Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman creates public art pieces that look like enormous toys. His most well-know piece, Rubber Duck, stands more than 10 meters tall and has appeared in cities around the world. When imagining the super-sized, inflatable duck, Hofman had a vision of a giant child throwing his toys around the world. After Rubber Duck started touring the world, Hofman admitted that he is - in fact - that rascal.
Warm welcome in Hong Kong
Since 2007, Hofman has "thrown" the Rubber Duck into the harbors of cities such as Auckland, New Zealand, and Osaka, Japan. But last May his giant yellow duck received an especially warm welcome in Hong Kong. Millions of spectators from across Asia went to Victoria Harbour to see the duck up close and take pictures. Hong Kong businesses created duck-inspired products and dishes in honor of their yellow visitor. And when Rubber Duck was ready to leave, thousands crowded the docks at Victoria Harbour to wave a teary-eyed farewell.
Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: American Spelling vs. British Spelling
Happy New Year!
Friends, welcome to another year of the Info Cloud.
Now, some of the more observant among you may have noticed an apparent mistake in our lesson today.
Wait a minute.
Did you say a mistake in Studio Classroom magazine on the first day of the year?
Where?
Ken, I said "an apparent mistake."
Our lesson mentions the harbors of cities such as Auckland, New Zealand and Osaka, Japan.
Notice how the word harbors is spelled: h-a-r-b-o-r-s.
But, further down in the lesson, we see Victoria Harbour, and this harbour is spelled: h-a-r-b-o-u-r.
There's an extra 'u' in there.
Oh, that's no mistake.
Friends, we're actually dealing with a difference between British and American spelling.
The -our sequence in some words often becomes -or in American spelling.
So, Americans spell harbor h-a-r-b-o-r, but the British spell it with an extra 'u'.
Since Hong Kong used to be a British colony, Victoria Harbour is spelled with the extra 'u' in there.
Now, this spelling difference comes from the French influence on English.
British English has a tendency to keep the spelling of many words of French origin.
But Americans try to spell words more closely to the way they sound phonetically, and they tend to omit some letters.
Words like "color," "flavor," and "honor" are some other examples.
Another difference is the British -re, which becomes -er in American English, like in the words "theater" and "center."
What's another difference, Steve?
Well Ken, the British, -ae/-oe/-oeu sequences become the simpler -e/-o/-eu sequences in the American version.
Like in the words leukaemia/leukemia, manoeuvre/maneuver, and mediaeval/medieval.
Victoria Harbour
harbor / harbour
color / colour
flavor / flavour
honor / honour
-re / -er
theater / theatre
center / centre
-ae/-oe/-oeu
-e/-o/-eu
maneuver / manoeuvre
leukemia/leukaemia
Grammar Gym
"As when Rubber Duck was ready to leave, thousands crowded the docks at Victoria Harbour to wave a teary-eyed farewell."
teary-eyed farewell
Teary-eyed: eyes are with tears
[adjective] - [noun]+ -ed
broken-hearted man
long-necked dinosaur
one-legged pirate
Language Lab
enormous adj.
very great in size or amount
- The company spent an enormous amount of time and money developing new products.
- The presidential suite's bathroom is enormous. It's equipped with a huge jacuzzi-style bathtub.
rascal n.
/ˈræskəl/
a person and especially a young person who causes trouble or does things that annoy people
- Theses rascals ruined my garden again.
- Sometimes my kids are little rascals.
a cruel or dishonest man
- Those rascals who broke the shop's windows were arrested.
spectator n. [spect 字根-看見]
/ˈspɛkˌteɪtɚ/
a person who watches an event, show, game, activity, etc., often as part of an audience
someone who is watching an event or game
audience
a group of people who come to watch and listen to someone speaking or performing in public
- The game drew over 20,000 spectators to the stadium.
- Many spectators gathered around the wounded driver, but no one helped him.
farewell n.
goodbye; the action of saying goodbye
- Brad bid us farewell and left for New York.
- Mom waved farewell to us from the train.
farewell adj.
done when someone is leaving, ending a career, etc.
- We held a farewell party for our boss.
mms://webvod.goodtv.tv/SC/20140101_6b68c.wmv
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