美語情景對話 第811期:City Costs 城市生活成本

Tom: Jess, I love hearing you talk about the different cities, you've been working in. Were they all very expensive places to live?

湯姆：傑西，我喜歡聽你說你工作過的不同城市的情況。那些城市的生活成本都很高嗎？

Jess: No, they weren't all expensive. The first city I lived in when I moved away from Britain was Budapest in Hungary, and when I lived there it was before Hungary had joined the Euro, so the currency was still the Hungarian forint and most things were really cheap compared to Britain.

傑西：不是，生活成本不是都高。我離開英國以後，第一個生活的城市是匈牙利布達佩斯，我在那裏生活時匈牙利還沒有加入歐盟，所以當時使用的貨幣還是匈牙利福林，與英國相比，大部分東西的價格都很便宜。

There were things that were expensive there, I think especially for tourists or for people who the taxi drivers perceived as being tourists. After I had lived there for awhile kind of knew how much certain journeys should cost and I was very surprised at how often the taxi drivers would double that as soon as they realized I wasn't Hungarian, but overall Budapest was a cheap city. I'm not sure if that's the case now. It uses the Euro, but then it was cheap and very good fun. After Budapest, I went to Madrid, and that was a bit more expensive than Budapest, definitely. Rent was certainly more expensive and a large proportion on my monthly salary went on rent but other things like eating out, supermarket shopping, clothes shopping, they were still quite a lot of choices that wasn't too expensive. The high street shops were about the same price as in Britain, but eating out there was cheap. Again, beauty services in Madrid — haircuts — I think they must be expensive all over the world cause they were really expensive in Madrid as well.

布達佩斯也有非常貴的東西，尤其是對遊客或者說對被出租車司機看成遊客的人來說。我在布達佩斯生活了一段時間以後，我就瞭解了來這裏旅行所需要的費用，而且我非常吃驚的是，一旦出租車司機發現乘客不是匈牙利人，那他們收取的費用就會翻倍，不過總的來說，布達佩斯的物價很便宜。我不知道現在那裏的情況是不是還是這樣。現在布達佩斯使用歐元，不過以前那裏的物價很便宜，而且很好玩。離開布達佩斯以後，我去了馬德里，那裏的物價比布達佩斯稍微貴一些。租金更貴，我每個月大部分的工資都去交租金了，不過像去外面吃飯、在超市買東西和買衣服等有很多選擇，而且不是很貴。商業街上商店的價格和英國的一樣，不過餐廳的價格很便宜。另外，在馬德里剪髮等美容服務的價格很貴，我想這種服務在全世界的價格都很貴。

So, you've told me about Tokyo and Bangkok, where else have you lived Tom?

湯姆，你說過東京和曼谷的情況，你還在其他地方生活過嗎？

Tom: I had a short contract working in North Africa in Tripoli in Libya and rent was taken care of and I almost paid nothing while I was there and I was able to send seventy or eighty percent of my salary home to England to my savings account. Travel around Tripoli by these little minivans was a quarter of a dinar and food was a little bit more expensive but I could live on a very small amount of money each month and of course tripoli is right on the Mediterranean so on my days off I could go to the beach very easily. The weather was always fantastic. It was an interesting place to live and the currency in Libya are these beautiful huge bank notes that you have to fold several times to put into your wallet. It was a really satisfying to have a fist full of those in your pocket.

湯姆：我在北非做過短合同工，在利比亞首都黎波里工作過一段時間，那份工作提供住宿，我在那裏時幾乎沒買過東西，我將工資的70%至80%寄到英國的儲蓄帳戶。乘坐小型麪包車在黎波里遊覽的費用大概是0.25第納爾，那裏的食物要貴一些，不過我每個月只花一小部分錢，黎波里在地中海地區，休息的時候去海灘玩很方便。那裏的天氣一直都很棒。在黎波里生活很有意思，利比亞貨幣很漂亮，但是紙幣很大，要對摺好幾次才能放進錢包裏。錢包裏裝得滿滿的讓人感覺很開心。

Jess: Oh, it sounds fantastic. I'd love to go there.

傑西：哦，聽起來不錯。我想去那裏看看。

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重點講解：
1. compared to 與…相比；和…比起來；
例句：Compared to many people,she was indeed very fortunate.
和許多人比起來她確實是很幸運的。
2. as soon as 一…就…；
例句：He acted with decision as soon as he heard the news.
他一聽到這個消息就果斷地採取了行動。
3. all over 到處；遍及；
例句：She's left her books all over the place.
她把書到處亂放。
4. take care of 照顧；照看；看護；
例句：Take it easy. We'll take care of everything.
別著急。一切由我們照料。