【英语趣味课堂】敏感话题-Touchy Topics

Greg: Hi, Todd.

Todd: Hey, Greg.

 

Greg: Hey, thanks a lot for interviewing me and letting, I don't know, the world know about my book.

 

Todd: No, problem. It's a good book.

 

Greg: Yeah, I've noticed you don't have any topics like these on your web site. Why not?

 

Todd: Right. I don't have too many controversial topics. There's actually technical reasons. One is it just takes too long for people to talk about a controversial topic, so for example if you really want to get into controversy¹, you know, it leads to long conversation and people expressing their view and arguing and the way that the audio is set up on elllo, it's kind of short. I try to keep it under three minutes, so that's one reason. But actually the main reason is because, you know, when people come in, I don't know them a lot of the times I don't know the speakers very well and so they're not really comfortable arguing with me or arguing with somebody else they don't know about something that's controversial, so we tend to not do that.

 

Greg: OK, alright, it's something you might want to think about. I mean, I think there are lot of people in the world who are really interested in controversial topics.

 

Todd: Well, I think there are some, like with you we talked about some like income disparity and medical issues, and I'm comfortable talking about that but I am not comfortable talking about let's say homosexuality, religious beliefs, abortion², politics. Things like that I just don't feel comfortable doing.

 

Greg: OK, it's your site: your right to do whatever you want, but I just think maybe ... maybe some of your listeners would appreciate that and maybe you could have ... my suggestion is that you have a little one page, controversial page, or something. Just, you know, try it out, and if you get a lot of good reaction, you might want to continue and if it doesn't work out stop it.

 

Todd: Well, actually, I'll give you an example of one I did recently. I had a woman come in, Stella, she did a great job on the videos, and one of her videos was about an usual sport in your country and hers was on cock fighting, and she explained cock fighting, or hen fighting, in Kenya, and right off the bat I knew that was going to be a problem because that's illegal in some countries and some people - animal activists³ - would be offended, but on the other hand, it's her culture and I don't feel comfortable saying - you know - what's right or what's wrong about someone else's culture so I just ended up not putting it on just because I didn't want to have to take a side. You know, I think you can kind of see the problem, that sometimes you can put stuff up and it's so easy to alienate⁴ maybe a small portion of your audience and I just don't want to do that. You know, I don't have a side about the issue but I just don't want to alienate people. I don't want people on one side of an issue to feel upset so I just play it safe, and I don't talk about it.

 

Greg: OK, well, you seem to have a lot of listeners who are very happy so don't worry about changing it.

 

Todd: I hope so. I hope so.

 

Greg is the author of Stimulating⁵ Conversations. You can learn more about his book here or contact him.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

income disparity

 

like income disparity

 

Income disparity measures the difference in income between rich and poor people. Notice the following:

 

Economists⁶ warn that income disparity will continue to grow if the government fails to act.

Male-female income disparity remains⁷ a problem in the United States.

right off the bat

 

Right off the bat I knew.

 

The phrase 'right off the bat' means immediately. Here are two samples:

 

Just looking at his clothes, right of the bat I knew that he was American.

As soon as the teacher began the lesson, I knew right off the bat that this would not be an easy class.

animal activists

 

 

Animal activists would be offended.

 

'Animal activists' are people who are concerned with the treatment of animals and work hard to bring about positive change. Notice the samples:

 

Many animal activists disagree with using animals for medical research.

Animal activists have been battling the fur industry for years.

put stuff up

 

You can put stuff up online.

 

When Todd talks about 'putting stuff up', he means posting it on elllo. Here are some samples:

 

elllo's a fun site so I try not to put stuff up that might make people angry.

Visit elllotweet where Todd puts stuff up about what's going on with the site.

alienate

 

 

It's so easy to alienate people.

 

When you alienate people, you cause them to stop supporting or agreeing with you. Notice the samples:

 

It's easy to alienate people when you discuss politics, religion or other touchy⁸ topics.

Animal activists sometimes alienate people with their strong beliefs.

play it safe

 

I just play it safe.

 

To play it safe means to be careful, not to take risks or do something dangerous.  Notice the following:

 

Politics can be interesting, but it's a touchy topic so I just play it safe and don't put it up on the site.

I'm not sure where the bus goes so let's just play it safe and take a taxi.

 

1 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

2 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

3 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 alienate   

vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等)

参考例句：

• His attempts to alienate the two friends failed because they had complete faith.他离间那两个朋友的企图失败了，因为他们彼此完全信任。
• We'd better not alienate ourselves from the colleagues.我们最好还是不要与同事们疏远。

5 stimulating   

adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的

参考例句：

• shower gel containing plant extracts that have a stimulating effect on the skin 含有对皮肤有益的植物精华的沐浴凝胶
• This is a drug for stimulating nerves. 这是一种兴奋剂。

6 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 touchy   

adj.易怒的；棘手的

参考例句：

• Be careful what you say because he's touchy.你说话小心，因为他容易生气。
• He's a little touchy about his weight.他对自己的体重感到有点儿苦恼。