美国国家公共电台 NPR I'm So Excited!

I'm So Excited!

JULIAN VELARD: From NPR and WNYC, coming to you from The Bell House in beautiful Brooklyn, N.Y., it's NPR's hour of puzzles, word games and trivia ASK ME ANOTHER. I'm Julian Velard. Now here's your host Ophira Eisenberg.

(APPLAUSE)

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Thank you, Julian. Jonathan Coulton is out this week. He's training to become a Pokemon monster. But we are so glad to welcome back Julian with his trusty keyboard. And we have a great show for you. We have four brilliant contestants¹ who are backstage right now waiting to play our nerdy games. But only one will be our big winner. And our special guests are Gillian Jacobs and Kate Micucci from the movie "Don't Think Twice," which explores the world of improv comedy.

And as a stand-up, watching this movie made me so jealous because improvisers just seem happy. I actually dated an improviser² for a while and it was pretty exhausting 'cause all day long, he'd just ask for suggestions. He was like, can I get an object? How about a location? I was like, how about my feelings?

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: We didn't break up. Just one day, I called scene. And...

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: ...I got my money back. Let's get things started with our first two contestants. First up, Jake Toffler. You work for a medical tech startup and you have a knack³ for winning things.

JAKE TOFFLER: Yeah, I've been pretty lucky. A few weeks ago, I actually won the "Hamilton" lottery⁴.

EISENBERG: Oh.

VELARD: Whoa.

EISENBERG: Wow. I know, that's better now than the real lottery.

TOFFLER: Yeah, almost. I've also won a 60-inch TV, a free cruise and a year of free Chipotle.

EISENBERG: Free - oh. How did you win the television, for example?

TOFFLER: I went to Duke, and I was a big basketball fan. And they had a sign competition before our big rival, UNC. I made a sign that said I'm hopping⁵ Duke will win. And I was wearing a giant bunny mask. And I happened to be right dead center in the shot where they had the four anchors talking about the game upcoming. And I was jumping up and down the whole time with my sign.

EISENBERG: You know what? You deserve it.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Your opponent is Viola Huang. You are a surgical⁶ resident currently researching how to improve liver transplants.

VIOLA HUANG: Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: We are all impressed. So based on your research on livers, how...

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: How are you treating your own liver, first of all?

HUANG: Pretty good, actually.

EISENBERG: Pretty good?

HUANG: Once you start seeing what it looks like inside, you start taking care of yourself better. Although I still eat fries, so I guess that kind of...

EISENBERG: Oh, that's a problem, right?

HUANG: Yeah.

EISENBERG: Now that you've seen the liver, what's one tip you can give our listening audience on how to improve their liver health?

HUANG: I mean, don't drink but you guys are all...

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I mean other than that, other than that.

HUANG: Just take care of yourself. Stay healthy, exercise, hydrate. I mean, the liver does so much for the body. It's such an important organ.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

HUANG: And people think the heart is so sexy, but I think the liver is the most - the coolest organ.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: So the first of you who wins two games is going to move on to our final round at the end of the show. Your first challenge is called I'm So Excited. And in this trivia game, every answer contains everyone's favorite overused punctuation⁷ mark, the exclamation⁸ point, right? That's how you make texts seem like you're actually happy.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: For an example of what you're going to do, let's go to our puzzle guru Art Chung.

ART CHUNG: If I said this Best Picture Oscar winner was based on Charles Dickens' novel about a poor orphan⁹, you'd answer "Oliver!"

VELARD: And I'm going to ask you to do something very un-Brooklyn-like and that is feign¹⁰ enthusiasm. When you give your answer, give us the full force of the exclamation point.

EISENBERG: All right, here we go.

VELARD: It's the Shania Twain song I'm channeling when I say (singing) whoa, whoa, whoa. I want to be free to feel the way I feel.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

HUANG: "Man! I Feel Like A Woman."

VELARD: Yes, Viola.

(APPLAUSE)

VELARD: Yes.

EISENBERG: The title character of this Nicktoon was often called football head, not because he had a concussion¹¹ but because his head was shaped like a football.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Jake.

TOFFLER: "Hey Arnold!"

EISENBERG: Yes, indeed.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: I've never seen it, but it must be confusing when he plays football. That's all I have to say.

VELARD: It's the corporation that owns such artery-clogging favorites as Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

VELARD: Viola.

HUANG: Yum, I don't know.

CHUNG: We'll take that. It was Yum! Brands.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: You have to know that from your research, right?

HUANG: Yeah, no, we have a blacklist of, you know.

(LAUGHTER)

VELARD: This Comedy Central show was set in a Nevada City that was once home to the world's longest domestic cat and the world record for the most simultaneous checker games.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

VELARD: Jake.

TOFFLER: "Reno 911!"

VELARD: Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: All right, who cares about the show? Let's just discuss the world's longest domestic cat for the rest of the time we have here.

TOFFLER: It would be very NPR.

EISENBERG: That would be very NPR, just an entire expose.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: In this Dr. Seuss book, an elephant saves a tiny planet from being boiled in beezle-nut oil because a person's a person no matter how small.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Jake.

TOFFLER: "Horton Hears A Who!"

EISENBERG: Yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

VELARD: The final film in Baz Luhrmann's "Red Curtain Trilogy." It featured Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor ruining songs you love.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

VELARD: Viola.

HUANG: Oh, shoot. I knew it and then I forgot. Hold on. It's, like, the French thing (laughter).

EISENBERG: Yes.

VELARD: Yes, yes.

HUANG: I have it in there (laughter).

EISENBERG: I like what you're saying.

VELARD: Keep it going.

HUANG: Oh, God. For some reason, I'm blanking. But I can see the scenery, the - all that. But I just got...

EISENBERG: I believe you. I believe you.

HUANG: I got nothing.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Jake, can you steal?

TOFFLER: Well, I don't know it. But she said French. So I'm going to go with "Moulin Rouge¹²!"

(APPLAUSE)

VELARD: Yes, you are correct.

EISENBERG: And I like it, Jake. But let's pretend...

TOFFLER: I really didn't know it.

EISENBERG: We know. I know you know it, all right?

TOFFLER: I really didn't know it.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: You don't need this justification¹³ that you don't watch that continuously in a loop while you work out, all right?

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: All right, this is your last clue. Starring Leslie Nielsen, this movie's a spoof¹⁴ of the 1957 movie "Zero Hour," which also ends with an exclamation point.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Jake.

TOFFLER: "Airplane!"

EISENBERG: "Airplane!" is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Let's go to our puzzle guru Art Chung. How did our contestants do?

CHUNG: Congratulations, Jake. You're one step closer to moving on to the final round.

(APPLAUSE)

1 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 improviser   

n.即席演奏者

参考例句：

• He 's a great improviser . 他是个伟大的即兴表演者。
• Playing Shrek's talkative buddy, a donkey, is veteran comedian Eddie Murphy, another great improviser. 老牌喜剧演员艾迪墨菲为史瑞克多话的伙伴--一只驴子--配音，他也很会即兴表演。

3 knack   

n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法

参考例句：

• He has a knack of teaching arithmetic.他教算术有诀窍。
• Making omelettes isn't difficult,but there's a knack to it.做煎蛋饼并不难，但有窍门。

4 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

5 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

6 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。

7 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

8 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

9 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

10 feign   

vt.假装，佯作

参考例句：

• He used to feign an excuse.他惯于伪造口实。
• She knew that her efforts to feign cheerfulness weren't convincing.她明白自己强作欢颜是瞒不了谁的。

11 concussion   

n.脑震荡；震动

参考例句：

• He was carried off the field with slight concussion.他因轻微脑震荡给抬离了现场。
• She suffers from brain concussion.她得了脑震荡。

12 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

13 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

14 spoof   

n.诳骗，愚弄，戏弄

参考例句：

• The show was a spoof of college life.那戏是对大学生活的讽刺。
• That is Tim Robbins's spoof documentary about a presidential campaign.那是蒂姆·罗宾斯关于总统选举的讽刺纪录片。