had already been put into place, right?
Yeah, it sure had! Now,
this sounds like a solid plan to me.
It sounds like a very natural plan, and humans
weren’t really interrupting anything.
We’re just planting a few plants, right?
And the idea is that the sand won’t drift into the town.
What does it mean if something drifts?
John, adrift means to slowly move.
So, they’re hoping that the sand doesn’t slowly move into the town.
Here’s an example of how to use drift in a sentence:
The plastic bag drifted away in the wind.
It was moving very slowly in the wind.
But by the time Herbert arrived, the plants had been growing for decades,
and the plan was working. Herbert found the ecologist’s plan
impressive and inspiring. His article was never published,
but the human attempt to tame the drifting sands
caught his imagination. We have that word tame there
in that sentence. John,
can you tell us a little bit about that?
Tame means to make something less powerful and easy to control.
Normally,
we use this word with wild animals, right?
Tame a wild horse so that you could ride it or something like that, yeah.
Wild animals can be really difficult to tame.
You could tame other things as well. For example,
you could tame the weeds in your garden. Anyone
who’s grown a garden
before knows
that weeds will often spring up next to your plants,
and you need to tame them.
You need to cut them down or pull them out
so that they don’t take over your garden.
But we see here that this human attempt to tame the sands
caught his imagination, and here’s that important keyword,
friends—inspiring his famous novel,
which he dedicated to ecologists.
I see there’s a phrase there that you should know—drifting sands.
It connects to that word drift. Drifting sands are sand dunes
that are blown around by the wind. It’s a really beautiful thing,
and it inspired such a famous novel. Well,
friends, there’s a lot more to learn about Frank Herbert
and the Oregon dunes.
You’ll have to join us tomorrow.
Now, it’s time, though, 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 there is a word
that sounds like Dune?
It is the word dude! Ha-ha, that’s right! Hey, dude!
A dude is someone who is cool,
and it is also an interjection—something you yell.
You can yell dude if you fall off a dude! Ha-ha!
Dude—and that is today’s fun dude fact.
Friends, at the end of our article,
today we learned that Herbert dedicated the novel Dune to ecologists.
We learned about that in our language lab today.
And there are a lot of different ways
you can dedicate a book or a movie to someone.
If you were ever to write a book or a movie, John,
who would you dedicate it to? You know,
I actually did write a book!
You did?
Yeah! It’s called Mama Hawk: How Can I Be Wise?
And you know who I dedicated it to? Let me try to remember...
because I actually think I have a copy of this book!
Did you dedicate it to your family?
I did! I dedicated it to my kids.
It’s a kids book. You can get it on Amazon.
Am I allowed to plug my own book on the show?
I think that’s totally fine! Go check it out, friends!
If I were to ever write a book,
or maybe have a movie that I produced (that probably wouldn’t happen),
but if I were to ever publish a book,
I think maybe I would do the same thing.
I would probably dedicate it to my family, yeah.
Because anytime you’re doing something, it’s a team effort.
And for Frank Herbert,
he was inspired by the amazing work
someone else was doing to tame these sand dunes.
That’s right!
And we have more to learn about this incredible story
tomorrow, friends.
You don’t want to miss it!
Make sure that you come back and join us.
We’ll see you then,
right here on Studio Classroom!
From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes 從事實到虛構：奧勒岡沙丘(下) 空中英語教室 20241130
修正英文文法，保留中文部分，同時將簡體中文修改為繁體中文 Hello friends, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
Thank you for joining us for our lesson today.
My name is Ann Marie, and my name is John, friends.
Today is a great day to learn something new.
Let’s do that together! What we are learning about today is "From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes."
We talked about this very special place in Oregon, where there are these huge sand dunes.
That’s right! If you’ve ever been to a sand dune, you know what we’re talking about. They often form near oceans or lakes when the wind piles sand up.
I love sand dunes. They’re really, really beautiful and very unique, friends.
Now, what we learned yesterday is that Frank Herbert, who used to be a journalist, visited these sand dunes because he heard a story that these sand dunes were eventually going to drift over towns and cover them.
That’s right! But ecologists came up with a plan: they planted European beach grass on the dunes, and the roots of this new kind of grass kept the dunes from swallowing up the town.
Herbert was so impressed that he wrote a book about it—a famous book made into a movie called Dune.
That’s right! He dedicated this book to those very same ecologists.
But friends, this story is not over yet. Let’s learn more about it with our first reading of the day.
From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes
The project that inspired Herbert succeeded, but it may have succeeded too well. Now, the grass is spreading beyond its intended location, and areas of open sand are shrinking.
The intervention intended to control the dunes may, in fact, destroy them altogether.
This would wipe out a number of species that inhabit the dunes, some of which are endangered.
The stark beauty of the dunes draws people from near and far, while the dunes themselves provide places to hike and ride off-road vehicles.
This tourism also helps to support the local economy.
These factors motivate people to try to undo the earlier efforts in order to save the dunes.
Hello everyone, welcome to Language Lab!
I’m Jack.
我們先來看 wipe out 這個頻率動詞，意思是完全摧毀。
譬如 The storm wiped out all of the electrical power lines in the western part of the city
暴風雨完全摧毀城市西部的所有電力線。
Wipe out 也有抹去的意思，譬如 The new marketing campaign wiped out the memory of the company’s past product failures
新的行銷活動抹去了對公司過去產品失敗的記憶。
Wiped out 也有筋疲力盡的意思，譬如 Lillian felt wiped out after cleaning her house, so she took a much-needed nap
Lillian 打掃完房子後感到筋疲力盡，需要小睡一下。
接下來看 stark 這個形容詞，意思是荒涼的，
例如 Under the moonlight, the stark beauty of the desert landscape made everyone stare in wonder.
在月光下，沙漠景觀的荒涼之美讓所有人驚奇地凝視。
也指明顯的，例如 The old building stood as a stark reminder of the town’s once busy past.
這座老舊建築明顯地提醒著人們小鎮曾有的繁忙過去。
或是 Although twins, the brothers had stark personality differences—one very friendly and the other quite reserved.
雖然是雙胞胎，這兩兄弟的個性差異卻很明顯，一個非常友善，另一個則相當內向。
Okay friends, let’s continue on with this story.
We read, "The project that inspired Herbert succeeded, but it may have succeeded too well." Uh-oh, we see some conflict here.
Yeah, so it succeeded. "Succeeded" means that it was a success, it did what it was supposed to. Why did it "might have succeeded too well"?
Well, we read, "Now the grass is spreading beyond its intended location, and areas of open sand are shrinking." By the way, "intended" means the way something was originally planned, right?
Yeah, for example, maybe someone tells a joke and somebody gets very offended by it. But the joke wasn’t intended to hurt that person. The original thought behind it was harmless.
So that happens with a lot of our plans, right? They have unintended consequences.
And what is the unintended consequence here?
Well, these open areas of sand are shrinking. And that’s so sad to me, because the original idea here was to save these dunes, not let them spread across the towns. But now there’s just not as much sand anymore. The intervention intended to control the dunes may, in fact, destroy them altogether.
And an intervention here is an obstacle to something being done, so it’s to keep something from happening.
Yeah, the verb form is "to intervene," to stop something. You could say, We had to have an intervention when our friends began practicing a bad habit.
That’s an intervention, and it might destroy the dunes altogether.
We read, "This would wipe out a number of species that inhabit the dunes."
"Inhabit" means to live there, right? For animals.
And some of which are endangered. Oh dear, it’s affecting animals!
And if you affect an animal’s habitat, and that animal is already in danger, that’s really not going to be good news for that animal’s numbers.
It’s going to have a hard time finding a place to live.
The stark beauty of the dunes draws people from near and far, while the dunes themselves provide places to hike and ride off-road vehicles.
Okay, this idea of "near and far"—what does that mean here, John?
Well, it literally means from close by and far away, but when you say people are coming from near and far, it means from all over the country or the place.
Yeah, so for example, you could say People from near and far come to that amusement park.
It means that local people enjoy it, and people from out of state or out of the country come to it as well.
We also see something interesting here, John—an off-road vehicle.
So I’m assuming this means a vehicle that is not driven on a road?
That’s right! It’s a vehicle that can drive away from normal roads. Normally, they have big, strong tires for the sand.
There is a special kind of off-road vehicle called a Dune Buggy, and it’s kind of like a big go-kart car, okay? That’s really good at driving on the sand. A Dune Buggy—very interesting!
This tourism also helps to support the local economy.
These factors motivate people to try to undo the earlier efforts in order to save the dunes.
Let’s talk about that word "motivate" here, John.
"Motivate" means to provide a reason for doing something, or to give a cause.
So people are being motivated to now pull out these plants.
Here’s an example of how you can use the word "motivate" in a sentence:
Find a way to motivate yourself to do your best, even when you don’t want to.
It’s important to have that motivation—that is the noun form of this word.
All right, friends, we have more to learn, so let’s get into our next reading:
From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes
Yet people do not want to return to the situation of the early 20th century when the dunes threatened to make the area uninhabitable.
They hope to strike a balance where some dunes remain in their natural state, but those closest to towns are more controlled—a goal which may be difficult to meet.
我們再來看形容詞 uninhabitable 是指不適合居住的，
例如 As earth’s temperature continues to rise, vast areas of land will become uninhabitable, forcing people to move.
隨著地球溫度不斷上升，大面積的土地將變得不適合居住，迫使人們遷移。
或是 The pressure and darkness of the deep ocean make most of it uninhabitable for humans, leaving many of its mysteries unexplored.
深海的壓力和黑暗使大部分區域都不適合人類居住，所以它的許多奧秘仍未被探索。
另一個相關的形容詞 uninhabited 則是指無人居住的，
譬如 The explorers decided to go farther into the uninhabited jungle to see what they could find.
探險家們決定深入無人居住的叢林，看看能發現什麼。
Okay friends, let’s keep going here.
Yet people do not want to return to the situation of the early 20th century when the dunes threatened to make the area uninhabitable.
Okay, so we see this word situation now. What do we mean when we say a situation?
A situation means a set of circumstances or conditions. There are different kinds of situations, right?
You can be in all kinds of situations.
Here’s an example: Don’t make a choice until you understand the situation.
It’s really hard to make a decision when you don’t understand all the factors that are changing the way you see something.
But we also see this word threatened. You’ve seen that word before, friends. Let’s review it here for a moment.
Yes, threatened means endangered or at risk. So, if you use it as a verb, it means to threaten something or to cause risk.
You could say The dog threatened the visitors on the property.
So we read on here: They hope to strike a balance where some dunes remain in their natural state, but those closest to towns are more controlled.
Let’s stop there for a moment and talk about two phrases here that we’ve just seen.
The first one is to strike a balance. If you strike a balance, it means there are two different things, and they have equal or proper amounts.
I see. So a balance means both sides are the same if you’re balancing something, right?
You could say Our vacation struck a balance between exciting and relaxing.
It’s really hard to… when you say you strike a balance, it means to find that perfect balance point.
We often talk about work-life balance, and that is talking about the balance between your work life and your home life.
It’s important to strike a balance there.
But we also see here in this sentence natural state.
Now, if something is in its natural state, it is the way something is without anyone trying to change it.
That’s right, especially in nature.
Right, the word nature is right there in natural. You could say, My garden slowly returned to its natural state and became full of weeds when I didn’t have time to work in it. So, the natural state of the dunes is wild and not full of this European beach grass.
And we also read: But those closest to towns are more controlled, a goal which may be difficult to meet. So they’re still trying to keep the dunes from swallowing up the town.
Exactly. So the idea here is that some dunes can be left in their natural state, and some dunes might need to be controlled so that it doesn’t affect people’s lives who live in nearby towns. This is going to be very, very hard to strike a balance between these two things.
We are going to finish up our article in just a moment here, friends, but right now it’s time for us to go to today’s Infocloud.
Hello, friends! Welcome to Infocloud. Hi, Garrett! Have you ever had to choose between two bad options?
Are you asking if I’ve had to choose the lesser of two evils, Rex?
I sure am, Garrett. That’s the phrase we are talking about today.
Well, Rex, I guess I have had to choose the lesser of two evils. I think everyone has at one time or another.
I think you’re right, Garrett. The lesser of two evils describes a situation where there are no good options. Instead, you have to choose the option that is less bad or harmful compared to the alternatives.
Exactly. It implies that neither choice is good, but one is less harmful or problematic than the other.
Can you give an example of how it’s used?
Let’s say you have to choose between two jobs. One job pays less, but it has a better work-life balance. The other job pays more, but it requires long hours and a stressful environment. You might say, "I chose the lesser of two evils and took the job with less pay, but better hours."
So, it’s basically about making a compromise or choosing the option that causes less harm or difficulty.
That’s right. The phrase has been used since ancient times, and apparently, its meaning hasn’t changed much. It’s always been about deciding between bad options by weighing the consequences.
the lesser of two evils 權衡兩害取其輕 有時候我們會面臨兩難的抉擇，因為兩個選項都不太好。這個時候你就必須選擇 the lesser of two evils。
Two evils 指的是兩個有害的東西，the lesser of two evils 就是兩個有害的東西當中，比較好一點的選擇。
例如，你有兩個工作機會。一個薪水高，但工作時間很長；另一個薪水很低，但可以準時下班，你可以維持工作跟生活的平衡。你會怎麼選擇呢？
你可能會說， The job with less pay is the lesser of two evils，低薪的那份工作是比較好一點點的選項。
這就是今天的 Infocloud，我們下次雲端見。
From Fact to Fiction: The Oregon Dunes The Oregon dunes illustrate an ongoing question involving environmental issues: how do we balance making conditions favorable for humans with leaving the world in its original state? We are also cautioned that human efforts to shape the environment often have unforeseen consequences. Can these be avoided? And if not, is the risk worth it?
最後來看 caution 這個字。當動詞是指警告，例如， The doctor cautioned the athlete against returning to any competition too soon after his injury（醫生警告這位運動員在受傷後不要過早回去比賽）。
或者，The students were cautioned about accepting everything they read and encouraged to develop strong research skills（學生們被警告不要輕信所讀到的一切，並鼓勵他們培養強大的研究能力）。
當 caution 當名詞使用時，指的是小心或謹慎，例如，Audrey approached the dog with caution, unsure if it would bite her or not（Audrey 小心地靠近那隻狗，不確定它是否會咬她）。
Friends, it’s time to find out how our article ends. We see, The Oregon dunes illustrate an ongoing question involving environmental issues. Let’s talk about this word ongoing. If something is ongoing, it means it’s still in progress. Sometimes, we use the word continuing, right? A continuing problem.
Yeah, you could say, She has ongoing health issues. That means her health issues are continuing, and they’re not going to stop anytime soon.
So, there’s this ongoing question that people have, right? How do we balance making conditions favorable for humans with leaving the world in its original state? So, this is where we’re trying to strike a balance, right?
We see that word favorable here, and it’s used as an adjective to describe conditions. Now, here, favorable just means to have some type of advantage.
That’s right. You could say, Oh, the weather is really favorable for walking. It’s really good. It’s sunny and dry.
So, how can we find the balance to make conditions favorable?
That’s not the only lesson we learn from this story, though.
That’s right. We need to find a way to leave nature in its original state. Now, in our previous section, we talked about that phrase natural state. Original state is another way to say the same thing we see here.
We are also cautioned that human efforts to shape the environment often have unforeseen consequences. Now, this is really interesting to me because our writer didn’t say that it had bad consequences or poor consequences. That’s not necessarily true. But we use a different word instead, right, John? This word unforeseen.
Yeah, unforeseen literally means not expected. So, we all have plans, right? We think we know what might happen, but many unforeseen things happen. When we talk about an unforeseen consequence, it means something that happens as a result of an action. It’s something that we couldn’t have predicted would happen, and like I said, this isn’t always bad, but it can be bad, as in the case of these Oregon dunes.
So here’s a final question for us to think about when we’re talking about environmental issues. Can these be avoided, these unforeseen consequences? And if we can’t avoid the unforeseen consequences, is the risk worth it?
Let’s talk about that phrase there, John. Is the risk worth it?
Oh, okay. Risk, first of all, means something bad might happen, or something good could happen. You want to weigh the risk before making a decision, right?
But worth it is a phrase you need to know. Worth it means equal to the effort of doing something.
That’s right. So here’s an example: Before you make a big decision or make a big change in your life, you have to ask yourself, ‘Is it worth it?’ Are the consequences that are going to come from this decision good or bad? Are there any unforeseen consequences?
Yeah, Is it worth it? There’s another phrase that’s kind of similar: worth the effort. And this is a little bit different. It means, Is it worth working really hard for a specific outcome?
But here, we’re saying, Is it worth it? because there are so many risks. Yeah, messing with nature can create imbalance.
That’s right.
Okay, friends, we’re going to talk just a little bit more about this in a moment, but right now it’s time for us to go to 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 when you climb a dune in the summer, you should wear shoes? That’s because the sand gets extremely hot, and you do not want your feet to cook, especially while you are enjoying a dune! So wear shoes on your next dune adventure!
And that is today’s fun dune fact!
Friends, I think it’s time for a quiz! Are you ready, John?
Yeah, I am.
Okay! Fill in the blank. Many people hope to strike a balance with the Oregon dunes and keep some in their what?
Keep some in their current situation.
Keep some in their natural state.
Keep some in their tamed way.
Okay, current situation could work, and tamed way is not really the right way of saying that. So, I think it is... What’s the second one again?
Natural state.
That’s it! Natural state. You got it, and I hope you got that right as well, friends!
And we really hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson about the Oregon dunes. I certainly found it very interesting. We have a brand new lesson for you next time. Make sure you come back and join us. We’ll see you then, right here on Studio Classroom!
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