Mike: Oh, these are just some books I picked up at a local poetry festival that took place a couple of weeks ago. Even though a lot of what the featured poets read wasn't in English, it was still neat to see that there are so many people who appreciate poetry in Taiwan.

Amanda: I didn't know you were such a poetry lover, Mike. Personally, I've always found that stuff a little bit boring and hard to understand. All that flowery language gives me a headache! I'd rather read a nice long novel any day.

Mike: I'll admit that poetry's an acquired taste. But once you learn more about it, you'll find that poems aren't all flowery and incomprehensible－they don't even have to rhyme! One of my favorite poets is Billy Collins, who writes really funny, clever poems in simple everyday English.

Amanda: I'll have to look him up. Say, have you ever written any poetry of your own? Some love sonnets, perhaps?

Mike: No love sonnets, but I did try to write some poems a long time ago. They were all really bad. Once I spent three hours trying to come up with a word that rhymes with "panda"!

Amanda: Silly Mike! How could you not think of "Amanda"?

poetry  (n.)   诗Most people have heard of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, but did you know that he wrote poetry as well?

festival  (n.)   节庆At this year's international food festival, I tried a lot of dishes that I'd never had before.

headache  (n.)   头痛I didn't get much sleep last night, so I've had a headache all day long.

incomprehensible  (adj.)   难懂的；无法理解的Lisa didn't know anything about the stock market, so most of what her friends were discussing was incomprehensible to her.

to rhyme  (v.)   押韵Sandi Landy's friends often teased her because her name rhymed.

flowery language   瑰丽的词藻A: How did you do on your essay?

B: Better than I expected. I was afraid I'd used too much flowery language, but my teacher still gave me a good grade.

love sonnet   十四行情诗A: Can you think of a good way to impress the girl I like?

B: Maybe you should memorize a few love sonnets and recite them to her.

to come up with   想出…A: This math problem is so hard!

B: Relax. I'm sure if we work on it together we'll be able to come up with the correct answer.