英语访谈对话 295 Paris

 　　Todd: OK, Raphael, you were saying you lived in Paris.

　　Rapheal: Yes, I made my studies there.

　　Todd: Paris is just an amazing city. Can you talk about Paris?

　　Rapheal:Yes! Well, the biggest difference I noticed with Tokyo is the size. Like Paris is nice in that way, you can go anywhere by walking. It might take at maximum an hour and a half if you want to go to a very far place, but basically¹ it's a city like made for walkers and you can really go anywhere just by walking, I mean it's quite pleasant cause you can see many, you know, nice buildings and places and things, just by walking.

　　Todd: Wow, that's nice. How many people live in Paris?

　　Rapheal:Including the suburbs² it's 8 million now. Maybe getting increasing, but the inner³ city is only one million, so it's not overcrowded at all. Yeah!

　　Todd: So, what else would you say is different about Tokyo and Paris?

　　Rapheal:Well, specially⁴, Paris you mean? The Transport is less expensive. This is important.

　　Todd: YeahRapheal:Yeah, Yeah.

　　Todd: It's more expensive?

　　Rapheal:No, it's less, sorry, it's less expensive. Anyway, the, I was surprised because Tokyo is not that expensive finally, I mean you can, you can live in a very expensive way if you want but you can save a lot as well. It's really up to you. But in Paris is quite hard to save. I mean, the food is very expensive, and if you want to go out, just, a restaurant or anything, it's really more expensive than in Japan. A restaurant for example, like prices in Japan start from a thousand yen⁵, maybe less, like 600 yen, and in France like the cheapest restaurant you can find is 15 Euro which is around 2000 YenTodd: Whoa! That is expensive.

　　Rapheal:Yeah, it's more expensive, wherever you go it's more expensive if you want to go out but on the contrary⁶ the cinema is really cheap, so so many people go to the cinema, I mean, the cinema is really, it's a part of Paris nightlife, like, people used to go to cinema once a week at least, almost everyone. Yeah, cause it's really cheap. A ticket is 1000 yen, maybe less.

　　Todd: So, what about sports, like what kind of sports do you like to do?

　　Rapheal:Yeah, anything. Anything, yeah! You have a lot of facilities, like gymnasium⁷, swimming pools, clubs, yeah, you can practice a lot. Especially, I was a student so, I had this very easy student life because France has a lot of students, whatever it is, so they give you a bit of money, and you get discount on almost anything, so sport is specially favorized in Paris when you are a student, you canalmost like do whatever you want, as a sport almost free, sometimes, so, it's, you can do a lot of things. Actually, I did Aikido. I did swimming pool, squash⁸, tennis, yeah, uh, basketball, yeah, a lot of things actually.

　　Todd: Active guy. And what about the traffic if you want to drive in Paris?

　　Rapheal:I never tested, because as I told you it's so nice to just walk, that, and I didn't own a car but it's quite tough for people living in the suburbs cause they need a car to come, the train system is not really good. It's not like, there's a lot of delay⁹, trains and things like that, so if you live in the suburbs you need a car, and driving through Paris in the mornings or evening is really difficult, so I just didn't want to test, you know.

1 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。

2 suburbs   

n.郊区，城郊( suburb的名词复数 )；四乡；隧；四郊

参考例句：

• The poor suburbs traditionally formed the bedrock of the party's support. 贫穷的郊区在传统上构成了支持该党的牢固基础。
• The new college will be located in the suburbs. 这所新建的学院将设在郊区。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 inner   

adj.内部的，里面的；内在的，内心的；精神的

参考例句：

• The label is on the inner side of the box.标签贴在盒子内侧。
• Other people seek the mountains for renewal of their inner lives.另一些人到深山中去，寻求新的精神生活。

4 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

5 yen   

n. 日元；热望

参考例句：

• He wanted to convert his dollars into Japanese yen.他想将美元换成日币。
• He has a yen to be alone in a boat.他渴望独自呆在一条船上。

6 contrary   

adj.相反的；adv.相反的(地)；n.反面，相反

参考例句：

• My sister's taste in dresses is contrary to my own.在服装方面，我妹妹的爱好和我完全不同。
• The result is contrary to expectation.结果跟预料恰好相反。

7 gymnasium   

n.体育馆，健身房

参考例句：

• Our school has a big gymnasium.我们学校有座大型体育馆。
• The game will be staged in the gymnasium.竞赛将在体育馆举行。

8 squash   

n.壁球，摺皱不堪，拥挤嘈杂的人群，浓缩果汁，美国南瓜；vt.压扁，压制；vi.变扁，压榨

参考例句：

• He is drinking lemon squash.他正在喝柠檬露。
• She sprained her ankle playing squash.她在打软式墙网球时扭伤了脚踝。

9 delay   

v./ n.拖延，延误，延迟，延期；耽搁

参考例句：

• The strike caused a great delay in the delivery of the mail.这次罢工严重地延误了邮件的投递。
• I couldn't judge whether the delay was good or bad.我不能断定这样延迟是好还是坏。