实战口语情景对话 第341期:Dogs 狗狗

 　　Adrienne: So, Mary, who are these guys here?

　　埃德里安娜：玛丽，这些家伙都是谁？

　　Mary: This one's Piper. She's seven. She just had a birthday in October, and this one's Daisy, she's got kind of an older face on her. I think she's probably about nine years old.

　　玛丽：这个是派珀，她七岁了。她刚刚在十月份过了生日，这个是黛西，她的脸看上去有点老。我想她可能有九岁了。

　　Adrienne: Are these your children?

　　埃德里安娜：这些都是你的孩子吗？

　　Mary: You know, they could be my children, but they’re actually dogs. Golden Retrievers.

　　玛丽：你知道，它们可以是我的孩子，不过实际上它们都是狗。品种是黄金猎犬。

　　Adrienne: They're so pretty.

　　埃德里安娜：它们真漂亮。

　　Mary: Yeah, they're a lot of my attention. They really have my heart captured¹ right now, so I do spend a lot of time, you know, working on them and training them and taking them out for walks during the day and as you can tell by the big giant basket behind you they have a lot of toys so they're kind of active. They like swinging stuff² around and playing outside. (Pipe. Hi, there!).

　　玛丽：是啊，我要花很大精力照顾它们。我现在完全被它们迷住了，所以你知道，我要花好多时间训练它们，白天的时候会带它们出去散步，你可以从你后面的那个大篮子看出来，它们有很多玩具，所以它们非常活跃。它们喜欢时髦的东西，也喜欢在外面玩。（派珀，那里！）

　　Adrienne: So how did you get them?

　　埃德里安娜：那你是从哪里得到的它们？

　　Mary: I actually raised a Golden Retriever puppy³ for about 8 years. When I lost her, I remember thinking to myself, I'd love to have another golden retriever but puppies⁴ are really hard work, and wouldn't it be great if I could just find a dog that was already an adult, and I made mention to it to someone at work one day and she let me know of an organization, a rescue organization that worked primarily⁵ with Golden Retrievers, so I contacted the organization and they had several dogs available for adoption⁶ and I went and met a few, and kind of figured out their personalities⁷ and decided⁸ that there was one there for me, and that was Tucker, my big, big male who I had for a long time, so I ended up adopting him when he was a year and a half. He still had a lot of puppy in him, but he was already housebroken, and you know, in pretty good shape for bringing home so he was a lot of fun. That was my first experience with the organization, and they are a great organization. I really believe in a lot of the work they do, because a couple of the dogs, Piper in particular, happen to have been an abused⁹ animal unfortunately in the first part of her life so this organization spent a lot of time kind of evaluating the right kind of environment for an animal, and the right kind of animal for a family so the adoption process, as they call it, it's really involved, It's almost like adopting a child because they want to make sure that you're home is, you know properly set up for a dog this size and that your yard is fenced and that you can handle a dog like this and have what it takes to train him and get him to trust humans again so it's been a really long process in some cases. When I adopted daisy, almost two years ago, that was not so hard. She was a very easy dog to adopt. She just came in, made herself at home, got along great with Piper right away and, you know, she has never given me any concern or any reason to worry about her temperament¹⁰. She's been just such an easy going dog.

　　玛丽：实际上我曾经养过一只黄金猎犬，而且养了8年的时间。当我失去她的时候，我记得我对自己说，我想再养一只黄金猎犬，但是养小狗太辛苦了，如果我养一只成年狗不是很好吗，有一天我在上班的时候和别人说了这个想法，她告诉了我一个组织，那是一个主要帮助黄金猎犬的救助组织，于是我联系了那个组织，而他们有几只可供收养的狗，我去那里见了几只狗，简单了解了一下那些狗的性格然后决定收养一只，那就是塔克，它是我收养的第一只狗，这只狗我已经养了很长时间了，我收养它的时候它只有一岁半。其实它还是一只小狗，不过它已经经过训练养成了家居卫生习惯，很适合带回家收养，它真的很有趣。那是我在那个组织收养的第一只狗，那真是个伟大的组织。我真的非常相信他们做的工作，因为有一些狗，尤其是派珀，之前曾经很不幸地遭遇过虐待，而这个组织花费了大量的时间来评估适合动物生活的环境，适合动物生活的家庭，所以所涉及的收养过程其实很像领养儿童的过程，因为他们希望确保你的家庭适合这种大型犬生活，确保你的院子有栅栏，还要确保你可以照顾这种狗，而且可以训练它，让它再次相信人类，所以在某些情况下，收养过程耗时很长。我在大概两年前收养的黛西，那时收养过程并不复杂。我很容易地就收养她了。她只是进来我的家，像在自己家一样，而且马上就和派珀相处融洽了，你知道，她从来没让我担心过，完全不用担心她的性情。她是一只非常好相处的狗。

　　Adrienne: Yeah, she seems like a sweetheart. Both of them are.

　　埃德里安娜：对，她看起来像恋人。它们都是。

　　Mary: Yeah, they're fun. They're fun.

　　玛丽：对，它们真有趣。它们很有趣。

1 captured   

俘获( capture的过去式和过去分词 )； 夺取； 夺得； 引起（注意、想像、兴趣）

参考例句：

• Allied troops captured over 300 enemy soldiers. 盟军俘虏了300多名敌方士兵。
• Most of the rebels were captured and disarmed. 大部分叛乱分子被俘获并解除了武装。

2 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。

3 puppy   

n.小狗，幼犬

参考例句：

• You must school your puppy to obey you.你要训练你的小狗服从你。
• Their lively puppy frisks all over the house.他们的小狗在屋里到处欢快地蹦跳。

4 puppies   

n.（常指不满一岁的）小狗(puppy的复数)；小狗，幼犬( puppy的名词复数 )；浅薄自负的年轻男子

参考例句：

• a litter of puppies 一窝小狗
• The bitch bore six puppies. 母狗生了六只小狗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 primarily   

adv.首先，主要地，基本地

参考例句：

• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people.这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。
• I am primarily interested in history.我主要对历史感兴趣。

6 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

7 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 abused   

v.妄用( abuse的过去式和过去分词 )；虐待；辱骂

参考例句：

• All the children had been physically and emotionally abused. 所有这些儿童的身心都受到了摧残。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This rule was brought into being because the old law was abused. 由于旧的法律遭到滥用，这条规则便应运而生。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 temperament   

n.气质，性格，性情

参考例句：

• The analysis of what kind of temperament you possess is vital.分析一下你有什么样的气质是十分重要的。
• Success often depends on temperament.成功常常取决于一个人的性格。