英语访谈对话 515 Life in Africa

 　　Todd: So Carla, you lived in Africa.

　　Carla: We got married in Africa.

　　Todd: Wow.

　　Carla: And we moved to Nigeria. As I told you before, we got married in Ghana, and we moved to Nigeria. And our kids were born in Nigeria. But I wanna tell you a little bit about before our kids were born, because we lived in a place, a small small village that had no running water, no electricity, we could buy fresh food once a week. That means there were no toilettes, so the people used the rocks and the bushes around the village. Maybe that's too graphic¹, is that too graphic?

　　Todd: No no no no.

　　Carla: And, we had to pump our water out of a well. And at night we would pump one bucket full of water, and it would be half full of silt² by the next morning the kind of muddy silt would have sunk to the bottom. And then we would pour off the clear water off the top. And it was a bad drought³ year in 1976. And we had to, we would cook our vegetables and then drain⁴ off the water and then use the water, reuse the water to wash the dishes and even to wash our clothes. And we had just enough water to. Fresh water we kept for drinking. Washing ourselves, washing our vegetables, cooking, washing the dishes, we used, reused vegetable water. And I had, we had no electricity so I cooked a stew⁵ once a week. And twice or three times a day I had to, we had to heat the stew up again, boil it to kill all the germs⁶. Otherwise, it would've poisoned us.

　　Todd: Man.

　　Carla: But in that year that we lived there, I think we were healthier than we had ever been before, or since.

1 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

2 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

3 drought   

n.旱灾，干旱，久旱

参考例句：

• The plants are growing in again,despite the drought.尽管干旱，植物又长出来了。
• The ground is as hard as stone after the drought.长期干旱后土地硬得就像石头一样。

4 drain   

n.排水沟，阴沟；消耗，负担；v.排去，放干

参考例句：

• Drain off the rest of the wine from this barrel.把桶里剩余的酒排出去。
• First,you have to drain the container of all the old oil.首先，你得从油箱中把所有的陈油都抽去。

5 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

6 germs   

n.微生物( germ的名词复数 )；病菌；起源；发端

参考例句：

• Dirty hands can be a breeding ground for germs. 脏手会滋生病菌。
• The air is full of millions of invisible germs. 空气中充满了许多看不见的细菌。 来自《简明英汉词典》