美語情景對話 第413期:Seasons 季節

My favorite season has to be autumn, although when it gets to autumn I feel slightly disappointed because I know that after summer the weather gets colder and the nights get shorter and the evenings get darker. I still really like autumn. One of my favorite things about autumn is when all of the leaves fall off the trees and you can walk about and crunch in the leaves. However I think my favorite thing about autumn is the conkers. I love it when conkers fall off trees and you can collect them.

我最喜歡的季節是秋季，雖然秋天的時候我會感到有些失望，因爲我知道過了夏天以後，天氣會越來越冷，夜晚越來越短也越來越黑。但是我還是喜歡秋季。我最喜歡秋天的一點是，當所有的樹葉從樹上掉落到地上以後，你踩在樹葉上的時候會發出嘎吱嘎吱的聲音。不過我最喜歡秋天的原因是秋天有七葉樹果。我喜歡在七葉樹果從樹上掉下來之後去收集它們。

When I was at school we used to collect conkers and put them on stings and then we would have a competition to see who had the best conker. We would hit our conkers with somebody elses and if yours didn't smash then you could have one point so after your first game, your conker would be a oner. Then if you won twice, it would be a twoer and so on. It was a really good game and it kept us amused for hours. Conkers are great fun. Have you ever played conkers? Maybe you should. Why don't you try it this autumn?

我上學的時候經常去撿七葉樹果，我們會進行撞樹果比賽，看誰撿的樹果最強。我們會用自己的樹果去撞另一個人的，如果你的樹果沒有碎，那你在第一場比賽後就得到一分。之後如果你第二場比賽也贏了，那就是兩分，以此類推。那真的是一個很棒的比賽，我們可以愉快地玩上好幾個小時。七葉樹果能帶來很多樂趣。你們玩過七葉樹果嗎？也許你們應該試試。今年秋天爲什麼不試試呢？

重點講解：
1. fall off
脫落；掉落；
eg. They fall off their bikes.
他們從自行車上摔下來。
eg. I saw the boy was about to fall off and caught him just in the nick of time.
我見這男孩快要掉下去，便及時把他抓住了。
2. used to do sth.
過去常常；過去曾做某事；
eg. The old-timers used to recall how hot 1886 was.
老人們常常回想起1886年的酷熱。
eg. I used to write during my free periods at school.
過去我經常在課餘時間寫作。
3. and so on
及諸如此類；等等；
eg. She spends her day doing housework, watching television, reading, and so on.
她以做家務 、 看電視 、 看書等等度過一天。
eg. Consumer durables such as refrigerators, television sets, bicycles and so on were produced in large quantities.
冰箱、電視、自行車等耐用消費品被大批量地生產出來。