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Episode 12: Dinostory

Transcript

We'll look at the word sculpt, the expression the whole gamut and the phrasal verb pick up.

The sand sculpting exhibition that we have here this year is Dinostory. We've got quite a variety - there's herbivores and carnivores, there's a lot of action going on there's quite a few unfortunate ones let's say.

The event was put together by around about 21 sculptors. A fair portion of those were international sculptors - they are the best sculptors in the world. As you can see, they've done a fantastic job. Sculptors are brought in according to their skill set. There are sculptors who are very, very good at doing architecture which is quite laborious it's a slow process and there are sculptors that are more adept at doing freestyle type work a la animals, humans and that sort of thing.

The verb for making things in sand, stone or metal is sculpt. Listen:

It's an ability to not only do the animals and lay it out creatively but to be able to sculpt them in a way that they actually have expression.

The result is called a sculpture. This is a sculpture of a dinosaur. The people who make sculptures are called sculptors. Listen.

The event was put together by around about 21 sculptors. A fair portion of those were international sculptors they are the best sculptors in the world. As you can see, they've done a fantastic job.

Now listen for the expression 'the whole gamut':

We do a lot of school workshops - you get to do a bit of contrast work and you also get a to do a bit of smoothing so you are actually get pretty much the whole gamut of the types of finishes that you can get

The whole gamut means the full range or all. Listen again:

You get to do a bit of contrast work and you also get a to do a bit of smoothing so you are actually get pretty much the whole gamut of the types of finishes that you can get

Are the sculptures permanent?

If they were left alone and the weather was reasonably good they would probably last maybe 6 months.

They would only last for 6 months - they are not permanent. Now listen for 'pick up':

Not so many commercial sand sculptors in Australia it is getting better there are quite a few people starting to pick up the tools but it's one of those things where it takes a number of years to get to the ability where you can actually commercially do it where you're able to make a good living out of it.

People are starting to pick up the tools. This means they are beginning to learn how to sculpt sand, not simply pick up the tools. The phrasal verb pick up has many meanings, such as in the next clip:

I know that it's been going in America for around about 30 years on this sort of level so we're about 20 years behind but it is picking up each years we've been picking up a little bit more work and it's becoming a little bit more diverse in what we're being asked to do

There were 2 uses of picking up with slightly different meanings - it is picking up each year -that means increasing or improving. We've been picking up a little bit more work - here it means getting or gaining. Listen again:

So we're about 20 years behind but it is picking up each years we've been picking up a little bit more work.

So we've seen that sculpt is the verb and the nouns are sculpture and sculptor. The whole gamut is the full range and pick up can mean gain or increase. We'll finish with one more example of the word 'sculptors':

It helps the Australian sculptors similar to myself to improve our skills by being able to work with these people - it tends to stretch our abilities and challenge us.

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