【英语趣味课堂】开普敦-Capetown

Jana: You must have traveled quite a lot around the country, right?

Peter: Hmm, I think I have especially during my student days. I traveled around a lot because I like hiking¹ and outdoor things. I really enjoy traveling around the country and South Africa is really diverse². As I said, you can travel in one day and find many different spots and different places. If you move towards the southern part of the country closer to Cape³ Town, you'd find a really mild⁴ climate and they grow a lot of fruit and they grow a lot of wine in that area and a lot of people live there because the climate is so mild and really no extreme⁵ temperatures so it's a really nice place, easy place to live in that sense.

 

Jana: OK. So if I want to visit, it sounds like there are so many different places. Which one would you recommend⁶ is the best? What's your favorite area?

 

Peter: I would say my, the best area to live would be the southern part near Cape Town or actually traveling from Cape Town to the eastern seaboard, it's called the Garden Route⁷ in South Africa and the name comes from the fact that it looks like a garden almost. It's really, really beautiful. Beautiful plants and trees, forests and it's all, you know, relatively⁸ high rainfall so everything grows. It just grows. It's really beautiful and it's not too hot, it never gets too hot in summer and never too cold in winter but recently because of, perhaps because of global⁹ warming we have seen quite a lot of changes in South Africa. More snow interestingly enough and I believe some of the hot areas have recorded even hotter temperatures so it becomes even more interesting I guess.

 

Jana: Great.

 

Peter: Oh by the way, I forgot to mention if you like to travel around, there's a really beautiful place that you can visit close to Cape Town. It's one of the world's, I think they call it the Floral Kingdom and it's a heritage¹⁰ site that you can visit because of all the different species¹¹, different species of plant life. Scientists from all over the world come to study it and many tourists come to see it. I think all the species combined in that tiny area and I think it's not even twenty square kilometres maybe, have more species than the whole of Eurasia combined and it's a fascinating¹² beautiful place to visit because of, you know, the natural occurrence¹³ of so many different species.

 

Jana: Yeah, it sounds great. I hope I can get to visit one day.

 

Peter: I hope so too. It would be really nice.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

seaboard

 

 

For me, the place to live would be somewhere traveling from Cape Town to the eastern seaboard.

 

A 'seaboard' is an area of land which is bordered by the water. Notice the following:

 

Someday, we hope to live on the seaboard.

The western seaboard is great for surfing.

relatively

 

 

The Garden Route has a relatively high rainfall, so everything grows.

 

You use the word 'relatively' to compare what you are talking about to other similar things. Notice the following:

 

In his family he is relatively tall.

This has been a relatively warm winter.

interestingly enough

 

 

Interestingly enough, there has actually been more snow because of global warming.

 

You can use the phrase¹⁴ 'interestingly enough' to introduce surprising information that may be the opposite of what you would expect. Notice the following:

 

Interestingly enough, although there was traffic, we actually made it here faster than usual.

I didn't sleep much last night, but, interestingly enough, I feel very rested today.

floral

 

 

I think they call it Floral Kingdom.

 

The word 'floral' shows that this place has something to do with flowers. Notice the following:

 

Valentine's Day is a big day for floral sales.

What do you think about floral print curtains.

heritage site

 

 

It's a heritage site that you can visit near Capetown.

 

A 'heritage site' is an area which has a large number of man-made¹⁵ or natural things that are important for humans, culturally and historically. Notice the following:

 

The Taj Mahal, in India, is one of the most visited World Heritage sites.

Italy and Spain have the highest number of World Heritage sites.

species

 

 

The amazing thing is the natural occurrence of so many different species in a such a small area.

 

Here, different 'species' refers to different kinds of plants. Notice the following:

 

These animals look similar, but they are all members of different species.

How many different species of plants do you have in your gardens?

1 hiking   

n.徒步旅行

参考例句：

• He has been hiking round Scotland for a month.他围着苏格兰徒步旅行了一个月。
• Hiking is not yet popular in China.徒步旅行在中国还不流行。

2 diverse   

adj.不同的；相异的；多种多样的；形形色色的

参考例句：

• Spain is a composite of diverse traditions and people.西班牙是一个汇集了多种传统和民族的国家。
• Society is now much more diverse than ever before.当今社会较之以往任何时候都要丰富多彩得多。

3 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

4 mild   

adj.温暖的，暖和的，（天气，尤指冬天）；性情温和的

参考例句：

• That coat is too heavy for such a mild day.这样暖和的天气，穿那件大衣太厚了。
• He is mild of manner.他举止温和。

5 extreme   

adj.末端的，尽头的；极度的，极端的；n.极度，最大程度

参考例句：

• She lived on the extreme edge of the forest.她住在森林的最边缘。
• His views are rather extreme.他的见解相当偏激。

6 recommend   

vt.推荐，介绍；劝告，建议；使成为可取，使受欢迎

参考例句：

• Can you recommend me a good book?你能给我介绍一本好书吗？
• I can recommend this play to all lovers of good theatre.我把这个剧推荐给所有爱好优秀戏剧的人。

7 route   

n.路径，途径，路线；vt.确定路线，按规定路线发送

参考例句：

• On the way home, we took an indirect route.回家的路上，我们绕了一个大圈。
• The plane did not fly the usual commercial route.飞机没有沿通常的商业航线飞。

8 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

9 global   

adj.全球的；球形的；世界的

参考例句：

• A global environmental meeting is going to be held here.一个全球环境会议将在这里举行。
• The report takes a global view of the company's problems.这份报告对公司的问题作了综合性的论述。

10 heritage   

n.传统，遗产，继承物

参考例句：

• The ancient buildings are part of the national heritage.这些古建筑是民族遗产的一部分。
• We Chinese have a great cultural heritage.我们中国人有伟大的文化遗产。

11 species   

n.物种，种群

参考例句：

• Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗？
• This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。

12 fascinating   

adj.迷人的，吸引人的，使人神魂颠倒的

参考例句：

• Your ideas are fascinating to me.你的这些主意对我来说是有吸引力的。
• The very style of the book is fascinating.这本书的风格本身就会引人入胜。

13 occurrence   

n.发生，出现，事件，发生的事件

参考例句：

• Two things account for its occurrence.发生这件事的原因有两个。
• For a military commander，winning or losing a battle is a common occurrence.胜败乃兵家常事。

14 phrase   

n.短语，词组；成语，习语

参考例句：

• The phrase was caught on and immediately became popular.这个短语被采用后很快就流行了。
• That's exactly the phrase I was looking for.这就是我一直找的那个短语。

15 man-made   

adj.人造的，合成的，人为的

参考例句：

• Nylon is a man-made fibre.尼龙是一种人造纤维。
• Many countries have sent up man-made satellites to circle the earth.许多国家已经发射人造卫星围绕地球运转。