【英语趣味课堂】旅行中遇到的一些奇葩事-Strange Things Happened When Travel

Mike: OK, so Jeff, we've been talking a little bit about your travel kind of experiences and stuff¹, and one other question I wanted to ask you, is there a time where you experienced² something really weird³, or something strange that happened in your travels around the world? Is there something that stands out in your memory?

Jeff: Many weird things happen when you're traveling. I think that's the beauty about traveling is it's an emotional⁴ roller coaster but I remember one time, again it was in India because it's a country full of surprises, but I was driving on a old rickety bus. We were going down the road and we stopped, and I was sitting by the window, and a bus is full of action and noise and everything so I was paying attention inside the bus, and when the bus came to a stop at the intersection⁵ I turned around and looked out the window and there was an elephant staring right about me. The big eye of an elephant at the same level as the bus window looking right at me, and it was such a shock to me that, you know, you're in the middle of a big city in India and you're one a crowded bus and you turn around and look outside, and there's this big elephant looking at you. Well, you expect to see that in the zoo, but not out in the streets so I must say it was very weird and wonderful experience.

 

Mike: Did you strike up a conversation with the elephant?

 

Jeff: Actually, there was a man sitting on top of the elephant, so I had a quick chat with him and then the bus went on and we left the elephant and that was it.

 

And you have --- India you have cows in the streets, and you have donkeys⁶, and you have dogs and cats. It's a very animal friendly place, and I knew that they had elephants, but I hadn't seen one at that point in the street, so, and I expected to see one my first time from a distance. I didn't expect to be eye-to-eye with one the first time I saw one, and elephants have quite big eyes.

 

Mike: I heard that.

 

Jeff: So, but it was a very good and elephants are lovely animals.

 

Mike: You didn't poke⁷ him in the eye?

 

Jeff: I didn't poke him in the eye

 

Mike: That's a good thing. Fantastic.

 

重点学习内容：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

an emotional roller coaster

 

The trip was an emotional roller coaster.

 

A roller coaster is a ride that goes up and down and makes people feel joy and fear. When an experience is an emotional roller coaster, that means⁸ it has many good points and many bad points. Note the following:

 

Raising a child can be an emotional roller coaster.

The planning of the wedding was an emotional roller coaster.

rickety

 

It was a old rickety bus.

 

Something that is rickety is in poor condition and likely to break down. Note the following:

 

I am scared to take that rickety elevator.

He rides an old rickety bike that barely⁹ moves.

strike up a conversation

 

Did you strike up a conversation?

 

When you strike up a conversation, that means you start a conversation with someone, often a person you just met.

 

I like to strike up conversations with people at the mall.

She hates it when people on planes try to strike up a conversation with her.

quick chat

 

I had a quick chat.

 

A quick chat is a short conversation. Note the following:

 

I have a quick chat with Bob about the meeting tomorrow.

If you have time, can I have a quick chat with you.

at that point

 

I had not seen one at that point.

 

The phrase¹⁰ 'at that point' is a time reference¹¹ meaning 'then" or "at that time'. Note the following:

 

I got home at midnight, and at that point I just wanted to sleep.

We got there in the third period, but at that point the game was over.

1 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

2 experienced   

adj.有经验的；经验丰富的，熟练的

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather.有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• Perhaps you and I had better change over;you are more experienced.也许我们的工作还是对换一下好，你比我更有经验。

3 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

4 emotional   

adj.令人动情的；易动感情的；感情(上)的

参考例句：

• Emotional people don't stop to calculate.感情容易冲动的人做事往往不加考虑。
• This is an emotional scene in the play.这是剧中动人的一幕。

5 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

6 donkeys   

n.驴( donkey的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some medieval towns raced donkeys or buffaloes. 有些中世纪的城市用驴子或水牛竞赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Donkeys are related to horses, and both are part of the equine family. 驴是马的近亲，两者都是马科家庭的一员。 来自辞典例句

7 poke   

n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• We never thought she would poke her nose into this.想不到她会插上一手。
• Don't poke fun at me.别拿我凑趣儿。

8 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。

9 barely   

adv.仅仅，几乎没有，几乎不

参考例句：

• The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
• He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。

10 phrase   

n.短语，词组；成语，习语

参考例句：

• The phrase was caught on and immediately became popular.这个短语被采用后很快就流行了。
• That's exactly the phrase I was looking for.这就是我一直找的那个短语。

11 reference   

n.提到，说到，暗示，查看，查阅

参考例句：

• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。
• I like to have my reference books within my reach.我喜欢把参考书放到伸手可取的地方。