【英语趣味课堂】作为一个男人-As a Man

Katia: Hello, everyone, this is Katia from Mexico and we are here with Paul from England, and today we're gonna have a very interesting conversation about men. What's difficult about being a man and what are the good things about being a man, so we have the right candidate¹ for this. Paul, what are the bad things about being a man?

Paul: What's difficult about being a man? Well, I think... the hardest thing I think is working. The man is under a lot of pressure to go to work and to earn money for the family.

 

Katia: But I thought men like to work.

 

Paul: Yeah, men do like to work of course. Like most men want to have a career but along with the work, there's a lot of pressure. They have pressure from their wife, from their kids, from their family, from the bank manager.

 

Katia: Yeah, I guess so. That can be stressful. What else? What else are one of the bad thing of being a man?

 

Paul: Well, I guess, if a man's... has a good job or a job that's taking up a lot of his time, this can sometimes lead to problems with his relationship, especially with his his kids, I think. For example, if the kids are spending a lot of time with their mother, usually they form a closer relationship with their mom, so the father, I think, misses out on his kids growing up sometimes.

 

Katia: Yeah, that is true and now I can that clearly unfortunately it seems that it's a lot of bad things with the job, but I am sure they're very good things about being a man.

 

Paul: For sure, there are a lot of advantages I think. For example, appearance². I think, for a man, he doesn't really... when he's not working, he doesn't really need to worry about his appearance. He can wear whatever clothes he wants to wear. He doesn't brush is hair or he can wear scruffy³ shoes for example.

 

Katia: Mmm, are you sure about that one?

 

Paul: Would you disagree? Yeah, I think usually that appearance is not so important for a man.

 

Katia: Possibly.I guess women spend more time in appearances⁴ but there must be more things than this about good things about being a man.

 

Paul: Good things? I think men usually can have more fun than women. Like in their free time, they get to play sport and do a lot more fun things I think than women.

 

Katia: Well, Paul, I'm gonna have to disagree with that one, but tell me why. Why do you think men can have more fun than women?

 

Paul: Maybe I'm just thinking from a man's point of view, but to me shopping sounds very boring.

 

Katia: OK, well, I do agree with that one, but still you haven't answered my question.

 

Paul: What was your question again?

 

Katia: Why do you think men can have more fun than women?

 

Paul: Just I think that men have a lot more freedom to do fun things and travel. For example, safety and traveling alone. A man can just go traveling by himself, where a woman, she has to think, where am I going, is it safe. For example, this kind of think.

 

Katia: OK. I can understand a little bit. You were getting a little bit nervous, Paul.

1 candidate   

n.候选人；候补者；投考者，申请求职者

参考例句：

• Voters like a candidate who has the common touch. 投票者喜欢那些平易近人的候选人。
• The local newspapers dressed up the candidate as a boxer.当地报纸把那个候选人描绘成一个拳击手。

2 appearance   

n.出现，露面；容貌

参考例句：

• In appearance, he was a little like his father.他看起来有点像他的父亲。
• She was a young woman of good appearance.她是一位年轻貌美的女子。

3 scruffy   

adj.肮脏的，不洁的

参考例句：

• Despite her scruffy clothes,there was an air of sophistication about her.尽管她衣衫褴褛，但神态老练世故。
• His scruffy appearance does not reflect his character.他邋遢的外表并不反映他的性格。

4 appearances   

n.出现( appearance的名词复数 )；外观；[复数]（事物的）表面；[哲学]现象

参考例句：

• To all appearances, they are very much in love. 显然他们正处在热恋之中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Here he fell into the common error of judging by appearances. 在此他又犯了一般以貌取人的通病。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》