美語情景對話 第229期:Life in England 英格蘭的生活
Todd: OK, hello!
託德:你好!Sarah: Hello!
薩拉:你好!Todd: Hi, what's your name?
託德:嗨,你叫什麼名字?
Sarah: My name is Sarah.
薩拉:我的名字是薩拉。Todd: OK, and Sarah where are you from?
託德:好的,薩拉,你來自哪裏?Sarah: I'm from the north of England, Newcastle.
薩拉:我來自英格蘭北部的紐卡斯爾。Todd: OK, so Newcastle, how far is that from London?
託德:好,那紐卡斯爾離倫敦有多遠?Sarah: Um, it's about 300 miles.
薩拉:嗯,大約300英里。Todd: Uh-huh, do you go to London a lot or have you been to London before?
託德:啊,你經常去倫敦嗎,或者説你以前去過倫敦嗎?Sarah: I live in London. I've lived in London for the past seven years.
薩拉:我住在倫敦。我過去七年一直住在倫敦。Todd: Oh, really?
託德:哦,這樣啊?Sarah: Almost seven years, yeah.
薩拉:差不多七年的時間了,對。Todd: OK. Which do you prefer, London or Newcastle?
託德:好的。那你更喜歡哪裏,倫敦還是紐卡斯爾?Sarah: Um, like them both. I prefer Newcastle because it's smaller, so it's easier to get around and it's also cheaper. London is very expensive.
薩拉:嗯,兩個地方我都喜歡。我喜歡紐卡斯爾是因為那裏很小,所以很容易四處遊玩,而且物價也相對便宜。倫敦物價非常貴。Todd: So all your family is in Newcastle?
託德:那你家人還在紐卡斯爾嗎?Sarah: Um, pretty much yeah.
薩拉:嗯,差不多是這樣。Todd: So are they always trying to get you to go back and move back to Newcastle?
託德:那他們會勸你搬回紐卡斯爾住嗎?Sarah: Ah, no, no, because most of the jobs are in the south, anyway for younger people so it's quite difficult to get a job in the north in teaching.
薩拉:嗯,不會,不會,因為大部分適合年輕人的工作機會都在南方,在北方找到一份與教育相關的工作非常難。Todd: OK. Um, what do you like about London?
託德:好的。嗯,你喜歡倫敦的什麼地方?Sarah: Ah, it's a very busy place, there's lots of things going on all the time. There's also lots of things I don't like about London, but all my friends live there lots of job opportunities.
薩拉:嗯,倫敦是一個非常忙碌的城市,有許多事情同時在進行。當然倫敦也有許多我不喜歡的地方,但是我所有的朋友都在那邊,而且那裏工作機會也多。Todd: OK, what were you doing before you came to Japan in London?
託德:好,你來日本之前,在倫敦是做什麼工作的?Sarah: Ah, I was in Austria for a year. I was teaching in Austria, and then I was in London teaching, in London for a few years.
薩拉:哦,我在奧地利待了一年。我在奧地利教課,之後我回倫敦繼續教課,在倫敦工作了幾年的時間。Todd: What were you teaching in London?
託德:你在倫敦教什麼?Sarah: I was teaching primary school. I was a primary school teacher.
薩拉:我在小學教課。我是一名小學老師。Todd: Kids!
託德:孩子!Sarah: Yeah.
薩拉:對。Todd: So what's it like teaching kids?
託德:教孩子的感覺怎麼樣?Sarah: Um, tiring. Very tiring. I prefer teaching adults. That's my preference. I've mainly taught adults in TEFL, but in the state system in England it's only been children. It's fun. It's just very tiring.
薩拉:嗯,累,非常累。我喜歡教成年人。我更偏好教成年人。我主要是用英語教授成年人,不過在英格蘭的體系中,那隻適用於兒童。不過這很有意思。只是會很累。重點講解:
1. get around
到處旅行;遊歷;
eg. He claimed to be a journalist, and he got around.
他自稱是一名記者,經常四處遊歷。
eg. " It is rather large to get around in a week, " answered Ames, pleasantly.
“這麼大個城市,一星期恐怕逛不完吧,"艾姆斯愉快地答道。
2. pretty much
幾乎;近乎;差不多;
eg. His new government looks pretty much like the old one.
他的新政府看起來和舊政府沒什麼兩樣。
eg. The result of the ballot is pretty much what we expected.
投票的結果和我們預料的差不多。
3. prefer doing sth.
喜歡做某事;樂意做某事;
eg. I prefer reading non-fiction.
我喜歡看紀實作品。
eg. I prefer doing some writing in my spare time.
我更喜歡業餘時間寫點什麼。