英语访谈对话 338 Boarding School

 　　I've been at boarding school since the age of 8, which is pretty young if you think about it. The reason I went there was because my family were living abroad and they thought it would probably be better for me to go to school in England. It was really fun actually. At sort of 8 to 13, my first school, I had a great time. I loved it. I hardly ever missed my parents. We had so much to do. This school was great. They organized all these things for us to do. Obviously¹ we were there over the weekend. Some of the kids went home at the weekend. Some of the kids went home everyday but us that had to stay over the weekend, we always had like loads of stuff² to do. There were rules obviously, but we were given a pretty free hand within the sort of school grounds. We were left to do our own thing. We had our own like common areas. We could bring in our music, we could, it was, you know, it was great and sort of the only bad memory I really have of that is having to say goodbye to my parents all the way in Holland³ where we lived and I would have to say goodbye to them at the end at the airport and then fly over by myself to England and get picked up by an aunt and taken to school which was, that was the only sort of thing I can remember that was bad about it,but obviously as you get older, and I moved on to my secondary⁴ school, what we call it in England, yeah, I started to like it less and less, obviously as you get older, you sort of get more opinions about things, about people, how people should be, brought up, about the sort of freedom you should be given, especially from the ages of maybe 13 to 16. You're very opinionated and think you know best, but the school I went to was very rules orientated⁵. It was very strict, and yeah, as sort of other people of a similar age to me, started going out, you know to clubs, going out to pubs⁶, and doing what kids normally⁷ of that age do, we were stuck at school and had to bed at like quarter past 10 on a Saturday night, which I think for a 17, 18 year old kid is pretty unnatural⁸. It's not a very sort of, I mean at that age I don't think it's a natural environment for children to be in. When I say children, you're not really a child anymore at that age. You should be learning⁹ to, you know, cook for yourself, wash your own clothes, look after yourself, but of course all of this is done for you at school. However, I have to say now, now that I'm living in a different country at the moment. I'm living in Japan away from all my friends, away from my family, and it really isn't a problem for me at all. I sort of just slipped¹⁰ into life here very easily cause I so used to living alone.

1 obviously   

adv.显然；明白地

参考例句：

• Obviously they were putting him to a severe test.显然他们是在给他以严峻的考验。
• Obviously he was lying.显然他是在撒谎。

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 Holland   

n.荷兰(欧洲)

参考例句：

• There are many dairies in Holland.荷兰有很多牛奶场。
• Holland is one of Germany's neighbours.荷兰是德国的邻国之一。

4 secondary   

adj.中级的，中等的，次要的；n.次要位置，副手

参考例句：

• It's a question of secondary importance.这是个次要的问题。
• Secondary school means junior school and high school.中学是指初中和高中。

5 orientated   

v.朝向( orientate的过去式和过去分词 )；面向；确定方向；使适应

参考例句：

• He orientated himself by finding a familiar landscape. 他寻见一处熟悉的景色，从而确定自己所处的方位。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They orientated the tennis court north and south. 他们把网球场定为南北向。 来自辞典例句

6 pubs   

酒店，酒馆( pub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I don't like pubs.They're noisy, smelly, and what's more, expensive. 我不喜欢酒吧。那里又吵，气味又难闻，更重要的是，花费太多。
• We did/went the rounds of all the pubs in town. 我们逐一光顾了城里所有的酒店。

7 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

8 unnatural   

adj.不自然的；反常的

参考例句：

• Did her behaviour seem unnatural in any way?她有任何反常表现吗？
• She has an unnatural smile on her face.她脸上挂着做作的微笑。

9 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

10 slipped   

adj.打滑，打滑的v.滑( slip的过去式和过去分词 )；滑脱；下降；（健康状况等）变差

参考例句：

• She had slipped and badly bruised her face. 她滑了一跤，摔得鼻青脸肿。
• The climber slipped and dropped to his death. 攀登者一失足掉下去摔死了。