美语情景对话 第288期:England 英国
Todd: So, Eli, can you talk a little about England and maybe about it's climate and it's weather, it's leaders, what people eat?
托德：艾丽，你能谈谈英国吗，有关气候，天气，领导人，还有食物之类的？Eli: Well, I'm not going to talk about leaders right now because that's a bit of a sore point but England weather, hmm, that is a bit of a sore point too. It's not the greatest weather in the world, especially compared to Japan where I am now, which the weather I just love. England is always cold, almost always cold even through the summer it's quite cold I hear. This summer it's been sort of jacket weather all summer with only a few days of sunshine and it rains a lot, so it's pretty miserable as far as weather's concerned.
艾丽：嗯，目前我并不想谈领导人，因为那算是伤心事，不过英国的天气，嗯，也算是痛处。那并不是世界上最好的天气，尤其是和日本比的话，我现在在日本生活，我很喜欢这里的天气。英国总是很冷，即使在夏天也很冷，我听说非常冷。今年整个夏天几乎都要穿夹克，只有几天有阳光，下了很多雨，所以就天气来说非常糟糕。Todd: Now, you're from Bristol right. What's your hometown like?
托德：你来自布里斯托尔，对吧？你的家乡怎么样？
Eli: Bristol's a great town. I used to live in London which is the capital of England and it's very gray and big and unfriendly but when I moved to Bristol it was just great. It is a city but it's a very small city so you can always bump into your friends, um, always meet people. It's got big green areas. It's got a place called the downs which is a big park, and it's the architecture of the city is very old. It's very near Bath, which is a very famous old Roman town, where the Roman baths were, so all the sort of architecture of the city, the houses, all of it's very pretty.
艾丽：布里斯托尔是一个非常棒的城镇。我以前生活在伦敦，那是英国的首都，那儿的天空是灰色的，城市很大，而且并不友好，我搬到布里斯托尔以后非常棒。那是个城市，但是算是小城市，所以你经常能遇到朋友，嗯，经常能遇到熟人。而且那里有大面积的绿地。那里有个地方名为Downs，那是个大公园，城市的建筑很古老，就在巴斯附近，巴斯是一个非常著名的罗马风格城镇，就是巴斯罗马浴场的所在地，所以那个城市的所有建筑、所有房屋都非常漂亮。Todd: OK. What are the Downs like? You said the downs. Is that a park?
托德：好。Downs什么样？你说过Downs，那是个公园吗？Eli: The downs. It's, it's a big area of green basically. It's not a park as in lots of trees and trees and sort of shrubbery and stuff. It's just a big wide spread of greenery where you can play football. I mean there's football matches sort of every week. You can go fly your kites. You can take your kids there. And that joins on to the Avon-gorge, which is where the Bristol suspension bridge is, which is very famous as being I think the first ever suspension bridge built, and from standing on the bridge and looking out into the gorge, I mean you'd think you're in the middle of the mountains, not in the middle of the city. It's a really pretty area.
艾丽：The Downs，对，是公园，是一片大面积的绿地。其实不算公园，因为那里有许多树木，还有灌木之类的东西。那只是一片大面积的绿地，你可以在那里踢足球。我的意思是那里几乎每周都有足球比赛。你可以在那里放风筝。你可以带你的孩子去那儿玩。那里与埃文峡谷相连，峡谷里有布里斯托尔吊桥，这非常有名，我想可能是历史上建造的第一座吊桥，站在吊桥上眺望峡谷，你会以为你身处山区，而不是在城市里。那真是个非常漂亮的地方。Todd: Sounds like a nice place.
托德：听起来是个不错的地方。
重点讲解：
1. sore point
痛点；痛处；
eg. Don't mention baldness to Eddie. It's a sore point with him.
别对伊迪提起秃头之类的事，他对这事很敏感。
eg. This just becomes these achieving to drop the biggest sore point of copartner.
这恰恰成为这些创投合伙人的最大心病。
2. compared to
相对…而言；对照；
eg. The writer was compared to Shakespeare.
把这个作家与莎士比亚进行了比较。
eg. That had been a placid pastime compared to his condition now.
与他目前的情况相比，那简直算是安静的消遣了。
3. as far as sth. is concerned
就…而言，说到（用于表明所谈论的话题） ；
eg. As far as starting a family is concerned, the trend is for women having their children later in life.
在要孩子方面，目前的趋势是女性要孩子要得比较晚。
eg. As far as oil energy is concerned, we cannot be too frugal.
就石油能源而言，我们愈节省愈好。
4. bump into
偶然遇见；意外碰到；
eg. I happened to bump into Mervyn Johns in the hallway.
我在走廊里意外碰见了默文·约翰斯。
eg. How nice to bump into you!
碰到你真高兴！
5. in the middle of
在…的中间；
eg. I was in the middle of the back row.
我在后排的中间。
eg. Two actors carried on a dialogue in the middle of the stage.
两个演员在舞台中央进行对白。
