Talking About Books.

主页链接：http://www.remword.cn/?fromuid=75550a 原文链接：(可以听到音频朗读) http://www.remword.cn/portal.php?mod=view&aid=781 Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 430: Talking About Books. 欢迎来到ESL Podcast第430期节目：谈谈书。 This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 430. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California. 这里是ESL Podcast第430期节目。 我是你们的主播，Dr. Jeff McQuillan，来自美丽的加州洛杉矶教育发展中心。 Go our website to download the Learning Guide for this episode, which will help you improve your English even faster。 您可以到我们的网站为本期节目下载一篇学习指导，帮助你更快的提高英语。 This episode is called “Talking About Books.” It’s a dialogue between Maggie and Kurt using some common vocabulary we might use in talking about and recommending books. Let’s get started. 本期节目叫做“谈谈书。” 这是Maggie和Kurt之间的对话，用到一些常见词汇，我们谈论或推荐书时可能会用到。开始吧。 Maggie: What did you think of the book you started last week? Maggie：你上周开始读的那本书怎么样？ Kurt: Oh, I liked it well enough. Kurt：哦 ，我觉得一般般。 Maggie: Wow, that’s a glowing recommendation. Maggie：哇，真是个有激情的推荐。 Kurt: Well, it started off with a bang and the suspense in the first half was great. I couldn’t put it down. Then, the pace changed in the second half and it was an to finish it. Kurt：呃，这本书开头很好，还有前半部分很吸引人。 我不能停下阅读。之后，后半部分发展方向变了，就很难看完了。 Maggie: Really? I read it a few months ago and I loved it. I thought the characterization was really good. I could really relate to the two main characters. Maggie：真的吗？我几个月前我看过，非常喜欢。 我认为他人物塑造真的非常好。我可以理解书里两位主角。 Kurt: Yeah, that’s true enough, but the plot dragged, don’t you think? The author just couldn’t pull it off and the ending was laughable. Kurt：恩，确实是，但进展很慢，你觉得不？作者不能写完这本书了，结局太搞笑了。 Maggie: I really liked the ending! I can’t wait for the sequel. Maggie：我很喜欢这个结局！我迫不及待想看到续集。 Kurt: Well, that makes one of us. Kurt：呃。只有你是那样想的。 Our dialogue begins with Maggie asking Kurt, “What did you think of the book you started last week?” meaning the book you started to read last week. Kurt said, “Oh, I liked it well enough.” When someone says they like something “well enough,” it means they didn’t think it was great; it was okay; it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Maggie said, somewhat sarcastically, trying to be funny, “Wow, that’s a glowing recommendation.” 对话一开始，Maggie问Kurt，“What did you think of the book you started last week?”意思是你上周开始读的书。 Kurt说，“Oh, I liked it well enough.” 如果有人说他们喜欢某事物“well enough,”意思是他们认为它不好；它很一般；它不差，但也不是很好。 Maggie略带讽刺，但还是尽量打趣的说，“Wow, that’s a glowing recommendation.” A “glowing recommendation” is an enthusiastic statement that you should definitely do something or see something or hear something. A “recommendation” is a suggestion to someone else; a “glowing recommendation” is a very positive, very enthusiastic recommendation. Of course, Kurt is not giving a glowing recommendation; Maggie’s just being funny. “glowing recommendation”是一个有激情的陈述，指你确实应该做一些事，看一些东西或听一些东西。 “recommendation”是给其他人的建议；“glowing recommendation”是很积极，很有激情的建议。 当然，Kurt没有提积极的建议；Maggie只是在搞笑。 Kurt says, “Well, (the book) started off with a bang.” To “start off with a bang” (bang) means to begin in an exciting way, to begin well: “The meeting started off with a bang when the president said everyone would be getting two weeks extra vacation this year.” Kurt says the book “started off with a bang (it was exciting at the beginning) and the suspense in the first half was great.” The “suspense” is the feeling of being excited and wanting to know what is going to happen next, when you’re looking forward to something that will happen next. There are lots of movies that that are suspenseful. The movies of Alfred Hitchcock, the great British director in the 1950s and 60s, those are suspense movies; you are waiting for something to happen. Kurt说，“Well, (the book) started off with a bang.” “start off with a bang”意思是用令人激动的方式开始，开始的很好：The meeting started off with a bang when the president said everyone would be getting two weeks extra vacation this year.” Kurt说这本书“started off with a bang (it was exciting at the beginning) and the suspense in the first half was great.” “suspense”是当你渴望知道接下来发生的事时的激动感受。 有很多的悬疑的电影。 阿尔弗雷德.希区柯克，一位著名的英国导演1950s和60s的电影都是悬疑片； 你期待某件事的发生。 Kurt says about the book, “I couldn’t put it down.” To not be able to put a book (or something) down means you can’t stop reading it because it’s so exciting. When you’re reading a really good book, you really want to continue reading it; you can’t put it down. Kurt说这本书，“I couldn’t put it down.” 不能放下一本书意思是你不能停止阅读因为它让人很激动。 当你读到一本好书，你很想继续往下读；你不能放下书。 To “put (something) down” means literally to take it and put it on the table, or stop reading it in this case. Kurt says, “Then, the pace changed in the second half (of the book) and it was an effort to finish it.” The “pace,” here, just means the speed or rate of something. This is a word we use about, for example, runners in a race: they are going at a fast pace or a slow pace. We can also use it to describe a book that you are reading. “It’s going at a very fast pace” means it’s going very quickly, the story is changing and moving forward very quickly. The word “pace” has a couple of different meanings in English; look at the Learning Guide today for some additional explanations. “put（something）down”书面意思是拿起来放到桌子上，或者在这个句子中停止阅读。 Kurt说，“Then, the pace changed in the second half (of the book) and it was an effort to finish it.” “pace”在这里，指某事物的速度或频率。 比如，我们会用这个词来说比赛跑步的人：他们跑的很快/慢。 我们还可以用它来描述你正在读的书。 “It’s going at a very fast pace”意思是它非常快，这个故事改变，进展的很快。 “pace”在英语中有几种不同的意思；看看学习指导的一些其他解释。 Kurt says that it was an effort to finish the book. An “effort,” here, means something that is difficult, something that requires extra work, extra concentration. Maggie says, “Really? I read it a few months ago and I loved it.” So, Maggie read the same book and she loved it. “I thought the characterization was really good,” she says. In a story – in a fictional or imaginary story, “characterization” is the way that people are made to seem real, usually in a book, story, or movie. So someone may say, “Boy, this book has good characterization.” That means that the people in the books seemed real; they seemed interesting, perhaps, or complex. Kurt说很难完成这本书。 “effort”在这里，是指困难的事情，需要的额外工作，额外关注的事情。 Maggie说， “Really? I read it a few months ago and I loved it.” 所有，Maggie读过同样的书，她很喜欢。 “I thought the characterization was really good,”她说。在故事里——在一个虚构的小说里，“characterization”是让书，故事或电影的人物更真实的方法。 所以，有人会说，“Boy, this book has good characterization.” 意思是书里的人很真实；他们很有趣，或者复杂。 Maggie says, “I could really relate to the two main characters.” To “relate to someone,” or to “relate to something,” means to understand someone, to be able to find something similar in your own experiences. Sometimes we simply say, “I can relate.” For example, you are in an airport and the person next to you is worried because they are going to miss their flight (they will not leave at the correct time), and you may say, “I can relate to that.I missed my flight yesterday.” Or, we may just say informally, “I can relate,” meaning I understand. So, Maggie can relate to the characters (the people in the story), that means she can understand them; she has some sort of common experience that they share. Maggie说，“I could really relate to the two main characters.” “relate to someone,”或“relate to something,”意思是理解某人，在你自己的经历中找到一些相似的经历。 有时候我们简单的说，“I can relate.”比如，你在机场，你旁边那个人很忧虑，因为他们会错过航班。 你可能胡说，“I can relate to that.I missed my flight yesterday.” 或者，我们随便的说， “I can relate,”意思是我理解。 所以，Maggie可以理解故事里的人物；她和故事里的人物有一些相同的经历。 Kurt says, “Yeah, that’s true enough (meaning that’s true), but the plot dragged, don’t you think?” The “plot” is sometimes called the storyline. It’s the things that happen in a movie or a book or a story. It’s the events that happen: the person goes to the party, he talks to a pretty girl, the girl is not interested, so he talks to another pretty girl, and so on.That would be a “plot.” That would also be the story of my life! Now, when the “plot drags,” we mean it moves very slowly; it moves at a slow and boring pace; it doesn’t seem to move forward very quickly. “Drag” actually has a couple of meanings in English in addition to this one, so you know what to do: take a look at the Learning Guide for some more explanations. Kurt说，“Yeah, that’s true enough (meaning that’s true), but the plot dragged, don’t you think?” “plot”也叫作故事情节。 它指电影，书或故事里发生的事情。 它是发生的事情：一个人到了派对，他找一位美女聊天，这个女孩没兴趣。所以，他找另一个女孩聊天，等等。这就是“plot。” 这也可能是我的生活中发生的故事。 这里，我们说“plot drags，”意思是它进展的很慢；它进展很慢，很无聊。 “Drag”事实上在英语中还有几种意思，所以你知道怎么做了：看看学习指导中的其他解释。 Kurt says, “The author just couldn’t pull it off.” The “author” is the man or woman who writes the book or story; we may also call them the “writer,” especially if we are talking about a movie. The technical term for someone who writes a movie would be a “scriptwriter.” Here on ESL Podcast our scriptwriter, the person who writes these stories that we talk about – these wonderful stories, is Dr. Lucy Tse. She’s the author of these dialogues. Kurt说，“The author just couldn’t pull it off.” “author”写故事或书的男人或女人；我们也可以称他们“writer，”特别当我们在谈一部电影时。 电影编导的专有名词是“scripwriter” 在ESL Podcast上，这些精彩故事的编写人，我们的编剧，就是Dr.Lucy Tse。 她是这些对话的作者。 “The author just couldn’t pull it off.” This is an expression, a phrasal verb, “to pull (something) off” or “to pull off (something)” means to be able to do something successfully; to be able to complete something that is difficult, especially when other people don’t think you will be able to do it. Kurt says the author could not pull it off, “and the ending was laughable.” The “ending” is, you may guess, the final part of the story, the conclusion. If you say something is “laughable”, you mean it is so bad that it is funny because you can’t do anything other than laugh about it. You, in some ways, can’t believe how bad it is. So, “laughable” means funny, but it means funny because it’s so bad. “The author just couldn’t pull it off.”这是一个动词短语，“to pull (something) off” 或 “to pull off (something)”意思是成功的完成某事。 完成某件困难的事情，特别当别人认为你不可能完成的事。 Kurt说作者不可能完成，“and the ending was laughable.” “ending”，你可能会猜，是故事的最后一部分，结局。 如果你说某事“laughable，你意思是它很糟糕，很搞笑，因为你什么也不会做，除了嘲笑。 在某些方面，你不相信它有那么糟糕。所以，“laughable”意思是有趣的，但也是滑稽的，因为它很糟糕。 Maggie says, “I really liked the ending! I can’t wait for the sequel.” A “sequel” (sequel) is the second part or continuation of a book or a movie.So, it’s the second book. I read a book a long time ago, a suspense spy book called Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by the British author John le Carré. After he wrote that book it was very successful, so then he wrote another book – a sequel. There are a series of popular movies based on a book; the first one was called The Bourne Identity. And then, that was successful so the author wrote another book, and they also made movies about these three books. So, each one is a sequel; the second and third books are sequels to the first. Maggie说，“I really liked the ending! I can’t wait for the sequel.” “sequel”是第二部分，或一本书或一部电影的续集。所以，它是第二本书。 很久以前，我读过一本书，一个悬疑间谍故事，叫做裁缝，水手，士兵，间谍，英国作家约翰·勒·卡雷写的。 他完成这本书，这本书取得很大成功，所以他写了另一本书——一本续集。 有很多电影都以书为剧本；第一部叫谍影重重。 之后，电影取得成功，所以作者写了另一本书，之后的三本书都拍成了电影。 所以，每一本都是续集；第二本和第三本是第一本的续集。 Kurt doesn’t agree with Maggie, so he says, “Well, that makes one of us.” Actually, Kurt is making a joke here: the normal expression is “that makes two of us” when, for example, someone says something and you are in the same situation. Somebody says, “Oh, I missed my airplane (I missed my flight at the airport),” you may say, “Well, that makes two of us.I missed my flight, too.” Here, Kurt is making a joke, he says “that makes one of us,” which is just a funny way to say you are the only person that thinks that. Kuer不同意Maggie的说法，所以他说，“Well, that makes one of us.” 事实上，Kurt是在开玩笑：正式的表达是“that makes two of us”，比如，某人说了某件事，你也处在同样情况下。 有人说，Oh, I missed my airplane (I missed my flight at the airport),”你可能说，“Well, that makes two of us.I missed my flight, too.” 在这里，Kurt在开玩笑，他说， “that makes one of us,”这是一种高笑的方式说你是唯一那样想的人。 Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal pace. 现在听这段对话，这次是常速。 Maggie: What did you think of the book you started last week? Maggie：你上周开始读的那本书怎么样？ Kurt: Oh, I liked it well enough. Kurt：哦 ，我觉得一般般。 Maggie: Wow, that’s a glowing recommendation. Maggie：哇，那是个有激情的提议。 Kurt: Well, it started off with a bang and the suspense in the first half was great.I couldn’t put it down. Then, the pace changed in the second half and it was an effort to finish. Kurt：呃，这本书开头很好，还有前半部分很吸引人。我不能停下阅读。 之后，后半部分发展方向变了，就很难看完了。 Maggie: Really? I read it a few months ago and I loved it. I thought the characterization was really good. I could really relate to the two main characters. Maggie：真的吗？我几个月前我看过，非常喜欢。我认为他人物塑造真的非常好。我可以理解书里两位主角。 Kurt: Yeah, that’s true enough, but the plot dragged, don’t you think? The author just couldn’t pull it off and the ending was laughable. Kurt：恩，确实是，但进展很慢，你觉得不？作者不能写完这本书了，结局太搞笑了。 Maggie: I really liked the ending! I can’t wait for the sequel. Maggie：我很喜欢这个结局！我迫不及待想看到续集。 Kurt: Well, that makes one of us. Kurt：呃。只有你是那样想的。 The author of this fast-paced script today was Dr. Lucy Tse. 这篇快节奏讲稿的作者是Dr. Lucy Tse。 From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast. 我是Jeff McQuillan，来自加州，洛杉矶。感谢您的收听。欢迎下次继续收听ESL Podcast English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2008. ESL Podcast由Dr. Lucy Tse撰写制作，Dr. Jeff McQuillan主播。