【英语趣味课堂】自由安排-Free Schedule

Adria: So since we're talking about home schooling¹, what are some of the pros² and cons³ that you feel of home schooling?

Shiloh: Well one of the good things about home schooling is definitely⁴ that you are able to work off of your own schedule. I didn't have to wake up early every morning. If I did, I could get my work done early. The amount of work that I had, the time I spent doing it was dependent⁵ upon me and my schedule and how much time I wanted to work. I had almost the same amount of work as all of my other friends in real schools but the difference was I didn't have scheduled breaks or lunches or anything so if I sat down for four hours and I just wanted to work straight, then I could finish a whole day's worth of work in four hours. That's a good thing about it, I was able to travel and some days I wouldn't even do any school work because I'd be busy doing other things but that meant that I would have to do two days some other time. One of the bad things was that I didn't get to meet quite as many new people. I didn't have the typical high school experience which I feel shapes a lot of who people are. I wasn't able to meet friends in that sense, in the high school sense. I still have great friends and I'm not a loner by any means but it was difficult to meet friends.

 

Adria: So did you find yourself slacking⁷ off? Some days you didn't do any school work because you were too busy but did you find yourself taking many breaks or not wanting to do school work sometimes?

 

Shiloh: Yeah, that's a big problem I think with home schooling. The student really has to be self-motivated and if the student is not self-motivated, then the parent who is doing the home schooling has to be very strict because it's really easy to just not do your work or to fake⁸ it and kind of do it badly and it's really important that somebody is there to drive you to do it well and to finish everything. Fortunately I'm a fairly motivated guy and I always wanted to get my work done because I always had better things to be doing and I knew that if I didn't do it today, I'd have to do it twice tomorrow.

 

Adria: So do you think that's something home schooling taught you was self-motivation that maybe other kids lack?

 

Shiloh: I think so. It taught me self-motivation and also it taught me how to plan things out. I was able to plan out my day and my schedule. I would think to myself well tomorrow I want to do this thing, I want to go do this which means I have to do this today in order to do this tomorrow.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

by any means

 

I still have great friends and I'm not a loner by any means but it was difficult to meet friends.

 

We include the phrase by 'any means' to make a statement stronger. Notice the following:

 

He's not a bad student by any means. Just a little lazy.

I will not by any means agree to that!

slack⁶ off

 

So did you find yourself slacking off?

 

The term slack off means to slow down and relax a little. Notice the following:

 

I often slack off when the boss leaves.

Don't slack off yet, we're almost finished.

self-motivated

 

The student really has to be self-motivated.

 

Someone who is self motivated is hard-working and enthusiastic. Notice the following:

 

He needs to become more self-motivated.

I'm just not self motivated.

fake

 

It's really easy to just not do your work or to fake it.

 

When we fake something, that means we pretend to do it. Notice the following:

 

He faked a smile for the TV cameras.

She knew I lied. I just couldn't fake it.

plan out

 

I was able to plan out my day and my schedule.

 

'Plan' and 'plan out' have exactly the same meaning. We can use either. Notice the following: 

 

Let's plan a vacation.

Let's plan out a vacation.

1 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

2 pros   

abbr.prosecuting 起诉；prosecutor 起诉人；professionals 自由职业者；proscenium （舞台）前部n.赞成的意见( pro的名词复数 )；赞成的理由；抵偿物；交换物

参考例句：

• The pros and cons cancel out. 正反两种意见抵消。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We should hear all the pros and cons of the matter before we make a decision. 我们在对这事做出决定之前，应该先听取正反两方面的意见。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 cons   

n.欺骗，骗局( con的名词复数 )v.诈骗，哄骗( con的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The pros and cons cancel out. 正反两种意见抵消。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We should hear all the pros and cons of the matter before we make a decision. 我们在对这事做出决定之前，应该先听取正反两方面的意见。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 definitely   

adv.一定地，肯定地；明确地，确切地

参考例句：

• The team will definitely lose if he doesn't play.如果他不参加比赛，这个队肯定会输。
• I shall definitely be home before six o'clock.6点以前，我一定回家。

5 dependent   

adj.依靠的，依赖的，依赖他人生活者

参考例句：

• He has a mother completely dependent on him.他有一个完全靠他赡养的母亲。
• The country is dependent on foreign aid.这个国家靠外援生存。

6 slack   

adj.松弛的，萧条的，懈怠的；vt.使松弛

参考例句：

• Slack off those ropes there,there's a storm coming!把那里的绳索放松，暴风雨就要来了！
• Some are hard at work and some are slack in work.有的勤奋工作，有的则消极怠工。

7 slacking   

偷懒( slack的现在分词 )； 减速； 放松

参考例句：

• The instructors were slacking on the job. 教员们对工作松松垮垮。
• He had never let a foreman see him slacking. 他从未在哪个工头面前表现出丝毫懈怠。

8 fake   

vt.伪造，造假，假装；n.假货，赝品

参考例句：

• He can tell a fake from the original.他能分辨出赝品和真品。
• You can easily fake up an excuse to avoid going out with him.你可以很容易地编造一个借口而不与他一同外出。