B. Keywords
recreational life, making pottery, procedure.
Vocabulary
recreational, pottery, potter, sculpt, kaolin, Beijing yellow clay, chrysanthemum, turntable, throw, canister, kiln, glaze.
B1. You're going to hear a report about making pottery.
Listen to the first part of the report, supply the missing words while listening.
As the rhythm of urban life grows faster and faster, there are lots of new and fun things to do.
Our recreational life is becoming more and more rich.
After a day's busy work or study, urban young people have different ideas about how to relax and enjoy their free time.
Bars and disco halls are not as popular as they were and another recreational activity, making pottery, has quietly appeared.
Making pottery, an ancient Chinese art, is no longer just for artists and craftsmen, but something for the common people.
In the pottery studio, you can make an artistic work of your own with the help of a pottery teacher, while listening to music.
You will have the joy of playing with mud like you did when you were a child.
Also you can talk with the other potters, talk about your creations or just talk about the weather.
When you see the clay turning and forming in your hands, you will feel clam and forget the troubles you had that day.
B2. Listen to the second part of the report, put the pottery-making steps in the right order.
We discovered that the procedure to make pottery is not simply playing with mud.
There are many things to do like mixing the clay, polishing the pot, and sculpting.
Mixing the clay is a fundamental step in making a pot.
The clay used for pottery combines white kaolin and Beijing yellow clay together.
When you work the clay, if both hands use the same strength, the clay will look like a bull's hand, if both hands use different strength, the clay will look like a chrysanthemum.
When the clay is mixed well, it can be put on the wheel. The wheel is a round turntable.
Using the wheel to make a pot, called throwing a pot, is the most important step during the pottery making procedure.
The form of the pot depends on how you use your strength and the coordination of your two hands.
After drying it a few days, you may still need to smooth the pot or round its edges.
When it's half dry, you can use tools to polish it.
Then you can use something hard, like a film canister or a spoon, to polish the surface of the body in order to make it smooth and shiny.
The more you polish your body, the smoother it will be.
When you finish polishing, you can go to sculpting.
You need to be patient and careful when you do this.
The half-done work should be put in a cool place for 3 or 4 days.
Then it can go to the kiln to be fired. If you like a more finished look, you can paint it again with some chemicals called glaze and fire it again.
Isn't it pretty? Now you know more about making pottery. Wouldn't you like to try it yourself?