美语咖啡屋 Lesson 10: Scuba Diving

Y: 各位听众好，我是杨晨，欢迎您到美语咖啡屋。

J: Hello I'm Jody and welcome to American Cafe. Hey, Yang Chen, guess what this sound is.

(Enter breathing sounds)

Y: 噢，听不大出来，好象是有人打电话恶作剧，是不是？

J: No, no, no! It's not an obscene¹ phone call. It's is the sound of scuba² diving.

Y: Scuba diving? 潜水，那一定很好玩吧。哎， Jody, 我一直想学潜水，但是我很怕水。

J: Well, if you want to study scuba diving you better get over that.

Y: 说到scuba diving，我就想到要全副武装，背着那个很重潜水设备。太难了吧。

J: Well, the next time the Scuba Tour comes around you should try it!

Y: Scuba Tour是什么呢？潜水不是要到那种热带或者是靠近海洋的旅游胜地吗？

J: Oh, that's the special thing about the Scuba Tour ... it comes to you! When I went to a Health and Fitness³ Exposition⁴ at the DC convention⁵ center. There, they had a Scuba Tour. But, let's hear from Scott Evans who was a member of the Scuba Tour to find out what it is.

实录1 Scott Evans: My name is Scott Evans. We're at the D.C. Convention Center doing the Scuba Tour, which is an experience for non-divers to discover Scuba, basically⁶.

Y: Scuba Tour就是到不同的地方举办活动，教那些初学者体验潜水的乐趣。这到真是个好主意。

J: Oh, it's a brilliant especially if you're in the Scuba business. The Scuba Tour brings it to people who may not have the chance to try it! Here's another diver named John talking about why the Scuba Tour is important.

实录2 John: My name is John, I'm from the Dive Shop in Fairfax, Virginia. There's always people who have always wanted to try it and that's one of the nicest things about an event like this is that they have a chance to try it in a non-threatening environment.

Y: 嗯，太棒了。通过这样的活动能让大多数人不出远门就能学习潜水。

J: Exactly! And I think when John mentioned non-threatening that is really important. The Scuba Tour brought the pool, the equipment, but not the sharks.

Y: 没错。虽然Jody刚才提到有鲨鱼是有点吓唬人，不过第一次学潜水就到海里的确是很惊险，游泳池当然让人觉得安全多了。你那天去的时候人很多吗？

J: Oh, there were many people waiting in line to try out scuba diving.

Y: 哎，说了半天我们是不是先给大家解释Scuba这个词是怎么来的？

J: Well, first we should that Scuba is an acronym⁷. S-C-U-B-A. And it stands for something. Here's John Harmon to give us an explanation.

实录3 John Harmon: Okay, my name is John Harmon and SCUBA stands for self-contained, underwater, breathing apparatus⁸.

Y: Scuba这个词在中文里就是水肺，是一种帮助人在水下呼吸的设备。

J: The self-contained, underwater, breathing apparatus or scuba equipment, allows you to stay underwater, like a fish.

Y: 那我们来形容一下它的样子好吗？

J: Let's have John explain the specific equipment used for scuba diving.

实录4 John Harmon: And basically what that consists of is some equipment, which is a tank which contains air; a regulator, which actually is the apparatus that we breathe...to deliver air from the tank to our mouths and a vest which actually allows us to sink under water or float to the surface.

Y: 听他这么一说，这种潜水设备挺吓人的，又是氧气罐，又是呼吸器，还得穿上潜水背心。

J: Oh, exactly. Well think about it. You're going underwater. You need good equipment. There's the air tank, the regulator, that delivers the air from the tank, and the vest for floating or sinking and, Yang Chen, don't forget about the wetsuit. Trusting the equipment for breathing is the hardest thing for a scuba student to learn.

Y: 没错，我觉得对我来说，最难做到的大概就是对你的设备感到放心，特别是在深水里，万一出现意外情况该怎么办呢？

J: Exactly! Your life depends on it. So, let's hear what George had to stay.

实录5 George：You gotta learn to trust the equipment and that's probably the biggest thing for students is to trust the equipment. The equipment is high performance. This is life support equipment.

Y: 我完全同意George的话。

J: I know. Even though he says it's high-performance, life support equipment, I would still be nervous.

Y: 哎，等一等，你说你也会nervous。那说了半天，你自己也不敢下水啊？

J: Well, see the line was really long, Yang Chen. And I wanted to try it... but you know...

Y: 好了， 好了，你不用解释了，反正我知道你没敢下水就是了。

J: Possibly. Okay, thanks for joining us on American Cafe. That's all the time we have for today.

Y: 好， 谢谢大家收听，我们下次节目再见。

1 obscene   

adj.（指思想、书籍等）猥亵的，淫秽的，下流的

参考例句：

• They have cut the obscene passages from the film to show it on television.他们已把影片中的淫秽镜头剪去以便在电视上播映。
• He continued to use obscene language and also to make threats.他仍然不住口地说些污言秽语，而且还进行了威胁。

2 scuba   

n.水中呼吸器

参考例句：

• I first got hooked on scuba diving when I was twelve.12岁时我开始迷上了带水中呼吸器潜水。
• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。

3 fitness   

n.适合，适当，健康，健身

参考例句：

• They're doing exercises to improve their fitness.他们为增强体质而做体操。
• No one questions her fitness for the job.没人怀疑她能胜任这项工作。

4 exposition   

n.说明，讲解，展览（会），陈列

参考例句：

• John gave a very exposition of the facts.约翰把事实解释得很清楚。
• His pictures were shown at the Paris exposition of 1878.他的画在1878年巴黎博览会上展览过。

5 convention   

n.惯例，习俗，常规，会议，大会

参考例句：

• How many delegates have checked in at the convention?大会已有多少代表报到？
• He sets at naught every convention of society.他轻视所有的社会习俗。

6 basically   

adv.基本上，从根本上说

参考例句：

• His heart is basically sound.他的心脏基本上健康。
• Basically I agree with your plan.我基本上同意你的计划。

7 acronym   

n.首字母简略词，简称

参考例句：

• That's a mouthful of an acronym for a very simple technology.对于一项非常简单的技术来说，这是一个很绕口的缩写词。
• TSDF is an acronym for Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities.TSDF是处理，储存和处置设施的一个缩写。

8 apparatus   

n.装置，器械；器具，设备

参考例句：

• The school's audio apparatus includes films and records.学校的视听设备包括放映机和录音机。
• They had a very refined apparatus.他们有一套非常精良的设备。