【英语趣味课堂】出差-Business Travel

Adrienne: So, Lisa, I see your suitcase out. You are going on a trip?

Lisa: I am. I'm going to Taiwan on a business trip.

 

Adrienne: A business trip. How do you feel about taking business trips?

 

Lisa: Sometimes I love business. I love getting out of the city for, you know three or four days and staying at a nice hotel and taking a flight somewhere, going to the airport.

 

Adrienne: So you like to travel?

 

Lisa: I love traveling.

 

Adrienne: You don't mind staying in different hotels and riding on the plane all the time. Don't you get bored?

 

Lisa: No, I never get bored. I mean, I don't always like going to... I don't always like the whole checking in the airport process because it takes a lot of time and then it's waiting for the plane, et cetera, but as soon as I'm in the plane and the doors close, I love it. No one can contact me. I can't contact anyone else. There are free movies playing and the food comes. It's wonderful.

 

Adrienne: So you kind of like the existence of living in a bubble¹. It's like a mini-vacation.

 

Lisa: Yeah. Even though, often I find when I go on business trips it's a lot busier than when I'm not on business trips in terms of my workload². It does feel like a mini-vacation. You stay in a nice hotels. I get to take taxis everywhere, which I love to do. You know, we eat at great restaurants and we're meeting with great people and doing some important things so yeah, I really do love the whole aspect of business trip life.

 

Adrienne: So what do you do to try to avoid being bored when you're waiting for the plane. You know, when you're waiting to board, when you're sitting on the plane, maybe the movies aren't working or something, what do you do to avoid getting bored?

 

Lisa: Well, the first thing I do is I don't get to the airport too early, so I'm a frequent flier. I always use my frequent flier card to earn points and I've earned enough now that I don't have to wait in the economy line even when I fly economy, but I get to wait in the first class or business class line and that makes me very happy. I check in and then I, unfortunately, I normally³ go to the duty free store and I say unfortunately, cause it's unfortunate for my credit⁴ card, not really unfortunately for me. I go to the duty free store. Normally I buy some perfume⁵ or cosmetic⁶ products cause they always have stuff⁷ that you can't get in department stores in the city. I'll go to the business lounge⁸, where there's free drinks and food and if I do get to the airport with a couple of hours I'll go and do some work.

 

Adrienne: Do you ever buy souvenirs?

 

Lisa: I always buy souvenirs for my colleagues when I go to the countries, so when I am in the airport I'll buy them some souvenirs or some food or normally it's food that I'll bring for my colleagues in the office that I'm going to visit.

 

Adrienne: And what about brining souvenirs back?

 

Lisa: I used to bring souvenirs back but lately I've been going on a lot of business trips and so the novelty⁹ of souvenirs has warn off.

 

Adrienne: I see. Sounds like an exciting lifestyle.

 

Lisa: It's fun. I wouldn't give it up for anything else.

1 bubble   

n.泡，水泡，气泡；泡影，妄想；v.(使)起泡

参考例句：

• The water begins to bubble.水开始起泡了。
• Their hopes of success have burst like a bubble.他们成功的希望已经成了泡影。

2 workload   

n.作业量，工作量

参考例句：

• An assistant one day a week would ease my workload.每周有一天配一个助手就会减轻我的工作负担。
• He's always grousing about the workload.他总是抱怨工作量大。

3 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

4 credit   

n.信用，荣誉，贷款，学分；v.归功于，赞颂，信任

参考例句：

• I credit him with a certain amount of sense.我认为他有一定的见识。
• He got the credit,and we did the dirty work.他得荣誉，我们做不讨好的工作。

5 perfume   

n.香水(料，气)；vt.使充满芳香；洒香水

参考例句：

• The air was heavy with the perfume of the flower.空气中充满了花香。
• Those roses perfume the whole garden.那些玫瑰花使满园飘香。

6 cosmetic   

n.化妆品；adj.化妆用的；装门面的；装饰性的

参考例句：

• These changes are purely cosmetic.这些改变纯粹是装饰门面。
• Laughter is the best cosmetic,so grin and wear it!微笑是最好的化妆品，所以请尽情微笑吧！

7 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

8 lounge   

n.休闲室，休息室，长沙发；v.闲荡，闲散地度过，混日子

参考例句：

• We had coffee in the lounge.我们在客厅里喝咖啡。
• Don't lounge away your working hours.不要消磨工作时间。

9 novelty   

n.新奇事物，新奇（感），新颖廉价的物品

参考例句：

• My mother bought a novelty pen for me.我妈给我买了一支新颖的笔。
• At first I enjoyed all the parties,but the novelty soon wore off.起初我喜欢参加一切聚会，但这种新奇感很快就消失了。