美語情景對話 第463期:House Mates 同屋

Todd: So Carla, you lived in Africa, so you must have some cool animal stories.

託德：卡拉，你曾在非洲生活過，所以你一定有關於動物的有趣故事。

Carla: Do you want my cockroach story, or my monkey story, or my chameleon story? I know! I have a snake story.

卡拉：你是想聽有關蟑螂的故事，還是猴子的故事，或者是變色龍？哦，我知道了！我有一個和蛇有關的故事。

Todd: Ok.

託德：好。

Carla: We had a snake that lived in the bookcase. And you can never tell where he was except that that book was, except that that book was sticking out of the bookcase so you always knew where he was. And if you knocked on the book, you could pull it out and he would just lie there. But if you pulled the book out without knocking first, he would be frightened so he'd rear his head up and hiss at you and stick his tongue out and wiggle it around. He was a python, a baby python. Maybe two metres long.

卡拉：我們的書櫃裏曾經住着一條蛇。如果沒有書突出來的話，你是不會知道他在哪裏的，所以你可以通過這種方法知道它在哪裏。如果你敲一敲這本書再把書拿出來，那條蛇就會安靜地躺在那裏。可是如果你在拿書之前沒有先敲書的話，那條蛇就會受驚，所以它會把頭擡起來，衝着你發出嘶嘶的聲音並伸出舌頭左右擺動。那是一條小蟒蛇，大概兩米長。

Todd: And you just let him live in the house? You didn't make the snake leave?

託德：你就讓那條蛇住在你的房子裏嗎？你沒有把它弄出去嗎？

Carla: When he was growing a little bit bigger, and he started leaving his skin around, we got fed up with that. I said to him "I'm fed up of clearing your skins away so you're out fella".

卡拉：它長大了以後開始脫皮，這讓我們很煩。我對它說“我受夠了總是清理你脫下來的皮，所以夥計你出去吧。”

Todd: Wow, well who made the snake leave. How did you get him out of the house?

託德：哇，那是誰讓那條蛇離開的？你們是怎麼把它弄出房子的？

Carla: Oh we just put him outside in the garden.

卡拉：我們只是把它放在了花園外面。

Todd: Did you ever see him again?

託德：那你後來有再看見過它嗎？

Carla: Oh I have scorpion stories too. Never mind scorpion stories.

卡拉：哦，我還有和蠍子有關的故事。算了，別去管什麼蠍子了。

Todd: No no no, tell. Ya what's the scorpion story?

託德：別，別，說說吧。有關蠍子的什麼故事？

Carla: Well, the scorpions were about… what ten, fifteen centimetres long. Great big black things. And a friend of mine had… We didn't have any running water in that village either. And so we had a man who would come in every morning with a big head load of water. A big huge bucket on his head carrying water, and he'd tip it into our huge barrel in the back garden. And then we would have to move it out bucket full by bucket full. Anyway, so our bathroom was always dry. There was never any water, the taps didn't work. And we kept our bath sponge on the edge of the bath. And one day, I went to take a shower to have a bath, and I picked up the sponge and I put it against myself and I got this terrible pain. Because there had been a scorpion hiding underneath the sponge. And it stung me. But luckily it stung me in a place where it didn't hurt so much. On my stomach.

卡拉：蠍子大概有10到15釐米長。是一種大個黑色生物。我的一個朋友……我們住的那個村莊沒有自來水。所以我們請一名男子每天早上給我們送水。他用頭頂着一個大桶送水，然後把水倒進我們後院的大桶裏。我們用水的時候就用桶運水。我們的浴室永遠都是乾燥的，一點兒水都沒有，水龍頭也壞了。我們會把沐浴海綿放在浴缸邊緣。有一天我洗澡的時候，我拿起沐浴海綿在身上擦拭時，突然感到一陣劇痛。有一隻蠍子藏在了沐浴海綿下面，然後它叮了我。不過幸運地是我被叮的地方痛感不那麼強。它叮了我的腹部。

Todd: Wow.

託德：哇。

Carla: If you get it on your foot or you hand where you've got lots of nerves, it's really excruciating.

卡拉：如果蠍子叮了你的腳或手這種有很多神經的地方，那你會非常痛苦。

Todd: Oh man. I'm glad you're ok.

託德：天哪。真高興你沒什麼事。

譯文屬僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載

重點講解：
1. stick out
伸出；探出；
eg. The teacher used type that made the letters stick out from the page.
老師用鉛字讓字母從書頁上凸出來。
eg. You are not meant to stick out your head.
你不該伸出你的頭。
2. get/be fed up
厭倦的；厭煩的；膩味的；
eg. People get fed up with anyone who brags all the time.
人們對整天自吹自擂的人會感到厭煩。
eg. He is fed up with people writing him off because of his age.
他很討厭大家因爲他的年紀而小看他。
3. clear away
將…收走；把…拿開；
eg. Please clear away all that rubbish.
請把那些垃圾全部清除掉。
eg. It's time your toys were cleared away.
現在該收走你的玩具了。
4. never mind
沒關係；不要緊；沒什麼；
eg. Dorothy, come on. Never mind your shoes. They'll soon dry off.
快點兒吧，多蘿西。別去管你的鞋子了，它們很快就會幹的。
eg. Never mind what he said, I want your opinion.
別理會他的話，我想聽聽你的意見。