【英语趣味课堂】英国生活-Life in England

Todd: So, where did you grow up in England?

 

Mark: So, I grew up in a place called Bradford

 

Todd: Yeah

 

Mark: Actually Bradford is famous in England for two things. One, it's famous for curry¹. Indian curry because in Bradford we have a lot of Indian and muslim people, but also it's famous for riots because Bradford had major riots in England, it's had maybe the two worst riots in England for the past 10 years and that's due to racism² basically.

 

Todd: Really

 

Mark: Yeah

 

Todd: Oh, no! Is it a rough area?

 

Mark: Yeah, it's very working class. Yeah, not so much money in Bradford, pretty poor.

 

Todd: What was it like growing up there, like, what did you do as a kid?

 

Mark: What did I do as a kid? It was, it was tough, I lived on a government, well we call it councilor estate, maybe in America it's called maybe government assisted housing, so my area was pretty tough, but always there were lots of kids around so we were always playing 

football, cricket, or riding bikes or sometimes causing mischief³.

 

Todd: How would you cause mischief?

 

Mark: It depends, maybe sometimes there's an old guy who nobody likes who lives near us so we go and throw maybe eggs at his windows and as we grew older we started throwing rocks at his windows, yeah.

 

Todd: What would you do if you had a house now and some kid threw eggs at your house?

 

Mark: If some kid threw eggs at my house I'd probably buy a big dog and set the dog off the least and the dog can chase the kids away.

 

学习内容：

 

riots

 

Bradford is famous for riots.

 

A 'riot' is a loud public conflict that is usually violent.  Riots can happen as a result of protests or outbursts of public emotion.  Riots can be very destructive to buildings and street and injure people. Notice the following:

 

The police are preparing for riots around the capital building.

Too many people and too much alcohol in the same place can easily lead to a fight or riot.

racism

 

Those riots were due to racism basically.

 

'Racism' is anger or intolerance towards members of another race. Racism comes from the believe that each race has basic differences at a genetic⁴ level and that some races are better than others. Notice the following:

 

He experienced a lot of racism growing up in this area.

Racism is still a big problem in many countries.

rough area

 

Is Bradford a rough area?

 

A 'rough area' usually has lots of crimes and violence and is not a safe place to be or live. Notice the following:

 

Nobody would ever guess that she grew up in a rough area.

It's very obvious that this is a rough area of town.

cause mischief

 

As kids, we were always playing, sometimes causing mischief.

 

When children 'cause mischief' they are causing problems or playing tricks on people. Notice the following:

 

His is a difficult child and causes a lot of mischief in class.

Halloween is a day for people to cause mischief.

chase away

 

I'll have the dog chase those kids away.

 

If you 'chase something away' you run after it in an effort to scare it so it won't be close to you. Notice the following:

 

They use their dog to chase strangers away.

Her dad is really good at chasing the boys away.

 

1 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。

2 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

3 mischief   

n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹

参考例句：

• Nobody took notice of the mischief of the matter. 没有人注意到这件事情所带来的危害。
• He seems to intend mischief.看来他想捣蛋。

4 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。