美語情景對話 第302期:Dogs 狗狗
One of our dogs at home, he used to go walking with my granddad, and it was on these old country roads, so very quite really, not many cars would pass so the dog, Jonathan, used to run off in front of my granddad and my granddad's hearing wasn't too good at that time, he was already quite old, so he wouldn't always hear cars coming, so every time a car was coming, the dog would, Jonathan would come running back to my granddad so that, and he did this every time a car came so my granddad knew that if Jonathan came running back towards him, he knew that he had to stand in closer to the edge of the road so that, you know, he wouldn't be in danger of being knocked down by a car or anything because those old country roads, you know when I was younger, we used to walk in the middle of the road, or you know, not quite by the edge, cause there were so few cars, you didn't really need to keep by the edge and there were no foot paths along the side, so you were just walking along the edge of the road, so he was a really clever dog in he could alert my granddad, you know to whether a car was coming or not.
我們家有一隻狗經常和我爺爺一起去散步，他們散步的那條路是古老的鄉村小路，非常非常安靜，經過的汽車不多，所以這隻名爲喬納森的狗經常跑在我爺爺的前面，那時我爺爺的聽力已經不好了，他當時年紀已經很大了，所以他不是總能聽到汽車經過的聲音，每次有汽車來的時候，小狗喬納森就會跑回來找我爺爺，而每次一有汽車它就這樣跑回來，因此我爺爺就知道，如果喬納森跑回來找他，那就意味着他要站在靠近路邊的地方，這樣他就不會有被車撞到的危險了，那些鄉村小路你也知道，在我小的時候，我們常常走在路中間，或者不會靠路邊走，因爲那裏汽車很少，你不用總是靠在路邊，而且路邊也沒有人行道，所以你只能沿着路邊走，所以喬納森是隻非常聰明的狗，他會提醒我爺爺，讓他知道是否有車輛經過。I think most dogs are very intelligent. I've met some people who say their dog is a bit stupid but I don't believe that really. I think most dogs are quite intelligent, even if they're not really good guard dogs, you know, some dogs aren't good guard dogs. They don't bark enough when strangers come or something like that, but I still think they're probably very intelligent, and even if they're not, they're probably very affectionate, which is a plus definitely. It's almost as good as having a really intelligent guard dog I think.
我認爲大部分狗狗都很聰明，我遇到過一些說他們的狗有點笨的人，但是我認爲那並不是事實。我認爲大多數小狗都非常聰明，即使它們不是好的看門狗，你知道的，有些狗並不是很好的看門狗。像是有陌生人來的時候它們並不怎麼叫，但是我仍然認爲它們是聰明的，即使它們不夠好，但是它們很重感情，這絕對是好的方面。我認爲這與擁有一隻聰明的看門狗一樣好。
重點講解：
1. be in danger of
處於…危險之中；
eg. He was in danger of losing his life.
他有失去生命的危險。
eg. The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented.
如果不實施影響深遠的改革，經濟就面臨崩潰的危險。
2. knock down
（被車）撞倒；
eg. A drunk driver knocked down and killed two girls.
一個酒後駕駛的司機撞死了兩個女孩兒。
eg. She run to the man who have be knock down and give him first aid until the ambulance arrive .
她跑到被撞倒的男人身邊對他進行急救直至救護車到來。
3. even if
即使；儘管；縱然；
eg. I wouldn't lose courage even if I should fail ten times.
即使要失敗十次，我也絕不灰心。
eg. Don't let down even if the going is good.
即便在順利的情況下也不要鬆勁。
