美語情景對話 第441期:Life in England 英國的生活

Todd: Hello! Can you introduce yourself please.

託德：你好！請你做下自我介紹。

Steven: Sure, my name is Steven Patterson and I'm from a small town called Brentwood in Essex which is in England.

史蒂文：好的，我叫史蒂文·帕特森，我來自英國埃塞克斯郡的布倫特伍德。

Todd: OK. Essex. What part of England is that?

託德：好，埃塞克斯郡。那裏位於英國的哪部分？

Steven: That's in the southeast.

史蒂文：在東南部。

Todd: Southeast.

託德：東南部。

Steven: Yeah, yeah. It's attached to London, just next to London.

史蒂文：對，沒錯。與倫敦接壤，就在倫敦旁邊。

Todd: Oh, OK, but you said it's a small town.

託德：哦，好的，你剛說那是一個小城鎮。

Steven: It's quite small, well, relatively small. The populations about 50,000.

史蒂文：非常小，嗯，相對來說很小。那裏的人口約爲5萬人。

Todd: OK, well what kind of place is your town where you grew up?

託德：哦，那你成長的那個城鎮是什麼樣子的？

Steven: Um, it's actually a very nice town. People often move into Brentwood from the surrounding towns, or from the east end of London. Um, it's quite prosperous. Well, you could, in some respects, it's a dormant town. People often travel out from Brentwood into London and they work in the city, but it's a pleasant place to live. It has lots of countryside around it. There's a very large country park. Ah, it's quite a small town but it's, at the high street it's quite small but it's quite a pleasant town to shop in.

史蒂文：實際上那是一個非常不錯的城鎮。人們經常從附近的城鎮或是倫敦東區搬去那裏。那個城鎮非常繁華。就某些方面來說，那是個沉靜的城鎮。人們會從布倫特伍德去倫敦上班，不過那裏是個適合居住的地方。周邊有很多鄉村。還有一個很大的郊野公園。雖然那裏是個很小的城鎮，雖然商業街很小，但是在那裏購物還是不錯的。

Todd: Oh, it sounds nice. Well, now if you live in a little town that's near London is it really expensive?

託德：聽起來不錯。你生活在倫敦附近的一個小城鎮，那那裏的物價高嗎？

Steven: Well, Brentwood is particularly expensive just because it's a desirable place to live and it's proximity to London also makes it, the housing is quite expensive, even a town next to it would have much cheaper housing.

史蒂文：布倫特伍德的生活費用非常昂貴，因爲那是一個令人嚮往的居住地，而且因爲鄰近倫敦，所以那裏的房價也很高，而布倫特伍德附近城鎮的房價則便宜得多。

Todd: Oh, really, cause when I think of a small British village, you know, I think of really old houses, and nothing's changed, so do you have modern stuff, like do you have a health club and a movie theater and things like that?

託德：真的嗎？因爲想到英國小型村莊時，我會想到那些老房子，沒有任何改變，那你們有現代設施嗎，你們有健身俱樂部或是電影院之類的場所嗎？

Steven: Uh, I think the cinema in Brentwood actually closed down, with the advent of out of town shopping centers they always have their multiplex cinemas with six or eight screens and the cinema in Brentwood only had two screens and it couldn't really compete for everyone has cars these days so they can easily travel to big shopping centers, so that closed down however, yeah, it have a very nice health center and as I said lots of parks to play. There's lots of opportunity to exercise and do various forms of recreation.

史蒂文：嗯，我想布倫特伍德的電影院已經關了，因爲城外的購物中心通常裏面都設有六或八個銀幕的連鎖劇院，可是布倫特伍德的電影院只有兩個銀幕，所以無法和那些影院競爭，現在幾乎每個人都有車，所以人們能很容易地開車去大型購物中心，所以布倫特伍德的電影院就關了，但是那裏有一個很棒的健康中心，就像我剛說的，還有很多可以遊玩的公園。那裏有很多鍛鍊的機會，而且可以進行各種形式的娛樂活動。

Todd: Wow, sounds like a nice place to live.

託德：哇，聽起來真是一個居住的好地方。

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重點講解：
1. in some respects
在某些方面；
eg. In some respects the African mind works rather differently from the occidental one.
在某些方面，非洲人的思維方式與西方人相差甚遠。
eg. And in some respects grabbing that opportunity as young as you can is a great idea.
從某些方面而言，在你儘可能年輕的時候抓住這種機會是個非常好的主意。
2. proximity to
接近；臨近；鄰近；
eg. Part of the attraction is Darwin's proximity to Asia.
達爾文市的魅力一部分在於它靠近亞洲。
eg. Families are no longer in close proximity to each other.
各家不再像以前一樣比鄰而居。
3. next to
緊靠…旁邊；在…近旁；貼近；
eg. I lay down on the ground next to the well and looked up at the sky.
我在泉井邊躺了下來，看着天空。
eg. The woman sitting next to him isn't much interested in what's happening.
坐在他身旁的女子對周遭發生的事並沒有太大的興趣。
4. close down
（工廠、商店、學校等）永久性關閉；（使）停業；（使）倒閉；
eg. The firm has decided to close down its branch here.
這家商行已決定讓這裏的支店停業。
eg. They won't close down for a long time.
他們在一段時期內不會倒閉。
5. the advent of
（重大事件、發明或情況的）出現，問世，到來；
eg. The advent of war led to a greater austerity.
戰爭的到來使形勢更爲嚴峻。
eg. The advent of e-mail changed communication.
電子郵件的到來改變了人們的交流方式。