美語情景對話 第843期:Paul Bunyan 保羅·班揚

Shirley: Hi Jake, how are you today?

雪莉：你好，傑克，你今天怎麼樣？

Jake: Good. How are you Shirley?

傑克：我很好。你呢，雪莉？

Shirley: Not too bad thanks. I thought we might talk about Folk heroes today. I don't really know much about American folk heroes, are there any that you have a favorite or...?

雪莉：還不錯，謝謝你。我們今天來談談民間英雄。我不太瞭解美國民間英雄，你們有喜歡的……？

Jake: Actually my hometown in the United States happens to be known as one of the hometowns for Paul Bunyan.

傑克：在我的家鄉美國有一個英雄——保羅·班揚。

Shirley: I think I've heard of that name but I don't know anything about him.

雪莉：我聽過這個名字，不過我對他的故事一無所知。

Jake: Paul Bunyan was a lumberjack. Like, he would cut down trees and he was supposedly a very giant man. He was huge. And I don't know if he ever actually lived sometime in the past, but maybe he was just a very large man but somehow the stories have been passed down to say that he was as large as a house or as large as a skyscraper. It completely depends on who you ask.

傑克：保羅·班揚是名伐木工。他的工作是伐木，他是一名巨人。他非常高大。我不知道他在過去是否真實存在，也許他只是一名身材高大的人，不過流傳的故事中說他有一座房子那麼高，像摩天大樓一樣高。我認爲你問不同的人會得到不同的描述。

Shirley: Wow, so not sure whether he's a mythical character or a real character.

雪莉：哇，所以你不能確定他是神話人物還是真實存在的人物。

Jake: No one really knows for sure.

傑克：沒有人確切知道。

Shirley: What did he do?

雪莉：他做了什麼？

Jake: Well, some people say that he took his ax and he dragged it behind his back across the United States and he made the Mississippi river.

傑克：有些人說他拿着斧頭，在背後拖着斧子穿越了美國，而且創造出了密西西比河。

Shirley: So it's a kind of story to explain why something exists.

雪莉：可以說這是解釋某事存在原因的一個故事。

Jake: That's part of it. And also, he had a pet too. His pet is very famous.

傑克：這是其中一部分。他還有一個寵物。他的寵物非常有名。

Shirley: And what kind of pet?

雪莉：是什麼寵物？

Jake: His pet was an ox, but it wasn't just an ordinary ox. It was a blue ox. And it was also oversized to fit with his size.

傑克：他的寵物是頭公牛，但不是一頭普通的公牛。那是一頭藍色的公牛。而且那頭藍色的公牛體型也非常龐大，和他很相配。

Shirley: What did his pet do?

雪莉：他的寵物做了什麼？

Jake: Well his pet I think would just carry lumber for him or something...

傑克：我想他的寵物只是幫他拿木材之類的……

Shirley: So about when did this story start? When did Paul Bunyan become famous? Or when did people know about that story?

雪莉：那這個故事是什麼時候開始流傳的？保羅·班揚是什麼時候開始出名的？或者說人們是什麼時候知道的這個故事？

Jake: Well, I'm not exactly sure, but like your country, the United States is a very young country and has a very young history since the European settlers came there so I think it's maybe from a couple hundred years ago, maybe at the most.

傑克：我也不太清楚，和你的國家一樣，美國也是一個非常年輕的國家，美國曆史從歐洲定居者到來以後開始，歷史並不長，所以我認爲那個故事最多源自幾百年前。

Shirley: Hmm. Ok.

雪莉：嗯，好。

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重點講解：
1. be known as 稱爲；叫做；認爲；
例句：The violin is known as the queen of instruments.
小提琴有樂器皇后之稱。
2. cut down 砍倒（樹木）；
例句：A vandal with a chainsaw cut down a tree.
一個故意破壞公物的人用鏈鋸伐倒了一棵樹。
3. pass down 使流傳；
例句：Folk music has been passed down from one generation to another.
民間音樂是一代一代流傳下來的。
4. for sure 無疑;肯定；
例句：Nobody knows the cause of the fire for sure.
沒有人確切地知道大火的原因。
5. at the most 至多；最多；
例句：It will take two hours at the most to get there.
最多兩小時便可到達那裏。