美語情景對話 第730期:Wasting Money 亂花錢

Todd: So, Anita, we're talking about money.

託德：安妮塔，我們來談談錢。

Anita: OK.

安妮塔：好。

Todd: I have some questions for you.

託德：我有幾個問題要問你。

Anita: Fire away.

安妮塔：問吧。

Todd: First question: are you good at saving money?

託德：第一個問題：你擅於存錢嗎？

Anita: You know now that I got married, I think I'm much better at saving money, than I was before.

安妮塔：你知道我已經結婚了，我想和以前相比，我現在在存錢方面做得更好。

Todd: Yeah, I think it's definitely one thing that comes with age. The older you get, the better you get at saving money.

託德：我覺得這肯定與年齡有關。年齡越大，越擅長存錢。

Anita: Definitely.

安妮塔：肯定是這樣。

Todd: But we all waste money, so what is something you waste money on?

託德：我們都會浪費錢，你一般會在哪方面花錢？

Anita: Oh, what do I waste money on? Probably movie rentals.

安妮塔：哦，我會在哪些地方花錢？那可能是租電影光盤。

Todd: Movie rentals, right.

託德：租電影光盤，好。

Anita: I love watching movies, and I am capable of renting five movies a week, so that's one thing.

安妮塔：我非常喜歡看電影，我一週會借五部電影看，這是一方面。

Todd: You know, actually, not that you mention it, I have a huge problem with movie rentals, not so much the movie rental but the late fee. I'm terrible. Like, I'll have a movie for two weeks, and I could have bought the movie for the price I have to pay for the rental, for the late fee. Oh, it drives me nuts.

託德：既然你提到了，其實我在租電影光盤上遇到了很大的問題，並不是租借費用而是滯納金。我經常逾期。比如一個電影我借兩週，可是我還的時候，因爲滯納金的問題最後支付的費用能買下這張電影光盤了。這已經快把我逼瘋了。

Anita: You should do what I did. I moved to a new apartment last month and that apartment is right in front of a movie rental place.

安妮塔：你應該像我這樣做。上個月我搬到了新公寓，那座公寓就在影片出租店的前面。

Todd: That's it. That's the solution. Always live by the movie rental place.

託德：沒錯。這的確是解決方法。住在影片出租店附近。

Anita: That's my way of saving money.

安妮塔：這是我存錢的方法。

Todd: Well, these days you can actually download movies on the internet which is really convenient.

託德：現在可以從網上下載電影，非常方便。

Anita: If you're American, yes. Usually many of these websites where you can legally download movies are only for American or people with American credit cards.

安妮塔：美國人可以這樣做。因爲通常合法的電影下載網站只對美國人開放，或者只供持有信用卡的美國人使用。

Todd: That's true.

託德：沒錯。

Anita: Unfortunately, it's not available to the rest of the world yet, but I know in my country we have a website where you can rent movies. You download them from the internet and you get a special password, so the movie, you can only access the movie within those 24 hours that you rent it for. I've never tried it but the system is there and I think it's a great system.

安妮塔：不幸的是，世界其他地方不能這樣做，不過我知道我們國家有一個可以租電影的網站。從網上下載之後，你會得到一個特殊的通行口令，在24小時內可以觀看，這是你租借的時限。我從來沒試過，不過我知道有這種系統，我認爲這個系統很棒。

Todd: That's a cool technology.

託德：這種技術太酷了。

Anita: Yeah, very.

安妮塔：沒錯，非常酷。

Todd: What about other things like music and books? Do you spend a lot of money on that?

託德：那音樂和書籍呢？你會在這兩樣東西上花很多錢嗎？

Anita: Books, yes. Books yes. Music not as much. But one thing I definitely spend a lot of money on is my phone bill.

安妮塔：對，書籍，我會在書籍上花很多錢。音樂倒是不太會。不過我一定會花很多錢的是電話費。

Todd: Oh, really.

託德：哦，是嗎？

Anita: Yes.

安妮塔：對。

Todd: Talking on the phone.

託德：我一直在講電話。

Anita: Yes, talking on the phone.

安妮塔：打電話。

Todd: Well, actually it's funny because those are two things I never waste money on. 1) I hate talking on the phone, so I'm never on the phone. I always have extra minutes, and 2) for books, go to the library. It's free.

託德：這很有趣，因爲我從來沒在這兩樣事情上花費太多錢。首先，我討厭打電話，所以我從來不打電話聊天。我套餐裏的時間經常用不完。其次，我看書一般會去圖書館。那裏可以免費看書。

Anita: But then you can't keep the book at home and the whole beauty of reading a book it to... after you've read it, put it in your own personal library and feel good about yourself when you look at your library and think. "Ah, I've read so many books" but I like having books at home because you can reread them anytime you feel like it.

安妮塔：可是那樣家裏沒有書了，就讀書來說，最美的事情是……看完以後把書放在個人圖書館裏，這樣你在看你的個人圖書館時會感覺很好，你會想“啊，我已經讀過這麼多書了”，我喜歡在家看書，因爲可以隨時再看一遍。

Todd: Oh, that's interesting. I don't think I've ever reread a book, ever.

託德：哦，這很有意思。我想我沒有一本書看過兩遍。

Anita: Really.

安妮塔：真的嗎？

Todd: Yeah, one time and that's it.

託德：對，我只看一遍。

Anita: Really.

安妮塔：是嗎？

Todd: Maybe I just don't have the same love of reading as you do.

託德：可能我不像你那麼熱衷於閱讀。

Anita: Could be.

安妮塔：可能吧。

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重點講解：
1. fire away 說吧；講吧；問吧；
例句：'May I ask you something?' — 'Sure.Fire away.'
“我可以問你一個問題嗎？”——“當然可以。儘管問吧。”
2. be good at 擅長的；精通的；能幹的；
例句：I used tobe good atcricket, but now I'm out of practice.
我板球曾打得很好，可惜現在已生疏了。
3. be capable of 有…能力的；能夠…的；
例句：The engineeris capable ofhandling the problem.
工程師能處理這個問題。
4. drive sb. nuts 把某人逼瘋；
例句：My mother-in-law isdriving me nuts.
我岳母使我快要發瘋了。
5. on the phone 在通話；
例句：She's alwayson the phone, wanting to know what I've been up to.
她老來電話，想知道我在做什麼。