英语访谈对话 324 Dogs

 　　One of our dogs at home, he used to go walking with my granddad, and it was on these old country roads, so very quite really, not many cars would pass so the dog, Jonathan, used to run off in front of my granddad and my granddad's hearing wasn't too good at that time, he was already quite old, so he wouldn't always hear cars coming, so every time a car was coming, the dog would, Jonathan would come running back to my granddad so that, and he did this every time a car came so my granddad knew that if Jonathan came running back towards him, he knew that he had to stand in closer to the edge¹ of the road so that, you know, he wouldn't be in danger of being knocked down by a car or anything because those old country roads, you know when I was younger, we used to walk in the middle of the road, or you know, not quite by the edge, cause there were so few cars, you didn't really need to keep by the edge and there were no foot paths along the side, so you were just walking along the edge of the road, so he was a really clever dog in he could alert² my granddad, you know to whether a car was coming or not.

　　I think most dogs are very intelligent. I've met some people who say their dog is a bit stupid but I don't believe that really. I think most dogs are quite intelligent, even if they're not really good guard dogs, you know, some dogs aren't good guard dogs. They don't bark enough when strangers come or something like that, but I still think they're probably very intelligent, and even if they're not, they're probably very affectionate, which is a plus definitely³. It's almost as good as having a really intelligent guard dog I think.

1 edge   

n.边(缘)；刃；优势；v.侧着移动，徐徐移动

参考例句：

• Sight along the edge to see if it's straight.顺着边目测，看看直不直。
• She lived on the extreme edge of the forest.她住在森林的最边缘。

2 alert   

adj.机警的，活泼的，机灵的；vt.使...警觉

参考例句：

• Drivers must be on the alert for traffic signals.驾驶员必须密切注意交通信号。
• The rabbIt'seems to be very alert all its life.兔子似乎一生都小心翼翼，十分警觉。

3 definitely   

adv.一定地，肯定地；明确地，确切地

参考例句：

• The team will definitely lose if he doesn't play.如果他不参加比赛，这个队肯定会输。
• I shall definitely be home before six o'clock.6点以前，我一定回家。