【英语趣味课堂】卡片-Cards

Adrienne: So, Mary, what’s in the basket there?

 

Mary: Oh, those are all the Christmas cards I received this year.

 

Adrienne: Oh, that’s a lot.

 

Mary: Yeah, it’s quite a few. I had kind of an extensive list for people I would send cards to but in October my hard drive crashed and I lost my Christmas card list, so I had a hard time trying to figure out how to get cards to everybody this year, so what I’ve been doing is when I receive a card I’m cutting out everyone’s return address and actually taping it to the back of their card so that way I’ll have an ability to rebuild that list at some point.

 

Adrienne: Wow, that sounds like a big project.

 

Mary: You know it’s really so bad cause I enjoy taking a look at the cards anyhow so it’s something do while I’m looking at the cards.

 

Adrienne: So when do you usually send your Christmas cards out?

 

Mary: Well, I try to send them out in the middle of December but this year they left my house on the 21st, so it was sort of way to close to the end.

 

Adrienne: Right. Right. Um, what about next year? Will you try to get them out in the middle of December?

 

Mary: I’m definitely going to try cause now that I have everyone’s address I’ll be able to rebuild that list hopefully before December.

 

Adrienne: Well, sounds like a good plan. Good luck.

 

学习内容：

 

hard time

 

I had a hard time trying to figure out how to get cards to everybody this year.

 

When you have a 'hard time' doing something it means that you have difficulty doing it. 

 

Notice the following:

 

I have a hard time doing my maths equations¹.

I think that she has a hard time losing weight. 

cut out

 

What I’ve been doing is when I receive a card I’m cutting out everyone’s return address.

 

When you 'cut something out' is means that you remove a section of a whole object using scissors. 

 

Notice the following:

 

I am going to cut out lots of nice pictures and make a scrap² book. 

Don't forget to cut out all of the money saving coupons³ from the magazine. 

tape

 

And actually taping it to the back of their card.

 

'Tape' is a sticky piece of plastic that is used to attach one thing to another. The action of attaching one thing to another with this sticky plastic is 'taping.'

 

Notice the following:

 

I will just tape the poster to the wall. 

She always has tape in her drawer at work. 

rebuild

 

That way I’ll have an ability to rebuild that list at some point.

 

When you 'rebuild' something it means that you produce or make it again, usually using at least some of the original pieces. 

 

Notice the following:

 

I hope to rebuild the extension one day. 

They have gone to therapy in a hope that they will rebuild their marriage. 

way too close

 

I try to send them out in the middle of December but this year they left my house on the 21st, so it was sort of way too close to send.

 

When something is 'way too close' it means that it is too near, either in a physical sense or in time, to something and this makes it impractical⁴ or not desirable. 

 

Notice the following:

 

The wall is way too close to the window and it blocks the light.

You need to distance yourself from him as you are way too close. 

 

1 equations   

方程式( equation的名词复数 )； 相等； 等同看待

参考例句：

• The overwhelming majority of nonlinear differential equations are not soluble analytically. 绝大多数非线性微分方程是不能用解析方法求解的。
• To derive the transformation equations, we return to Fig. 14-1. 为了求出这个变换式，我们回顾图14－1。

2 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

3 coupons   

n.礼券( coupon的名词复数 )；优惠券；订货单；参赛表

参考例句：

• The company gives away free coupons for drinks or other items. 公司为饮料或其它项目发放免费赠券。 来自辞典例句
• Do you have any coupons? 你们有优惠卡吗？ 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 口语

4 impractical   

adj.不现实的，不实用的，不切实际的

参考例句：

• He was hopelessly impractical when it came to planning new projects.一到规划新项目，他就完全没有了实际操作的能力。
• An entirely rigid system is impractical.一套完全死板的体制是不实际的。