J: Sounds good. Let"s get started. Hey, you guys! Turn those tools off back there! We"re trying to talk! Yeah, yeah... All right, John is co-owner of a construction company and he and his partner Tony have worked together for about ten years. Here"s John.

John: Yeah, we do custom carpentry.

Jody: John, how long have been doing carpentry?

实录1 John: Probably about 15 years. Yeah, about 15 year doing carpentry. Ten years with Tony about five years just, you know, learning from the older guys. You show an interest and they show you the secrets they want to teach you and I learned. My dad was a carpenter too.

Y: 我想啊，John 的父亲也是个木匠，那么对他来说作木匠应该是最好的选择吧。

J: It"s a natural choice. But I have a feeling, Yang Chen, it"s not an easy job. John said there"s long, hard hours with very low compensation。

Y: 你说的low compensation是什么意思啊？

J: You know, compensation. Money! Moulah! Ka-ching!

Y: 我们还是听听John是怎么说的吧。

实录2 John: We wish the money was better. We put in long hard hours and it just doesn"t seem like we"re being compensated the way we need to be compensated.

J: You heard it from John - long, hard hours and low pay. You know, that just doesn"t sound like a Yang Chen type of job.

Y: 你这是什么意思。你是说我就喜欢那种工资高又轻松的工作吗？

J: No, no, no, no. There are personal rewards with work as well. Again, here"s a personal reward John gets from building a friend"s deck.

实录4 John: Right now, here we are right now sitting in here looking out. It"s raining. Just put done a finished product and it looks great. I guess that"s the satisfaction. And to know there"s gonna (going to) be a lot of parties on this deck. Alright. Good people here. Good friends. And, ah, that"s basically what it"s about.

Y: 他怎么好象在给啤酒作广告啊。

J: He would approve of that comment. Especially since of us, uh, you know, drank a couple of beers after they worked on the deck that day.

Y: 你也喜欢喝啤酒？

J: Like beer? Yang Chen, you are looking at the 1993 Beer Girl of Kaifeng"s best brewery. 汴京啤酒好喝！

Y: 我不知道你曾经有过这么辉煌的成就，居然给河南开封市的啤酒作电视广告。那你当时一定也是个名人吧。

J: 不敢当。Now, I wouldn"t go that far. But anyway, back to John. John uses many casual expressions when he talks like "all right" "that"s what it"s about."

Y: 他说的"that"s what it"s about." 意思是“这就是重点。”

J: That"s what important, right. That"s what it"s all about. Good friends. Good people. couple of parties, you know.

Y: 看来他不但是个好木匠，而且很关心他的顾客。

J: Yeah, John really wants to do a good job. According to him when you work in someone"s home you can"t run away from the work that you do. It has to be good, right?

Y: 没错。

J: That can be stressful, I bet.

实录4 John: We have great relationships with all of our customers. They"re there everyday looking at what you do. So, we try to do the best we can. And, you know, I do the same kind of work I would do in my own house in someone else"s house.

Y:他说的没错，在别人家干活， 主人天天监督着你，是挺不好受的。

J: So what do are saying, Yang Chen. Do you still dream of being a carpenter and work in people"s homes?

Y:算了吧。我还是放弃我当木匠的梦想吧。

J: I thought so.

Y: 我的又一个梦想破灭了。

J: I"m sure that everyone will learn very soon another dream job that Ms. Yang Chen has. So, stay tuned.

Y: 还是你了解我， Jody。好，各位听众，我们下次节目再见。

日期：2008-4-24 8:35:23

美语咖啡屋第26课声音

Y: 各位听众好，欢迎您到美语咖啡屋。我是杨晨。

J: And I"m Jody! Welcome to American Cafe! Thanks for dropping in. Summer is just around the corner.

Y: 没错，夏天要来了，我想夏天水上运动应该是最受欢迎的吧。

J: Oh yea! Water sports! I love it! Swimming, rafting, boating...

Y: ...嘿，别忘了潜水。

J: Oh, that"s right. I thought you would forget about it, since last time when the topic of scuba diving came up, you sounded kind of ify about it.

Y: Ify? 我才不ify呢！ 哎， "ify" 到底是什么意思啊。

J: "Ify" means you"re not sure about something. You"re full of ifs, "if this happens..." or "if that happens..."

Y: Oh. 就是不太确定的意思。没错，我 是有点ify，因为我怕水。

J: Well, whether or not I"m afraid of the ocean, this year I"m going to try it! I"ve had a strong feeling lately of wanting to leave the Earth. Do you know what I"m talking about?

Y: 我看你又有点异想天开， 想离开地球可不好办。你又不能去太空，那剩下的选择就只有到水底下了。

J: You got it! So, I thought I should meet some people who scuba dive. Today we"re going to meet John.

实录1 John : My name is John. I"m from the Dive Shop in Fairfax, Virginia. Well, I started scuba diving in 1957 so I"ve been diving longer than most people I know have been alive. I have almost 10,000 scuba dives in my life and this is what I do for a career.

Y: Wow, 他从57年就开始潜水了，那时候我还没出生呢。

J: Me either.

Y: 那你说John 为什么热衷于潜水呢？

J: Let"s have John answer the question "Why do you love scuba diving?"

实录2 John: Well, most everyone that you know doesn"t dive, so that separates you from most people. What I find is it"s an opportunity to go ahead and appreciate a portion of the Earth that most people will never get a chance to see. An opportunity to go out into a relatively pristine and wild environment is quite fascinating.

Y: 他刚才说的pristine这个词很好听，是什么意思呢，Jody.

J: Pristine. Pristine is spelled P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E and it means that something is pure and untouched. Usually, pristine is used to describe a natural environment or landscape.

Y:就是原始，或者说没有被污染的意思。

J: But you know, Yang Chen, simply going underwater is not the end goal of scuba diving. There"s much more to it than that.

Y: 那么潜水的真正目的是什么呢？

J: Well, John says that scuba diving is not the end activity. It"s all about underwater recreation, you know fun activities. Again, here"s John.

实录3 John: Scuba diving itself is not the end activity here; it"s underwater recreation whether or not it"s exploration, whether or not it"s photography, whether or not it"s examination of sunken ships, or whether or not it"s just simply a walk in the woods.

Y: 听他这么一说，水下还真的有那么多有意思的活动呢。不过对我来说，幻想一下还可以，真要到水底探险，那我还真的先克服怕水的心理。

J: Okay, we"re going to try something here. Yang Chen, I want you to join me in a little exercise to get over your fear of water. Okay, close your eyes.

Y: 在这儿？

J: No, really close "em. Just close your eyes. In fact, everybody out there close your eyes with us.

Y: 哎，你怎么没闭上眼睛啊？

J: Hey, just listen. Okay, just close your eyes, Yang Chen. Trust me.

Y: Okay.

J: First, we"re stepping into the cold ocean water.

Y: 我们现在走进了冰冷的海水。

J: We"re slowly sinking down, down, down

Y: 沉下去，一直往下沉。

J: You"re breathing is relaxed.

Y: 在宁静的大海里你仿佛能听到自己的呼吸声。

J: You hope.

Y: Jody, 不要开玩笑，我们现在可是在水底下呢。

J: Sorry, sorry. Okay, let"s go back. Let"s go back. Let"s go back. Suddenly, a dark image obscured behind a school of fish and seaweed becomes clearer.

Y: 突然之间，你看一个巨大的黑色怪物，越来越清晰地出现在你面前。

J: It"s a ship long sunken and long forgotten.

Y: 原来是一艘沉睡了好几百年的船。

J: Forgotten treasures awaits you!

Y: 哇，船上有那么多金银珠宝，我们发财了！！！

J: No, no, no. We have to go back!

Y: 这时候，你还念什么诗啊 。快点帮我拿个大口袋来！

日期：2008-4-25 10:19:57

美国习惯用语第298讲