ESL露西的一天 第97期:清洁与放松讲解(2)

 A rag¹, "rag," or a rag, depends on what part of the country you are from,  抹布，“抹布”，还是抹布（发音不同），与你来自哪个国家哪个地区有关，

in my part of the country, we say rag, "I take out a rag and start dusting the living room."   在我的家乡，我们说抹布。“我拿出一个抹布，开始打扫客厅”。

A rag is a small towel; usually it's a small towel you use for cleaning.   抹布是一条小毛巾，通常是用来清洁的小毛巾。

To dust, "dust," means² to take a rag or a small towel and remove the little bits of dirt, “除尘”意思是用一块抹布或者一条小毛巾，

what we call dust, off of a table or television or other furniture.  把我们称之为灰尘的小块污垢，从桌子，电视或者其他家具上除去。

Dust can be both a noun³ as well as a verb⁴.   灰尘既可以是名词也可以是动词。

As a noun, it's the little dirt – pieces of dirt. 作为名词，是指小块污垢。

As a verb, it means to remove those pieces of dirt. 作为动词，意思是去除那些污垢。

Lucy says that she dusts "the TV and the lamps."   露西说她掸去了“电视和灯上”的灰尘。

She wipes "the coffee table, too."  也擦了擦“咖啡桌” 。

To wipe, "wipe," is similar to dust. It means taking a rag or a towel and cleaning something up. “擦”类似于除尘。是用一块抹布或一条毛巾清理某个东西。 

The difference is that dusting is only used when we are talking about these little pieces of dirt that you find after a few days in your house. 不同的是，比如隔几天，你在屋里发现了小块污垢，才会使用除尘这个词。

When you say I'm going to wipe something, however, usually that means there's some water or some other dirt – something bigger than just little pieces of dust.  而当你说我要去擦拭某个东西时，通常是指有水渍或者其他的污垢——比小块灰尘更大的东西。

So Lucy says she will "wipe the coffee table" also. 所以Lucy说她也“擦了擦咖啡桌”。

1 rag   

n.破布，抹布

参考例句：

• It looked like a piece of rag.它看上去像块破布。
• It's just an old rag I had in the closet.这只不过是我挂在壁橱里的旧衣服罢了。

2 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

3 noun   

n.名词

参考例句：

• What kind of noun is this?这是哪类名词？
• This word is a collective noun.这个词是个集体名词。

4 verb   

n.[语]动词

参考例句：

• The sentence is formed from a verb and two nouns.这句子由一个动词和两个名词构成。
• These are the finite forms of a verb.这些是一个动词的限定形式。