英语访谈对话 534 Cork

 　　Todd: Eucharia, can you talk about where you are from?

　　Eucharia: I’m from Ireland and I’m from the second biggest city in Ireland which is Cork¹. Now the name ‘Cork’ doesn’t come from wine bottle cork, it comes from the irish word ‘kirkig’ which is ‘marsh’ so you can imagine how wet Cork is. We have a lot of rain.

　　Todd: And is Cork a big city?

　　Eucharia: It’s a sprawling² city. Most people live outside of the city and commute³ and my parents live about a 25 minute walk to the city centre and that’s quite normal, so most of the city spreads outwards⁴ and the surburbs tend to be quite big and you can get lost quite easily!

　　Todd: What are the people in Cork like?

　　Eucharia: Well when I go home its really strange for me because the men in my city speak with a very high pitched accent voice so it sounds very strange to me, and girls tend to speak in a lower voice because a lower voice in Ireland usually means intelligent and most people would like to seem intelligent. However, most people love to laugh in Cork so there is a really good sense of humour: you just walk on the streets and you hear people laughing all of the time. It’s great.

　　Todd: Oh that’s nice. And what would you say is the best thing about your city?

　　Eucharia: The best thing are the people of course, but also the food. The entertainment is just fantastic. Every night you can go out, you can have dinner. After you can go to the theatre, you can go to classical music concerts, you can go to pop concerts, rock concerts. You can go dancing, different types of dancing. Oh I miss dancing! You can do Irish dancing, more Hip⁵ hop⁶ dancing, disco dancing. Anything is possible any night of the week.

　　Todd: Ok and what’s the worst thing about your city?

　　Eucharia: The worst thing has to be rain because Cork is such a wet place. We don’t have a lot of snow in Cork because when it snows the snow quickly fades away because the ground is made of limestone⁷ so I’ve never seen real snow before, but getting back to the rain, it rains almost non stop from autumn until spring.

　　Todd: Wow, that’s a long time!

　　Eucharia: So it’s a long time having a grey sky over you.

　　Todd: Still it sounds like a nice place.

1 cork   

n.软木，软木塞

参考例句：

• We heard the pop of a cork.我们听见瓶塞砰的一声打开。
• Cork is a very buoyant material.软木是极易浮起的材料。

2 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

3 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

4 outwards   

adj.外面的，公开的，向外的；adv.向外；n.外形

参考例句：

• Does this door open inwards or outwards?这门朝里开还是朝外开？
• In lapping up a fur,they always put the inner side outwards.卷毛皮时，他们总是让内层朝外。

5 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

6 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

7 limestone   

n.石灰石

参考例句：

• Limestone is often used in building construction.石灰岩常用于建筑。
• Cement is made from limestone.水泥是由石灰石制成的。