Hina（在线收听） |
| BBC Learning EnglishPeople and PlacesHinaYvonne: Hello, I’m Yvonne Archer, and today on “Peopleand Places” frombbclearningenglish.com we meet someone who was born inLondon, moved toKuwait and then to Bahrain at the age of seven. So who isshe and where would she say she’s from? HinaHello, my name is Hina and I consider myself as being fromBahrain. Yvonne: Generally, we think of Bahrain as a very richcountry that produces oil and has lots of expensive shops. But of course, there’s a lot more to Bahrain! Which twocountries is it near to and how many islands is it made upof? HinaBahrain is situated in the Middle East – or, you couldsay, it’s situated in the Arab World. It’s a very smallcountry – it’s near Iran and Saudi Arabia – and we're…actually, Bahrain is a collection of thirty differentislands. Yvonne: Bahrain is near to Iran and Saudi Arabia and it’smade up of thirty different islands. And another way to saythat, as we heard, is: it’s ‘a collection of’ thirtydifferent islands. HinaBahrain is a collection of thirty different islands. Yvonne: Hina has also lived and studied in the UnitedStates and now she lives in London. But as she’s foundout, people know very little about Bahrain, even thoughwe've got so much access to the internet. And even now,some of Hina’s own family don’t see a reason to visit Bahrain! How many examples of questions – or rather, negativecomments – does Hina give about Bahrain? HinaSometimes they say, ‘What’s the point of going toBahrain?’ I have family who say that as well… ‘I thinkit’s going to be boring’, ‘Maybe it'll just be desert’ or ‘Isn’t it a rich, oil country? All you can probably dothere is, go shopping.’ Yvonne: Making a negative comment sound like a question canbe a way of softening it, so it doesn’t sound as rude... HinaSometimes they say, ‘What’s the point of going toBahrain?’ I have family who say that as well… ‘I thinkit’s going to be boring’, ‘Maybe it'll just be desert’ or ‘Isn’t it a rich, oil country? All you can probably dothere is, go shopping.’ Yvonne: And I caught three comments from Hina there: thatit’s boring, it’s just desert, and there’s nothing to doin Bahrain except go shopping. So people ask: ‘What’s the point?’ Is there really any good reason tovisit Bahrain? HinaSometimes they say, ‘What’s the point of going toBahrain?’ Yvonne: If someone begins a comment with ‘What’s thepoint?’ – for example, ‘What’s the point in learningEnglish with bbclearningenglish.com?’ - you’ll probablyhave an opportunity to convince them that there are severalgood reasons! Yvonne: So Hina, what’s the point in visiting Bahrain? HinaWhat people don’t realise is, there’s a lot of diversityof faces, different kinds of food and Bahrain is a veryhospitable place. The people are very nice. Bahraini’shave very good hearts and they’re very warm and friendly. Yvonne: The food and the people – Bahrainis – are twogreat reasons to visit Bahrain. So, there is a point! When we think of the Middle East and Arab countries, sadly,we think of war. And during the first Gulf War, Hina wasstill at primary school in Bahrain. It was opposite amilitary camp and hospital for injured soldiers from otherArab countries, yet Hina remembers a few funny moments,even though they were created by the horrors of war. Inthis story, little Hina had to decide whether it was safeto go back to school after lunch one day…HinaI remember we often went to school with gas masks, mysister and I. And there’s one story when we heard thesirens going off. You could hear them on the TV, you couldhear them on the radio and you could hear them outside. Thebirds would just be so quiet because the air raid sirenswere going. My sister and I stayed in the house for abouttwenty minutes until we didn’t hear the sirens any more. Then, we knew it was safe to go back to school. Yvonne: Hina thought it was safe to walk back to school,but it seems that she was the only one. Hina: Our school was only about a ten minute walk away, so wewalked back to school, you know, very happy, didn’t seeanything bad happening. When we got inside, we didn’t seeanybody in the playground and we didn’t see anyone in theoffices and then the head teacher ran outsideand she said “What are you two girls doing?” Because, forthem, they had still been hearing the siren - they werelistening to a different radio station and a different TVstation. I said to her – “But it's stopped; we can’t hear itoutside”. She was so angry and she took me and my littlesister. We ran inside and our whole school, of about, morethan a hundred people, we were all in a tiny little roomwith tea and biscuits, just sitting and waiting to makesure everything was definitely all clear. I think it's important for people to realise, there's happymemories that can happen in countries in the Arab World. |
| 原文地址：http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/rydf/70320.html |