【英语趣味课堂】英国的村庄-English Village

My name's Ruth and I'm from a small village in England. I live quite near Nottingham and I've lived there for most of my life actually. Nottingham is quite famous for Sherwood forest, where Robin¹ hood² was supposed to live and as a child I spent some of my time in Sherwood Forest playing.

 

I live in a village and it's actually a mining village with about 1,000 or 1,500 inhabitants³. There's really not very much to do there. There's a shop and a post office, a school and my mom teaches at the school.

 

I did actually live in Edinburgh for one year and that was quite different from life in my village because there was so much more to do and there were so many more people and there was so much more traffic, but I think actually I prefer living in a village because, well, if you want to go out to the shops, if you want to go to the cinema, you can go to the nearest town, or to the nearest city, but you can always escape city life and you can always go back to where it's quiet and more peaceful and where everybody knows each other, but if you live in the city you can't really escape it, and I don't really like the noise of the city so I think I will probably live in a village for the rest of my life.

 

 

学习内容：

 

village

 

My name's Ruth and I'm from a small village in England. 

 

A 'village' is an established community that is smaller than a town.  Notice the following:

 

Our volunteer group got sent to a small village for a month.

There are a lot of small villages in the mountains around the city.

for most of my life

 

I've lived there for most of my life actually. 

 

When you do something for 'most of your life,' it means⁴ that you have done it most of the time you've been alive. Notice the following:

 

He has been blind for most of his life, but he still remembers what the world looked like.

I lived in this house for most of my life, until I left for university.

inhabitants

 

I live in a village that's actually a mining village with about 1,000 or 1,500 inhabitants. 

 

'Inhabitants' are the people who live in a particular place.  Notice the following:

 

How many inhabitants are there in your hometown?

The number of inhabitants in this city has doubled in the last 20 years.

escape city life

 

I prefer living in a village, because you can always escape city life and go back to where it's peaceful. 

 

When you 'escape' from something, you move to a place where it no longer affects you.  When you 'escape city life,' you are escaping the negative parts of living in a city, like noise, pollution, crowds, etc. Notice the following:

 

I would never want to live in a small town, but sometimes it's nice to escape city life.

We have a cabin⁵ in the country to escape city life.

noise of the city or for the rest of my life

 

I don't really like the noise of the city, so I think I will probably live in a village for the rest of my life. 

 

The 'noise of the city' are the loud sounds that exist in the city.  This might be people, traffic, construction, etc.  The 'rest of you life' is the rest of the time that you are alive.  Notice the following:

 

After a while you don't even hear the noise of the city.

I can't think about living in this house for the rest of my life.

1 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

2 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

3 inhabitants   

n.居民，住户， （栖息在某地区的）动物( inhabitant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They set fire to the city and massacred all the inhabitants. 他们放火烧了这座城市，而且屠杀了所有的居民。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He quartered his men on the inhabitants in the town. 他把他的部队安置在镇上的居民家中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 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。

5 cabin   

n.(结构简单的)小木屋；船舱，机舱

参考例句：

• They threw up a new cabin in a couple of hours.在几小时之内他们就建起了一座新的小屋。
• It's very hot in the cabin;let's go on deck.舱室内很热，我们到甲板上去吧。