简体

Lift - Olympic Gold Medal Figure Skaters Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue
托举— 冬奥会金牌得主花滑运动员赵宏博和申雪

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

Go Super to Listen

• lift
• catch a lift

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Go Super to Listen

Figure skating has brought love, fame, and now an Olympic gold medal to China’s Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo.

Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo began skating together in 1992 and won many competitions during their long career. In 2007, Zhao Hongbo proposed to Shen Xue at the World Championships. After that, the pair retired from skating to enjoy their new married life. But they found that there was still something missing: an Olympic gold medal.

As they stood on the podium in Vancouver, Shen Xue had a big smile on her face and Zhao Hongbo gave his wife a sweet kiss on her forehead. The pair had finally won the biggest prize in figure skating.

One important element in pairs figure skating is the lift. Find out the different meanings of this word from Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo themselves, who recently talked with Jason.

3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

Log in to Listen

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jason

Hongbo

Xue

Jason:  I’m Jason and this is English, baby! We’re here at the Trout Lake Centre, where the figure skaters practice for the 2010 Olympic Games. We’re about to meet Shen Xue (申雪) and Zhao Hongbo (赵宏博), this year’s gold medalists. Zhao Hongbo (赵宏博) is going to explain what it means to lift, and if we’re lucky, he’ll show us too.

Jason:  Can you tell us what is a lift when you’re skating?

Hongbo:  I know lift, yeah. Our long program used three elements that were lifts.

Jason:  Can you just show us a lift? Alright. A lift! Wow. OK.

Hongbo:  Yeah. Just to lift Xue.

Jason:  Their gold medal program was almost completely flawless, but during one lift it looked like Shen Xue (申雪) was going to fall. She says that lots of practice and experience enabled her to hold on and win the gold.

Jason:  In your gold medal performance, there was one lift that almost didn’t work, but you saved it. How did you do that? How did you save that lift?

Xue:  More practice.

Jason:  More practice.

Xue:  Yeah.

Jason:  Experience.

Jason:  And so, do you guys like to drive yourselves or do you like to catch a lift? To catch a lift means to be driven somewhere.

Hongbo:  Myself. Yeah.

Xue:  Yeah.

Jason:  Outside of an ice skating rink, lift is slang for ride. If you catch a lift somewhere, it means that you got a ride, that someone drove you. In figure skating, a lift is when the male skater picks up the woman and holds her in the air.

Jason:  Thank you so much. Can I get a high-five? English, baby! Alright. Thank you very much.

Jason:  Zhao Hongbo (赵宏博) just lifted Shen Xue (申雪) above his head. She explained that during their gold medal performance, when she almost fell during a lift, she was able to stay on because of experience. She had practiced enough to know what to do and she hung in there and won the gold. They had to catch a lift and take off to their final performance tonight, a demonstration for their fans. This is English, baby!

Grammar Point

Go Super to learn "Count and Noncount Nouns" from this lesson

Quizzes

Go Super to take Quiz

Lesson MP3

Go Super to download full lesson MP3