J: It"s a wonderful story. And it starts with the fact that a dolphin is very sensitive and can see everything in your body with their sonar.

Y: 是吗？我听说过海豚都很聪明。可是我不知道它们还能用声纳来诊断一个人是否有病。这太神奇了！

J: And also when given a choice between a sick or well person, a dolphin will swim with a sick person. Again here"s Ann.

实录2: ANNIE: The dolphin"s very sensitive and, um, they can see everything in your body. And they know if you"re sick or if you"re well. And almost four years the one dolphin, Bella, swan with me all the time to let me know - she was protecting me - that I was sick.

Y: Jody, 那么说Bella选择在Ann的身边游泳。这就说明 Ann 的身体出了毛病，对不对？

J: That"s right.

Y: Ann在这之前有没有去看过医生呢？

J: Oh, of course. For years she complained to her doctor about a pain in her chest. And the doctor kept telling her to go home.

实录3: ANNIE: Before I went to swim with the dolphin, I went to a doctor and they told me I was well. I kept telling them I had a pain in my chest. And the doctor kept saying go home. And this went on year after year.

Y: Wow, 真的很难相信。 这个医生一直坚持说Ann没有生病，叫她放心地回家去。

J: Can you believe it? That"s why Ann turned to the dolphins. When she came back from swimming with Bella on the first trip, she immediately had - what she calls a medical miracle - a body scan.

Y: Body scan就是全身扫描。那通过这种全身扫描发现了什么问题呢？

J: The body scan revealed that Ann had a cancerous tumor in her lung the size of an egg.

实录4: ANNIE: And it was the dolphin that tried to tell me that something was wrong. When I came back I had one of these new medical miracles called a body scan and there was this tumor, large as an egg, sitting in my lung. And I would"ve died within possibly six months and Bella the dolphin helped save my life.

Y: 这么说，Ann的第一个医生诊断失误，而Bella是对的。Ann确实有 病，而且是严重的肺癌。 我觉得海豚不仅可爱，聪明，而且非常有爱心，真可以说是人类的好朋友。这个故事最后的结局是什么？

J: Well, I think we should hear that straight from Ann.

实录5: ANNIE: I"m doing great! I"ve passed all my cancer tests and I go for tests every three months. And I"m doing great. And I think I may make it forever! (laughter) So, that"s it. Thanks to Bella the dolphin!

J: Isn"t that great! Ann has passed all her cancer tests! I"ll tell you what, she is one tough cookie.

Y: 没错，我真的是替Ann感到高兴。她是一位非常坚强的女性，而且这个故事不仅感人，还是一个happy ending!

J: And don"t forget, a big "Thank You!" goes out to Bella the dolphin. And thanks to all of you for joining us on American Cafe!

Y: 谢谢大家收听美语咖啡屋。我们下次再见。

日期：2008-5-13 8:50:33

美国习惯用语第321讲

今天我们要讲的习惯用语的关键词是pot。我想大家都熟悉pot这个词。它可以解释煮东西的锅子。我们要学的第一个习惯用语是: go to pot。 Go to pot这个习惯用语来自牧场。牧场上的牲口随着年龄的增长而每况欲下，最后在老得不中用的时候就难逃被屠宰的命运，然后人们会把它们切成小块扔进锅里煮了吃。这就是go to pot这个习惯用语的出典，当然现在它通用的意思和描述的对象已经有所转化。

让我们来听个例子。这个人在说自己的弟弟Freddy，曾几何时Freddy是运动健将，而如今他却放任自流、每况愈下。

例句-1：My brother Freddy used to be a star athlete, but he"s really let himself go to pot. In high school he ran eight miles every day but now he just sits in front of the TV eating potato chips.

大家都听清楚了吧? 他的弟弟Freddy原是个运动明星。在中学时代每天坚持长跑八英哩，但是如今他不但不锻炼还成天懒懒散散地呆在电视机前大嚼炸薯片....大家知道光看电视不运动已经有损健康，还要吃好多炸薯片之类油腻而不健康的食品，就更有害身体，所以说Freddy has let himself go to pot。也就是说他放任自流，每况愈下。

可见go to pot意思就是情况越来越糟糕。

******

我们再来学一个习惯用语:sweeten the pot. Sweeten是加糖弄甜的意思。厨师烹调的时候常有一个秘诀就是在锅里加上点儿糖或者蜂蜜来调味。这样往往会使菜肴色香味俱增，更合口味。习惯用语sweeten the pot就这样流传开来了，同时这个习惯用语也有了更广泛的意义。让我们听个例子来体会它的含义。

例句-2：The job wasn"t very interesting, but I decided to take it anyway after they sweetened the pot by promising me four weeks of paid vacation, a company car and a big bonus. How could I say no?

大家一定都听明白了。他原来觉得那工作不太有意思，但是他们对他作了几个诱人的许诺，包括四个星期的带工资假期，公司配给汽车，还有大笔奖金。当然这些优惠使得这份工作十分合人心意，因而具有难以抗拒的吸引力了，所以他还是接受了那工作。

可见sweetened the pot含义是改善条件，使之更合人心意。有时候sweetened the pot也用在业务交易方面，含义是添加某些优惠条件使得一笔交易更有利可图，并因而有更大的吸引力。

******

我们还要学一个习惯用语: pot calling the kettle black。 Kettle是水壶。这个习惯用语来自十七世纪用炉子里生火煮饭的年代。那时侯无论是Pot还是Kettle ，长年累月经炉火烧烤都会变得一样的焦黑，要是锅子数落水壶黑的话，其实它自己也半斤八两，好不到哪儿去。好，我们来听个例子。

例句-3：My sister Susan always lies to our parents about her grades in school. One time I forgot to tell Mom and Dad I"d failed my English exam, and Susan accused me of lying all the time. If that"s not the pot calling the kettle black I don"t know what it is!

他说：我姐姐Susan老是对爸妈谎报学习成绩，而当我仅仅一次忘了告诉爸妈我英文考试不及格的时候，她竟然指责我也一直撒谎，她要数落我也不看看自己的缺点有多大。

其实中国也有句类似的俗话：要说别人不干净，除非自己的锅底没黑! 换句话说是:自己有同样的缺点，反倒去批评别人。

日期：2008-5-13 8:53:00

美语咖啡屋第50课

Shannon, Acupuncture Student

J: Hello I"m Jody. Welcome to American Cafe!

Y: 大家好！我是杨晨，欢迎到美语咖啡屋！Jody, 你知道吗？我昨天搬东西，脖子今天特别疼！

J: You look like you"re in pain.

Y: 没错！

J: You have to be careful when you"re moving stuff. What have you done to make it feel better?

Y: 我吃了两颗止疼片儿。不过好像没什么用！

J: Maybe you should think about getting some acupuncture?

Y: No, no, no! 我最害怕针。

J: Well, don"t worry. On today"s show our guest is Shannon and she is an acupuncture student. And she used to be afraid of needles too.

Y: 好，我们来认识一下Shannon.

实录1: Shannon: Hi, my name is Shannon and I"m currently studying acupuncture in the Washington DC metro area. And it"s really different from anything else I"ve ever done before. And I love it.

Y: Shannon是什么时候开始对针灸感兴趣的呢？

J: Well, she lived in China a number of years ago and there she watched people get acupuncture often.

Y: 没错，因为针灸在中国是很普遍的。所以很多外国人到中国以后就开始对针灸产生了兴趣。

J: That"s what happened with Shannon and that"s where she got over her fear of needles. Let"s hear more from Shannon.

实录2: Shannon: Um, I lived in China a number of years ago and I"d watch people get acupuncture. But I was very scared of needles then. So, it took me a couple of years before I wanted to try, um, getting acupuncture myself. And I had some incredible experiences with it.

Y: 她刚才说的incredible experiences是什么呢？

J: One of Shannon"s incredible experiences was after a car accident. She was very shaken up. So she went in and had an emergency acupuncture appointment. Shannon says that it only took five minutes for the seven needles to help her feel like herself again and help her deal with the accident.

Y: Shannon在接受针灸治疗之前是不是就not feeling like herself?

J: Right. She wasn"t feeling normal. She didn"t feel right. She was crying, shaking and generally just freaking out.

Y: Freaking out在这里是情绪失控的意思。