实战口语情景对话 第171期:对祖父的记忆 Memories of Grandfather

 One of my earliest memories involves¹ my granddad and his garden. He had a huge garden when I was growing up. It was, I mean, it was more of a field than a garden really it was so big. He had lots of fruit trees, like fruit bushes², like elder berries³, black berries, raspberries. He had strawberries as well, gooseberries, so every berry⁴ you could think of. He also had, let me see, apple trees and cooking apple trees, and he had lots of vegetables too as well like rhubarb, onions and lettuce⁵, anything you could think of. When I was a little girl I didn't really like vegetables all that much to be honest, but I did love helping⁶ him pick his strawberries when they came in the summer. Strawberries always taste better when they are warm and from the sun, and you can pick them and put them straight in your mouth, beautiful. One of my funniest memories, though, well when I look back on it now, it's funny, is of helping my granddad when he was planting his onions one year, so I was staying with him for awhile and he said, "OK Marion today we're going to go and we're going to plant some onions," in the spring. So I went out and I was only I think about 5 years old, but I wanted to help so both of us went out and we planted two rows of onions, so he planted one row and I planted the other, or he really planted most of them I think. But I tried to help anyway, even though I was quite small, so then we did our job that day and I didn't really think anymore of it, until the onions started to grow and then suddenly they were ready to be harvested, or whatever, to be picked from the ground, and you could see that the stalks⁷ were growing nice and tall. We were out in the garden one day, my granddad and I again so it must have been a good few months later, further⁸ towards autumn, and my granddad came over and showed me the onion stalks and he said, "Look Marion! The ones you planted are way bigger than the ones that I planted." And I was so happy with myself. So happy that the job that I had done was better than even my granddad, who was a great gardener⁹ and now when I look back I realize, you know that wasn't really the case. That he was just saying it to make me feel better, and to make me proud of the work I'd done with him, but at the time it really worked. I was really, really so proud to have helped my granddad, the gardener, and to have done a better job than he did. I still wouldn't eat the onions though. 我最早的记忆是有关祖父和他的花园的。在我小时候，他有一个巨大的花园。我的意思是，比起花园，它更像是一块田地，它真的很大。他种了许多果树，像果木灌木，接骨木，黑浆果，覆盆子。他还种了草莓和醋栗，他种了你能想到的所有浆果类。让我想想，他还有苹果树和酸苹果树，当然他还种了好多蔬菜，比如大黄、洋葱和莴苣，任何你能想到的蔬菜。我还是个小女孩的时候，说实话我非常不喜欢蔬菜，到夏天的时候，我非常喜欢帮爷爷一起摘草莓。草莓在太阳晒过并带点温度的时候，总是格外好吃，你可以摘下来之后直接放进嘴里，很美好。我记忆中最有意思的一件事，即使我现在想起来也很有趣，有一年我帮爷爷种洋葱，我和他待了一段时间，他说，“好了，玛丽恩，我们要走了，今天我们要开始种洋葱了。”那是春天。所以我出去了，我想我当时只有5岁吧，但是我想帮忙，所以我们俩去种了两排洋葱，他种了一排，而我则种了剩下的一排，或者我想是他种了大部分吧。但是不管怎样，我试图帮他忙，即使我当时年纪很小，当时我们只是做我们的事情，我没有想太多，后来洋葱开始生长，很快就到了收获季节，把洋葱从地里取出来，你就会看见它的茎长得又高又好。有一天，我爷爷和我又一次去了花园，那应该是好几个月以后的事情了，可能是快到秋天的时候，我爷爷过来给我看洋葱的茎，他说：“看，玛丽恩！你种的那些洋葱比我种的要好。”我当时非常高兴。我太高兴了，我比爷爷做的好，我爷爷可是一个伟大的园丁啊，现在当我回想的时候我意识到，你知道那其实根本不算什么。他那么说只是让我感到愉悦，让我为我和他一起做的事情感到自豪，但是当时那么说真的很有用。我真的真的对帮助爷爷这个园丁感到非常自豪，也对比他做的更好这件事感到自豪。虽然我还是不吃洋葱。 

重点讲解：

1. more...than...

更像（前者）地；与其说（是）…，倒不如说（是）

eg. He's more like a film star than a lifeguard, really.

真的，与其说他像救生员，不如说他更像电影明星。

eg. She looked more sad than in pain.

她看起来更多的是悲伤，而不是疼痛。

2. to be honest

老实说；说实在的

eg. To be honest the house is not quite our style.

说实话，这所房子不太适合我们。

eg. I'd rather get it out the way, to be honest.

老实说，我情愿把它处理掉。

3. look back on

回顾；回忆起

eg. I like to look back on my high-school days, which were the happiest in my life.

我喜欢回顾我的中学时代，那是我生命中最快乐的时光。

eg. I still shudder¹⁰ when I look back on the past.

想起过去，我仍然不寒而粟。

1 involves   

表明（某人参与了罪行等）( involve的第三人称单数 )； 使参与； 牵涉； 使专心于

参考例句：

• The job involves gathering and analysing data. 这项工作包括搜集和分析资料。
• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。

2 bushes   

n.灌木（丛）( bush的名词复数 )；[机械学]（金属）衬套；[电学]（绝缘）套管；类似灌木的东西（尤指浓密的毛发或皮毛）

参考例句：

• There was someone skulking behind the bushes. 有人藏在灌木后面。
• The boy chased his sister in and out among the bushes. 那个男孩在灌木丛里跟着他姐姐追过来追过去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 berries   

n.浆果( berry的名词复数 )；（葡萄，番茄等）浆果；干果仁；干种子

参考例句：

• Birds feed on nuts and berries in the winter. 鸟类靠坚果和浆果过冬。
• We went here and there looking for berries. 我们四处寻找浆果。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 berry   

n.浆果(如草莓等)

参考例句：

• This kind of jam is made of berry.这种果酱是由浆果做的。
• Every berry and cherry carried in the ferry is very merry.渡船里载运的每一颗草莓和樱桃都很快乐。

5 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 stalks   

n.主茎，花梗，叶柄( stalk的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• flowers on long stalks 长茎上的花
• Don't nip any stalks off the plant. 别掐断植物茎！ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 further   

adv.（在时间或空间上）距离更大地；更远地

参考例句：

• Have you had any further news?你有进一步的消息吗？
• We will help you further.我们会进一步帮助你的。

9 gardener   

n.园丁，花匠，园艺家

参考例句：

• After the old gardener died,the garden grew wild.老园丁死后，花园就慢慢荒芜了。
• I'll have the gardener plant some trees.我要让园丁种些树。

10 shudder   

v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动

参考例句：

• The sight of the coffin sent a shudder through him.看到那副棺材，他浑身一阵战栗。
• We all shudder at the thought of the dreadful dirty place.我们一想到那可怕的肮脏地方就浑身战惊。