英语博客：A Super Duper Slither Scooter.

　　It's time to rock and roll. Glide¹, wobble, balance, and slither. Let's try something new to get ourselves moving. Did you know that the part of the brain that deals with balance, also deals with focus? Isn't that interesting. An educational specialist told me that the other day. One of my sons is going to see her each week to increase his reading abilities. I am really intrigued² to see what she will do, and what the effects will be. I would like to pick her brains. One of the things that she recommends for children who need to control their focus, are balancing exercises. So, another trip to Walmart, and we have a Slither scooter. It's a super duper one. It's actually a combination of two things: a regular scooter, and a rip stick. I won't go into detail about what a rip stick is because it will actually take too long, but I think you get the gist³. If you check out one of my previous podcast, 'A Refreshing⁴ Park', you will get more of an idea about what a rip stick is. So, we have the box in the kitchen, and my two oldest pounce⁵ on it like a couple of cougars⁶. They immediately tear the box open, and start putting the thing together. "Shouldn't you read the instructions?" I ask them. My experience is that males will often put something together, and then later have to take it apart and start all over again, this time reading the instructions. I could be wrong though, ....... I shouldn't generalize, so you men out there, please don't get offended. But of course, mothers are always wrong, right? So, I let them get stuck at one point, and then intervened, pushing the instruction manual under their noses. And guess what happened? They followed the instructions, and put it together correctly! Mmm, am I making my point clearly? Anyway, they all tried the super dooper Slither scooter on our driveway. They described it as "cool", "difficult", "awesome⁷", and "tricky⁸". That means that they like it. I'm going to try it tomorrow to see if it will help me to super duper up my focus.
Grammar notes.
Expressions and vocabulary: to pick someone's brains, the gist, to pounce.
1. He knows so much about history; I should pick his brains about the First World War.
2. The gist of his speech was that the company needs to expand into new territories.
3. If the rabbit doesn't run and hide, the fox will pounce on it.

1 glide   

n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝

参考例句：

• We stood in silence watching the snake glide effortlessly.我们噤若寒蝉地站着，眼看那条蛇逍遥自在地游来游去。
• So graceful was the ballerina that she just seemed to glide.那芭蕾舞女演员翩跹起舞，宛如滑翔。

2 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

3 gist   

n.要旨；梗概

参考例句：

• Can you give me the gist of this report?你能告诉我这个报告的要点吗？
• He is quick in grasping the gist of a book.他敏于了解书的要点。

4 refreshing   

adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的

参考例句：

• I find it'so refreshing to work with young people in this department.我发现和这一部门的青年一起工作令人精神振奋。
• The water was cold and wonderfully refreshing.水很涼，特别解乏提神。

5 pounce   

n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意

参考例句：

• Why do you pounce on every single thing I say?干吗我说的每句话你都要找麻烦？
• We saw the tiger about to pounce on the goat.我们看见老虎要向那只山羊扑过去。

6 cougars   

n.美洲狮( cougar的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Cougars can kill animals eight times their size. 美洲狮可以杀死八倍于自身体积的动物。 来自互联网

7 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

8 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。