【英语趣味课堂】照顾孩子-Taking Care of the Baby

Abidemi: So Jeremy, you mentioned earlier that you’ve been back to Canada with your baby. How was that experience?

 

Jeremy: Well, I mean, until you fly with a toddler, you really never get to appreciate all of those times that you flew across the ocean, you know, watching movies or reading magazines or just sleeping on the flight because those days are over.

 

Abidemi: Wow.

 

Jeremy: I mean, it’s not that bad but when you’re on the plane, you say, “Never again.” I remember about halfway¹ into a 10-hour trans-Pacific flight, I thought, “Well, I can maybe do this every three years but not more than once a year for sure.”

 

I mean, first of all, our boy was bigger than most children for his age. So he was about one year old. And, you know, they have these bassinets that you’re allowed to put your child in and, you know, the baby will hopefully sleep for a while. So the stewardess² sets up the bassinet, we’re all ready to put him in there and then she says, “How old is he?” And he was 12 kilos, and this was for 11.5 maximum.

 

Abidemi: Oh no.

 

Jeremy: And they wouldn’t let us put him in there, so they had to take the whole thing apart and basically³, we had to find some way to have him sleep on our laps⁴ for the next nine hours.

 

Abidemi: Oh, wow.

 

Jeremy: I mean, you know, one-year old like to crawl⁵ around. They like to scream, they like to cry. Other people on the flight don’t like that so much. So, you know, it’s basically every minute of silence you just savor⁶ and just pray that this will keep going, and it never does.

 

But, you know, once he falls asleep and the plane is quiet and they turn off the lights then, you know, it’s okay. But it’s too long. It’s too long for a one-year old. So I can maybe manage it once a year but that’s about it.

 

Abidemi: I remember my sister, she has two kids and she told me a story a few years back when one of her daughters was still a toddler, and they went to Disneyland from Canada. And she said it was just horrible⁷, and they would never do it again.

 

And I just smiled. I didn’t have that experience. I was just thinking, “What could be so bad about it?” But hearing your story now, wow, I can only imagine.

 

Jeremy: Well, I think that – actually most people, most passengers on the flight are usually quite understanding. And I think it’s just, you know, in the parents’ head that everybody is judging them, everybody is looking at them. Because, you know, I get so worried about what other people are thinking, that inconveniencing others that I just work myself up so much, and my wife is the same way.

 

But, you know, talking – actually, we did have people say to us like, “Don’t worry about it.” They will just go out of their way to say, “Oh, what a cute baby” and stuff⁸ like that. So I think people were kind of aware of how stressful it is for parents.

 

And they just – some people actually make an effort to make parents feel like everybody is not silently⁹ judging them or maybe not even silently.

 

Abidemi: Okay. Not saying anything. If you had an advice, one advice to give to a parent that would travel with that child in the future, what would you tell them?

 

Jeremy: My best advice is if you can fly in the morning. So after baby wakes up and you have your breakfast and your flight is maybe at, I don’t know, 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning, I think that works¹⁰ out if it’s a, say, a 10-hour flight because you’ll land it’ll be probably around bedtime¹¹, like his normal bedtime.

 

The first time we did it, the flight was in the late evening. So basically, he’d been up all day. And then there was another 10 hours on top of that. So, you know, when we landed, the readjustment to his normal schedule was really, really difficult. But when we flew in the morning and it was a 10-hour flight, when we landed, he just basically went to sleep like a normal schedule.

 

So that’s a small thing but it really makes a big difference.

 

Abidemi: Thank you.

 

[End of Transcript]

 

 重点词汇：

 

Learn vocabulary from the lesson below.

 

Those days are over

 

Because those days are over.

 

Here, the phrase¹² 'those days are over' means¹³ a part of your life will never happen again. Notice the following:

 

I used to be a good athlete, but those days are over.

Before I got a job, I had lots of free time, but those days are over.

bassinet

 

They have these bassinets that you’re allowed to put your child in.

 

A bassinet is a small bed for babies. Notice the following:

 

The baby is sleeping in the bassinet.

This is their first child so they need to buy a bassinet.

take (the whole thing) apart

 

They had to take the whole thing apart

 

Here, take the whole thing apart means you dismantle¹⁴ something. Notice the following:

 

As soon as he built the model, he took the whole thing apart.

If you take a phone apart, it is hard to put back together.

crawl around

 

Children like to crawl around.

 

When you crawl around like babies do, you move with your hands and knees. Notice the following:

 

Babies like to crawl around.

Soldiers have to crawl around in boot camp.

understanding

 

Most passengers on the flight are usually quite understanding.

 

Here, understanding means patient and sympathetic¹⁵. Notice the following:

 

He was quite understanding of our situation.

Doctors need to be very understanding of patient's fears.

in their head

 

It’s just in the parents’ head.

 

When a thought is 'in your head', that means you worry about it, and perhaps more than necessary. Notice the following:

 

My poor grades are still in my head.

Don't worry. It's all just in your head.

judge

 

Everybody is judging them.

 

When you judge people, you make opinions about them, often negatively. Notice the following:

 

A lot of people judge him for his tattoos¹⁶.

My mother judges everything I do.

1 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

2 stewardess   

n.空中小姐，女乘务员

参考例句：

• Please show your ticket to the stewardess when you board the plane.登机时请向空中小姐出示机票。
• The stewardess hurried the passengers onto the plane.空中小姐催乘客赶快登机。

3 basically   

adv.基本上，从根本上说

参考例句：

• His heart is basically sound.他的心脏基本上健康。
• Basically I agree with your plan.我基本上同意你的计划。

4 laps   

n.舔( lap的名词复数 )；一圈；山谷；裙兜

参考例句：

• The race ended with eight laps of a city centre circuit. 比赛以环绕城中心跑八圈结束。
• A novel multi-parametric micro-biophysiometer based on light addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) was designed. 光寻址电位传感器(LAPS)是一种用于进行生物化学多参数测量的传感器系统。 来自互联网

5 crawl   

vi.／n.爬行，匍匐行进；缓慢(费力)地行进

参考例句：

• We learn to crawl before we learn to walk.我们学会走路之前先要学会爬。
• She slowed the car to a crawl.她把车开得很慢。

6 savor   

vt.品尝，欣赏；n.味道，风味；情趣，趣味

参考例句：

• The soup has a savor of onion.这汤有洋葱味。
• His humorous remarks added a savor to our conversation.他幽默的话语给谈话增添了风趣。

7 horrible   

adj.可怕的，极可憎的，极可厌的

参考例句：

• This is a horrible monster.这是一个可怕的怪物。
• That is a horrible accident.那是一次可怕的事故。

8 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

9 silently   

adv.沉默地，无声地

参考例句：

• She sat in the car,silently fuming at the traffic jam.她坐在汽车里，心中对交通堵塞感到十分恼火。
• He didn't shout,he just glared at me silently.他没有喊叫，只是默默地怒视着我。

10 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

11 bedtime   

n.就寝时间

参考例句：

• It's your bedtime. Go upstairs and go to bed.到睡觉的时间了，上楼去睡觉。
• If you go to bed now,I've read you a bedtime story.假使你现在就上床睡觉，我就念个睡前故事给你听。

12 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。

13 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

14 dismantle   

vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

参考例句：

• He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助，拆除这批弹头。
• The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动，于是，我决定把它拆开。

15 sympathetic   

adj.有同情心的；表示好感或赞同的

参考例句：

• He is a sympathetic person.他是一个有同情心的人。
• They were quite sympathetic to our proposals.他们很赞同我们的建议。

16 tattoos   

n.文身( tattoo的名词复数 )；归营鼓；军队夜间表演操；连续有节奏的敲击声v.刺青，文身( tattoo的第三人称单数 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的胳膊上刺满了花纹。
• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的双臂刺满了纹身。 来自《简明英汉词典》