美語情景對話 第396期:Venice 威尼斯

When I was living in Pisa, a few friends and I decided to go to Venice for the carnival, so the carnival in Venice, it's usually, usually about February or March, depending on when Easter is that year cause Easter can change every year, it's a different day, so this time it was, I think about, it was about the middle of February, that's right, so we went there about the 11th or 12th of February, and it was so cold. I remember just being bitterly, bitterly cold. I remember a few of us had to buy extra scarves and gloves and jumpers cause it was just so, so cold, especially at night. During the day wasn't so bad, it was still cold but it was really awful at night if you were walking around, but it was an awful lot of fun to be in Venice for carnival because, em, lots of people dress up in really, really elaborate costumes and masks. One of my friends there, she goes almost every year to the carnival and she does face-painting on the streets so I met up with her, kind of by chance. We knew that we were both going to be there but it's such a busy time we weren't sure if we were going to meet or not, so it was really good that we met up in the huge piazza, Piazza San Marco. She told me roughly which side of the piazza she would be and I found her, so that was really great to see her after such a long time and then the other amazing thing we did that weekend or that few days was that my friends and I went on a gondola. So, a gondola, you've probably seen on television or in a book or something, a gondola is the long, kind of, boat that they have in Venice and there's a man who stands at the back with a big, long pole that he steers the boat with so he drives the boat along by pushing this long stick into the mud on the bottom of the canal, I suppose. It was really amazing because that's one of the, I suppose, the most stereotypical things when you think of Venice and when I'd been there the first time I hadn't gone on a gondola because I thought aw, it's too touristy, I'm not going to do that, but my friends this time, they really wanted to go on one, so we went and we asked some of the guys, the gondoliere as they're called, by piazza san Marco and asked them how much it would cost but we'd forgotten that that day it was the 14th of February so it was Valentine's Day and, as you can imagine, going out in a gondola is, is usually a very romantic occasion for a couple and whatever, to go off and be maybe serenaded by, by another gondoliere, so they sing all sorts of, of songs like you've probably seen on TV or heard in television adverts so they wanted an awful lot of money, I remember, just because it was Valentine's Day, so there were a few of us trying to argue with them in Italian and you know, we were saying that it wasn't fair because it was just a group of us and we just wanted the experience so I think eventually they kind of gave us a more reasonable price so we set off in the gondola and went along the canals, the little canals around Piazza San Marco so it was really, really, really nice. We got to see a lot of the, the backstreets, like I say, and lovely old bridges crossing, crossing the canals. It's a really unique experience as Venice is a pretty unique city really. There was, em, our gondoliere was pretty funny in the end as it turned out. He was very nice, and so there was a few of us from Ireland in the gondola he was asking us all where we were from and soas soon as we told him Ireland he started singing us a song by U2 which is a bit strange, not the usual song that you expect from a gondoliere but, em, it was quite funny, anyway. So, like I say, a really unique experience.

我住在比薩城的時候，決定和一些朋友去威尼斯參加狂歡節，威尼斯的狂歡節一般在二月或者三月舉行，舉辦時間要取決於那年的復活節在什麼時候，因爲每年的復活節時間都會變動，每年的時間都不一樣，我們參加的那場狂歡節是在二月中旬舉行的，所以我們是二月11日或者是12日去的，當時非常冷。我記得當時很冷，非常寒冷。我記得因爲當時太冷，我們中有些人不得不再買條圍巾、手套和針織毛衫，而且晚上要更寒冷。不過那天還不算太糟，雖然非常冷，但是晚上出去走走還是非常不錯的，在威尼斯參加狂歡節非常有趣，因爲有很多人穿着精美的服裝，戴着美麗的面具。我有一個朋友幾乎每年都會參加狂歡節，她通常會在街頭做面部彩繪，而我剛好和她偶遇了。我們知道我們都要去那裏，可是因爲時間太趕了，所以我們不確定我們是否會相遇，而我們在聖馬可廣場相遇了，那真是太好了。她大概跟我說了一下她會去廣場的哪個地方，然後我就在那裏找到了她，在那麼長時間以後見到她真是太高興了，而且那個週末或者說那幾天我們還做了其他令人不可思議的事，那就是我和朋友們去坐了威尼斯吊船。你們可能在電視上或是在書上和其他地方看到過吊船，吊船是威尼斯一種很長的船，會有個船伕拿着又長又大的船杆站在船尾，他會那支船杆來控制船，我想他把船杆插入河流底部的泥土裏來讓船前行。那真是太不可思議了，因爲我認爲那是威尼斯最典型的事物，而我第一次去威尼斯的時候並沒有坐吊船，因爲我覺得那就是爲吸引遊客才設計的，所以我不會坐那種船，但是我朋友們非常想試試，所以我們就去了，我們向聖馬可廣場的一些船伕詢問了吊船的價格，可是我們忘了那天是2月14日情人節，你可以想象，乘坐吊船對情況來說會是很浪漫的事情，船伕會吟唱小夜曲，他們會一路吟唱你可能在電視上或是電視廣告中聽過的那種歌曲，當然他們也會要一大筆錢，因爲那天是情人節，我們中有些人試着用意大利語和他們爭辯，我們說那並不公平，因爲我們是一羣人，我們只是希望有這種體驗，我想最終船伕向我們要了更合理的價格，所以我們開始了乘坐吊船遊覽的行程，我們沿着聖馬可大廣場周圍的河流遊覽，那真是非常美妙的經歷。我們看到了一些后街的風景，就像我說過的，我喜歡跨海大橋。那真是次獨特的經歷，而威尼斯真是一個非常獨特的城市。後來證明我們的吊船之旅非常有意思。船伕人非常好，我們中有些人來自愛爾蘭，船伕問了我們所有人來自哪裏，我們告訴他我們來自愛爾蘭之後他就開始爲我們演唱U2樂隊的歌，那有點奇怪，因爲那並不是船伕通常會唱的歌曲，不過不管怎麼樣說，那確實很有趣。就像我說過的，那真是次非常獨特的經歷。

重點講解：
1. depend on
取決（於）；有賴（於）；
eg. How much can you get depend on how much you pay.
你能得到多少取決於你付出了多少。
eg. And the next step up the ladder would depend on her performance in Paris.
而她的下一次晉升就取決於她在巴黎的工作表現。
2. dress up
裝扮；打扮；
eg. For children, the main point of Halloween became to dress up and collect as much tasty candy as possible.
對於孩子們，萬聖節最重要的就是打扮起來，並蒐集儘可能多的美味糖果。
eg. She loved to dress up and she enjoyed the attention from other student she was living it up.
她喜歡打扮並樂意成爲其他學生關注的焦點，她盡情地享受生活。
3. meet up
碰到；遇見；
eg. When he was in the supermarket, he met up with a buddy he had at Oxford.
他在超市遇見了他在牛津時的一個朋友。
eg. They met up in 1956, when they were both young schoolboys.
他們1956年相遇，那時他們倆都還是小男生。
4. by chance
偶然；碰巧；
eg. He picked up a purse on his way there by chance.
他碰巧在去那兒的路上撿了一個錢包。
eg. It was not by chance that he was able to open up a new field and perform great deeds.
他之所以能開闢新天地，成就一番事業，絕非偶然。
5. set off
動身；出發；啓程；
eg, By midmorning we were done with the eiffel tower and had set off for versailles.
上午的時候，我們已經結束了埃菲爾鐵塔的遊覽，出發前往凡爾賽宮。
eg. We were about to set off when it suddenly began to rain.
我們剛要出發，突然下起雨來。
6. in the end
最後；終於；
eg. Almost everyone gets their comeuppance in the end.
幾乎每個人最終都會得到應有的報應。
eg. In the end, we all decided to organize a concert for Easter.
最終，我們一致決定組織一場復活節音樂會。
7. turn out
（以某種方式）發生；最後是；結果是；
eg. I was positive things were going to turn out fine.
我確信事情最終會好起來的。
eg. It's strange how things turn out.
事情的結局出乎意料。
8. as soon as
一…就…；
eg. As soon as the matter is cleared up. I shall write to them.
等到這事一弄清楚，我就給他們寫信。
eg. I arranged the flowers in the vase as soon as I came back home.
一回到家裏，我就把花在花瓶裏插好。