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Unit 2: English Together Korean

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Session 51

Most people find disruption annoying, but is it always a bad thing? Today we are discussing the pros and cons of being disrupted.

대부분의 사람들은 대중교통이 중단되는 것이 성가시는 것이라고 생각합니다. 그런데 이렇게 무언가로부터 방해 받는 것이 항상 나쁜 것일까요? 오늘은 방해 받는 것의 장담점을 얘기해보도록 하겠습니다.

Sessions in this unit

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Session 51 score

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    Activity 1
  1. Activity 1

Activity 1

Positive disruption

Most people find disruption annoying, but is it always a bad thing? Today we are discussing the pros and cons of being disrupted.

대부분의 사람들은 대중교통이 중단되는 것이 성가시는 것이라고 생각합니다. 그런데 이렇게 무언가로부터 방해 받는 것이 항상 나쁜 것일까요? 오늘은 방해 받는 것의 장담점을 얘기해보도록 하겠습니다

Quiz

How many hours did UK rail passengers lose as a result of service disruption between 2016 and 2017?

a) 1.6 million
b) 3.6 million
c) 5.6 million

Listen to the audio and take the quiz.

Show transcript Hide transcript

Bolam
안녕하세요? English Together에 오신 것을 환영합니다. 저희 프로그램에서는 최신 주제에 대해 얘기해보고 관련 표현을 알려드리고 있습니다. 저는 손보람입니다.

Tom
Hello everyone! I'm Tom, thanks for joining us again and I'm with…

Sian
Hi everyone. Yeah. I'm Sian. Oh,I've had a terrible day!

Tom
Why don't you tell us about it? What happened?

Sian
My train was late! That made me late for my meeting with the boss! It disrupted everything!

Bolam
That's annoying! Disrupted, disrupt의 수동태인데요. 방해하다. 지장을 주다..라는 뜻입니다. 자 여기에서 오늘 문제 드릴게요. 소비자 단체인 which?에 따르면 영국에서 2016, 2017년 사이에 기차 서비스 중단으로 인해 잃어버린 승객들의 시간은 얼마나 될까요?
a) 160만
b) 360만
c) 560만

Tom
Hmm… good question! But, is it fair to describe these hours as 'lost' hours?

Bolam
오늘은 BBC Radio 4의 The Human Zoo에 나온 내용을 들어보도록 하겠습니다. 이 방송에 나온 심리학자는 가끔 이렇게 운행이 중단 되는 것이 좋은 점도 있다고 말하는데요. 왜 그런지 들어볼까요?

News insert
Well, of course if you're a passenger on railways then, you think disruption is definitely a bad thing. But, in more general contexts, disruption may actually be, sometimes be helpful and may actually help us think about things in new exciting ways and it's interesting that we don't feel that. We don't feel the opportunity as much as we feel the danger.

So, if we don't allow disruptive change, then of course we can't find really new interesting ways of doing things. So though we have a bias against disruption, that bias may not necessarily be a good thing.

Sian
What did he mean 'we have a bias against disruption'?
  
Bolam
A bias against ~에 대한 편견이죠. Well, if we are biased against disruption it means we always see disruption negatively and we can't see the opportunities it provides!

Sian
Hang on, what opportunities did me being late provide?!

Tom
Well, for one, we have a topic for today's programme! That's an upside, surely?

Bolam
An upside 긍정적인 면..이라는 뜻입니다. Right! Being late for your meeting was definitely a downside, though!

Tom
How was your meeting with the boss, anyway?

Sian
Well, it was good, actually! I didn't have time to prepare so I just spoke to the boss naturally.

Tom
Ah, there you go! That's an example of positive disruption! Sometimes it's good to shake things up a bit.

Bolam
Shake things up a bit 평소 하던 것에서 변화를 주다..라는 뜻이죠. So was your last-minute meeting stressful, Sian?

Sian
Hmm… I was quite shaken up at the end!

Bolam
Sian이 'shaken up' 되었다고 말했는데요. 무언가에 의해 놀란, 스트레스 받은..이라는 뜻으로 수동형으로 말했습니다.

Tom
So… you haven't told us what actually happened in the meeting.

Sian
Well, actually, they liked my new idea – and we're going to make the new programme!

Tom
You see, Sian? Every cloud has a silver lining!

Bolam
That's right! Every cloud has a silver lining 어떤 문제에서든 긍정적인 면이 있다..라는 뜻이죠.

Sian
Well, I suppose even missing your train can have its upsides!

Bolam
자 말 나온 김에 오늘 문제 정답 알려드릴게요. 지난 해 동안 360만에 달하는 시간이 없어져버렸다고 하네요.

Tom
It does make you wonder, though, doesn't it? How many positive things could have come from those disruptions? People could have fallen in love at the train station whilst they were waiting for their train!

Sian
Now you're being overly idealistic, Tom.

Bolam
Idealistic 이상주의적인..이라는 뜻입니다. Yes, Tom – it's hard to be idealistic when your train's late!

Sian
Every cloud may have a silver lining, but it's still not nice waiting for a train!

Bolam
I think most people agree on that! 여러분은 어떠세요? 여러분도 bias against disruption 이런 대중교통 서비스 중단 같이 불편한 상황에 대한 편견이 있으신가요? 아니면 모든 상황에는 downside단점 뿐만 아니라upside장점도 있다고 생각하시나요? Thanks for joining us! See you next week for more English Together! Bye! 

Meaning & Use

a bias against something (noun)

When we have a bias against something, we are likely to perceive it in a negative way. A ‘bias’ could here be understood as a ‘prejudice’.

  • People said that the candidate lost the election as he was biased against immigrants.

If we are in favour of something, we have a bias towards it.

  • The primary school teacher had a bias towards girls, as she thought that boys were too noisy!

We can also use the adjective, biased.

  • Don’t ask my father for an objective opinion on the subject – he’s biased!

to shake things up (verb)

To shake things up means to begin to do things in a different manner than usual. It can be either a positive or negative expression, depending on the context.

  • Everyone was working well until the new boss came in and shook everything up! Now we're so confused!
  • My son was lazy in school last year but his new teacher has really shaken things up! Now he’s positive and motivated thanks to her methods.

We sometimes describe the victims of disruption as being shaken up. This is a negative expression which implies shock and/or distress.

  • The children weren’t hurt in the car accident, but they were very shaken up.

upsides / downsides (nouns)

An upside is the positive outcome of a given situation. We can use it with the preposition ‘of’.

  • The upside of my phone being stolen is that my insurance company gave me a better one for free!

When discussing a negative outcome we use the word downside.

  • When the robber stole my phone they hurt my arm. That was a definite downside.

Positive Disruption

3 Questions

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정답을 선택하세요.

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Join us for our next episode of English Together when we will learn more useful language and practise your listening skills.

다음 English Together 에피소드를 통해서, 보다 실용적인 영어 표현을 배우고, 영어 듣기도 연습해 보세요.

저희 Facebook 그룹에 가입하셔서 매일 매일 영어 공부를 하세요!

Session Vocabulary

  • disruption
    중단, 방해, 두절

    a bias against (something)
    ~에 대한 편견

    downside
    단점

    upside
    장점

    every cloud has a silver lining
    어떤 문제에서든 긍정적인 면이 있다.

    to shake things up
    변화를 주다

    to be shaken up
    놀라다, 스트레스 받다

    idealistic
    이상주의적인

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