【英语趣味课堂】信差-The Messenger

Todd: Um , Kawabe you said you used to be a bike delivery¹ person.

 

Kawabe: Yes, I was. It was not very long but I was doing that for like 6 months.

 

Todd: Do you mean push bike or motorcycle²?

 

Kawabe: Push bike? What is a push bike?

 

Todd: Push bike is like the one you ride with you legs.

 

Kawabe: Oh, no, no. no. The motorcycle.

 

Todd: Motorcycle! OK.

 

Kawabe: Yes! Yes! 400 cc. I forget the name of the bike, but it was kind of one really fast, and then, you know what they are doing, they just go, OK, if you are sending a letter, a very important document, you want to send it to somewhere really fast, very, very quickly!

 

Todd: Like for a signiture of something.

 

Kawabe: Yeah, whatever it is! Like and then, you call me. You call to my company and the company call to my mobile³ or beeper, and then, "hey Kawabe, you go to that place," and you get the address, and I look it up in my map, and I go to your place and pick up the thing and deliver to your receiver.

 

Todd: Oh, to the receiver, to the recipient⁴ (Yeah), the recipient.

 

Kawabe: And then since it's a bike delivery it's always something you've got to deliver really fast, so which means⁵ it's a really dangerous job, you know, so many people, my colleagues⁶ had a car accident.

 

Todd: Oh really!

 

Kawabe: Definitely⁷, if you,..

 

Todd: Not you right? You were OK?

 

Kawabe: Not me! Since I thought I, you know, I can have a really big accident if I keep on this job, that is why I quit.

 

Todd: Good choice.Yeah!

 

Kawabe: If you do that job for one year, definitely, you'll have one accident at least.

 

Todd: Seriouly!

 

Kawabe: Yeah! Seriously!

 

Todd: Man, wow! I heard something similar in the U.S. Big truck drivers, on average over their career, kill at least one person.

 

Kawabe: Yeah, the same kind of thing, you know! Especially in Tokyo. You know, there's millions of cars and motorcycles⁸, and people walking on the street, you know it's really dangerous, and even if you are a safe driver, someone's gonna hit you, (Yeah) so.

 

Todd: There's nothing you can do.

 

Kawabe: You can run away if you are on the street but there's no place to run away, so, anyway, that was, that was an exciting job. I really enjoyed that because you are always outside. The rainy days, you know, I didn't like that, but on the sunny day, autumn, spring, and it was great to drive in Tokyo city. You could go everywhere and meet a lot of people and so. Yeah, I met one person, he was a manga writer. How do you say?

 

Todd: Yeah, manga writer, sure, yeah!

 

Kawabe: And then the publishing company asked me to take, how do you say, the document for the next week?

 

Todd: Oh, like the, the new issue⁹. (Yeah) Yeah, the first draft¹⁰, or whatever.

 

Kawabe: Yeah, and then he had to finish that one like until that day, so "Hey, Kawabe, you go to that manga writer's house and pick up the documents he's gonna give you, and then you bring that, the draft, how do you say? (Yeah) **** to the publishing company." OK, and I'd been to his house and I had to wait like four hours in front of his door cause you know, you can imagine, he couldn't finish up his work (Yeah, yeah) so he like in every thirty minutes he comes to the door, and says, "Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm gonna finish it in 10 minutes. It will be done in the next 10 minutes." And then he goes back and I wait and I just kept waiting from the door and actually, four hours later, he gave me the manga.

 

Todd: Really! (Yeah!) Did you read it on the way?

 

Kawabe: No, yeah, I was really tempted¹¹ but I couldn't do that, and yeah, I brought that to the publishing company. That was so funny!

 

Todd: Cool story!

1 delivery   

n.交付；投递；分娩；解救者；演讲的风格

参考例句：

• The strike caused a great delay in the delivery of the mail.这次罢工严重地延误了邮件的投递。
• He was employed at the local grocery store as a delivery boy.他受雇于当地杂货店当送货员。

2 motorcycle   

n.摩托车，机车

参考例句：

• Tom went there by motorcycle.汤姆乘摩托车去的那儿。
• He was also the first person in town to buy a motorcycle.他也是镇里第一个买摩托车的人。

3 mobile   

adj.可移动的，易变的，机动的；n.运动物体

参考例句：

• The old lady sits on a mobile chair every morning.那位老妇人每天上午坐在一把可携带使用的椅子上。
• She's much more mobile now that she's bought a car.自从她买了汽车后，活动量就大多了。

4 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

5 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

6 colleagues   

n.同事，同僚( colleague的名词复数 )；同人

参考例句：

• He wanted to confer with his colleagues before reaching a decision. 他想与他的同事先商议一下再作出决定。
• She is held in high esteem by her colleagues. 她深受同事的敬重。

7 definitely   

adv.一定地，肯定地；明确地，确切地

参考例句：

• The team will definitely lose if he doesn't play.如果他不参加比赛，这个队肯定会输。
• I shall definitely be home before six o'clock.6点以前，我一定回家。

8 motorcycles   

n.摩托车( motorcycle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Twelve guards on motorcycles preceded the president's car. 骑着摩托车上的12名侍卫行于总统车前。 来自辞典例句
• This scooter didn't have a foot pedal to accelerate like the military motorcycles back then. 这台速克达并不像当时的军用摩托车是用脚踏板来加速。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

9 issue   

n.出版，发行，（报刊等）期、号，论点，问题，结果， （水，血等的）流出；vt.使流出，放出，发行（钞票等），发布（命令），出版（书等）发给；vi.发行，流出，造成...结果，进行辩护，传下

参考例句：

• I bought the book the day after its issue.这书出版后的第一天，我就去买了它。
• I'll support her down the line on that issue.在那个问题上我将全力支持她。

10 draft   

vt.起草，作...的草稿；n.草稿，草图，草案

参考例句：

• He's now revising the first draft of his essay.他目前正修改他的文章初稿。
• The draft of this article has been done。这篇文章已经定稿。

11 tempted   

v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）

参考例句：

• I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
• I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。