英语博客(A cup of English):095 A refreshing park.

　　Beginners.
Grab your swimming trunks or your swimming suit and head to the nearest park to cool off this summer. Just up the road from here, a new park, paid for by Rotary¹, has been set up for the locals. It is in a residential² area where there are lots of young families, so it is a perfect spot for kids to run around, play, and get rid of excess energy. The place is actually supposed to be a frisbee³ park. There is a large, oval, open area, similar to a valley, where people of all ages come and play with frisbees. Often dogs are there. Some of them are real acrobats⁵. They jump expertly for the frisbee and return it to their owner. There is also a long cycling path all around the frisbee area. But the main attraction of this park is the huge water sprayers, a water cannon⁶, and giant water flowers. When the temperature gets up into the nineties the children come out like bees, swarming⁸ all over. There are lots of squeals⁹ and screams, running around, laughing, and occasionally crying. In general, everyone has a great time getting wet. The parents usually avoid the water, and just sit and watch the goings on. However, every now and then, a giggling¹⁰ child will throw a wet piece of clothing at a mum or dad, just to make them share the experience.
Grammar notes.
Useful vocabulary: to grab, residential, acrobat⁴, to swarm⁷.
Exs:
Quickly, grab the child before he runs out into the road.
This area of town used to be residential, but now it is commercial; there are offices everywhere.
He climbs the tree just like an acrobat; he can jump, bend, swing, and, flip¹¹.
The bees were swarming over the field. It was a scary sight.
Advanced.
By the time we had arrived at the park, it was already full of people. I went there to meet up with my friend, Mijung, and her two boys. Two of my boys took bicycles, one took a ripstick, and my girl took her tricycle. For those of you who don't know what ripsticks are, they are similar to a skate board, but the two ends swivle in opposite directions, and that action drives the ripstick along. It's good exercise, very cool, and perfect for the frisbee park. They went around and around the park, heads down, helmets on, with look of concentration on their faces. But after a while they got hot. It was in the upper nineties, after all. So we headed over to the water area for them to cool off. Mijung and I didn't fancy getting wet, so we stayed in the shaded seating area, watching the children. After about a half hour, we heard some pleasant music. It was coming from an icecream truck. "Hey mum, can we have one please, please!" It had parked at the side of the park, and a line of children was forming to buy a cold treat. The little truck was actually painted like a cow, which was a cute idea. They brought their icecreams to the seating area and chatted with us until they finished eating. Then it was off to the playground area to climb and slide. They had cooled off enough, so they didn't need to go back in the water. It'll get hotter and hotter this summer, so there will be plenty of opportunies to come back and cool off.

1 rotary   

adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的

参考例句：

• The central unit is a rotary drum.核心设备是一个旋转的滚筒。
• A rotary table helps to optimize the beam incidence angle.一张旋转的桌子有助于将光线影响之方式角最佳化。

2 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

3 frisbee   

n.飞盘(塑料玩具)

参考例句：

• We always go to the park on weekends and play Frisbee.我们每个周末都会到公园玩飞盘。
• The frisbee is a light plastic disc,shaped like a plate.飞盘是一种碟形塑料盘。

4 acrobat   

n.特技演员，杂技演员

参考例句：

• The acrobat balanced a long pole on his left shoulder.杂技演员让一根长杆在他的左肩上保持平衡。
• The acrobat could bend himself into a hoop.这个杂技演员可以把身体蜷曲成圆形。

5 acrobats   

n.杂技演员( acrobat的名词复数 )；立场观点善变的人，主张、政见等变化无常的人

参考例句：

• I was always fascinated by the acrobats at the circus. 我总是着迷于马戏团里的杂技演员。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The acrobats' performance drew forth applause from the audience. 杂技演员的表演博得了观众的掌声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 cannon   

n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮

参考例句：

• The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
• The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。

7 swarm   

n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入

参考例句：

• There is a swarm of bees in the tree.这树上有一窝蜜蜂。
• A swarm of ants are moving busily.一群蚂蚁正在忙碌地搬家。

8 swarming   

密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。
• The beach is swarming with bathers. 海滩满是海水浴的人。

9 squeals   

n.长而尖锐的叫声( squeal的名词复数 )v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• There was an outburst of squeals from the cage. 铁笼子里传来一阵吱吱的叫声。 来自英汉文学
• There were squeals of excitement from the children. 孩子们兴奋得大声尖叫。 来自辞典例句

10 giggling   

v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We just sat there giggling like naughty schoolchildren. 我们只是坐在那儿像调皮的小学生一样的咯咯地傻笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I can't stand her giggling, she's so silly. 她吃吃地笑，叫我真受不了，那样子傻透了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

11 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。