英语访谈对话 529 Best Play

 　　Todd: Eucharia, why don’t we talk about what is our favourite Shakespeare play and actually what is the story about?

　　Eucharia: OK, I love the story of Romeo and Juliet (I know, I’m a girl!) which is a tragedy. It’s about a boy and a girl who fall in love but unfortunately their families are sworn enemies of each other and it ends up with both of them killing¹ themselves, so it’s quite a sad play.

　　Todd: So that’s a tragedy, right?

　　Eucharia: That’s a tragedy. I also like Hamlet. Hamlet the play opens and we see Hamlet talking to the ghost of his father and the ghost explains to Hamlet that he was killed by his brother who has now become Hamlet’s stepfather because he married Hamlet’s mother.

　　So hamlet has to avenge² his father by killing his stepfather slash³ uncle. And Hamlet procrastinates⁵ throughout the play: he keeps on putting it off and putting it off and putting it off, and at the end, because he has put it off the situation just gets worse and worse and the reason I like Hamlet is I’m exactly the same. I procrastinate⁴ if I don’t want to do something, for example if I don’t want to correct homework my appartment gets cleaned, my car gets cleaned, I clean out the computer… I’m like Hamlet but eventually I do correct the homework!

　　Todd: You’re not going to go and kill your uncle?

　　Eucharia: No

　　Todd: Oh, just checking!

　　Eucharia: No, no, nothing like that. I could kill some of the journals that I get sometimes (the homework).

　　But I also love Shakespeare’s comedies. They have this timeless quality: they’re funny now and they’re funny to many different cultures even though humour is a culturally related issue, but I think Shakespearian comedy might.. er ..are accessible to all. I like The Taming of the Shrew and I don’t know if you remember an American soap opera called ‘Moonlighting’ with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd and they did a version of The Taming of the Shrew and I saw it when I was a child and I thought ‘wow that’s a really funny story for that particular soap opera’ .

　　And then when I went to junior high school and senior high school I realised ‘oh it’s a Shakespeare play’ so I really like that, I really like A Midsummer Nights Dream and I’m not sure if can tell the story any more

　　Erm and I remember in school I had to study the sonnets⁶ and I really liked them which surprised me because I’m not a big poetry person but I really found Shakespeare accessible.

　　Todd: Oh thanks

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 avenge   

v.为...复仇，为...报仇

参考例句：

• He swore to avenge himself on the mafia.他发誓说要向黑手党报仇。
• He will avenge the people on their oppressor.他将为人民向压迫者报仇。

3 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

4 procrastinate   

v.耽搁，拖延

参考例句：

• Most often we procrastinate when faced with something we do not want to do.面对不想做的事情，我们经常拖延。
• It's easy to procrastinate when the deadline seems infinitely far away.当最终期限总是遥遥无期时是很容易延期的。

5 procrastinates   

拖延，耽搁( procrastinate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He always procrastinates in doing things, he isn't agile at all. 他办事拖三落四，一点都不利索。
• She always procrastinates when a paper is due. 每次交课程论文，她总是一拖再拖。

6 sonnets   

n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Keats' reputation as a great poet rests largely upon the odes and the later sonnets. 作为一个伟大的诗人，济慈的声誉大部分建立在他写的长诗和后期的十四行诗上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He referred to the manuscript circulation of the sonnets. 他谈到了十四行诗手稿的流行情况。 来自辞典例句