ESL Podcast 194 – An Unwanted House Guest

About a month ago, my friend Richard called me and asked if he could come stay with me for a couple of weeks. I usually don’t like having house guests, but Richard was a good friend. He’s an artist and he was thinking about moving to L.A. He wanted to see if he could get a job in the area. I told him, yes, of course, and he came down right away. As I said, that was a month ago. He’s been living in my guestroom ever since.

I like Richard and we get along, but I just don’t like having a roommate. Sometimes, he gets in the way when I want to invite someone over, and he’s always hogging¹ the couch. One of my pet peeves² is a dirty bathroom and Richard is a slob. I finally decided³ to let him know that he had overstayed his welcome. But, how do you throw out one of your best friends?

On the day I was going to talk to Richard, he came home with some big news. He had met some guy at the employment agency and he planned to move in with him. I was bowled over! He had just met him. I tried to talk him out of it, but he’d made up his mind. Richard has always been a free spirit so who am I to tell him what to do? I just hope he’ll be happy.


Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

1 hogging   

n.弯[翘]曲，挠度，扭曲；拱曲

参考例句：

• At first glance, the spotlight-hogging boss seems the villain. 乍一看，好抢镜头的上司似乎是个反面人物。 来自辞典例句
• This guy has been 5 hogging the bathroom for 25 minutes! 那家伙霸占着洗手间25分钟了！ 来自互联网

2 peeves   

n.麻烦的事物，怨恨，触怒( peeve的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It peeves me to be ordered out of my own house. 命令我从自己的家中出去，真太气人了。 来自辞典例句
• Write down two of your pet peeves about home or any other situation. 写下两个你厌烦的家务事或其他的情况。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。