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IELTS Preparation Series 2, Episode 16: Glass Artist


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Xem lời thoại bên dưới:

0:13

Hello. I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation.

0:18

Today we're going to look at how English users indicate negative meanings. One of the ways

0:24

we can do that is with the word not.

0:28

And we're going to hear a glass artist talk about his craft. The ancient art of hot glassblowing

0:35

dates back 5,000 years to the Egyptians. Listen to Mark Douglass, the artist, talking about

0:42

glassblowing today.

0:43

I think people are fascinated about glass, in a sense, I know my grandmother had a beautiful

0:52

glass vase on her dressing table or whatever, and it was always, "Don't break the vase,"

0:56

you know, it's this precious thing.

0:59

The techniques I use for glassmaking aren't that dissimilar than what has been around

1:05

for, like, centuries.

1:08

When English speakers want to give something a negative meaning, they use negative words

1:14

such as:

1:15

not - She's not coming

1:17

no - There's no music

1:23

nobody - Nobody saw the crash

1:26

nothing - There's nothing to eat

1:30

nowhere - He's nowhere to be seen.

1:34

All these sentences have only one negative. When constructing negative sentences, English

1:40

only allows one negative.

1:44

Using two negative words, such as 'nobody' and 'not' together in a sentence, can give

1:51

the opposite meaning to the one intended.

1:53

So, for example:

1:56

I did not see nobody.

1:59

With this double negative, this literally means:

2:02

I saw somebody.

2:05

However, watch Mark Douglass again, and see how he uses a double negative to give a positive

2:11

meaning.

2:13

The techniques I use for glassmaking aren't that dissimilar than what has been around

2:19

for, like, centuries.

2:20

Mark says:

2:23

The techniques aren't dissimilar.

2:26

Aren't is a contraction of are and not.

2:31

So he uses the negative word form not.

2:34

Dissimilar is made up of the negative prefix dis- and the word similar.

2:42

So he uses not and dis-, both negatives, in one phrase.

2:49

These cancel each other's effect, giving a positive meaning:

2:55

Look what happens when we leave them both out.

2:58

The techniques are not dissimilar.

3:03

The techniques are similar.

3:06

By saying the techniques are not dissimilar, he is drawing attention to the fact that this

3:12

may be surprising, and not what you might expect.

3:16

He's saying that it's surprising that the techniques used today are similar to ancient

3:22

techniques.

3:24

This idea is reinforced by Mark using the negative word unchanged when talking about

3:30

the techniques.

3:32

Listen to how he uses unchanged.