【英语趣味课堂】儿时的回忆-Childhood Memory

 Yuri: Show, Shirley, we were talking about childhood memories. And you're from Scotland. Is there anything from your childhood that you can tell us?

Shirley: I've got a really funny story actually. Maybe I was about ten years old or something, and we used to have this little kind of shack¹ in the countryside that we were dragged to every weekend, and away from civilization, you know, and no running water, no electricity. So we kids had to make our own fun. I've got my brothers, myself, and a couple of cousins, we would always go there at weekends or school holidays or something, and one of the highlights was to go to the Sunday School, the Sunday morning church service, and the reason ... one of the reasons this was attractive to the kids was because they bribed² us to go there by giving us sweets when got there, so it was great. So we always went anyway. It was a church service for about an hour, singing hymns⁴ and stuff like that. Anyway, this one Sunday we arrived early, about half an hour early. There was nobody there. The church wasn't open yet, so it was, as most people know, it rains a lot in Scotland, so on that rainy day, we all were wearing our cagoules which is a kind a rain jacket with a big pocket in the front, and while we were waiting for everybody else to arrive, we started just kind of playing around in the trees. There was a little river nearby, and it was at the time of year when the tadpoles⁵ were turning into baby frogs, so we got this crazy idea to collect all these ... I'm talking hundreds of frogs were around, so we all got a big handful of baby frogs, put them in the big pocket of our cagoule, went off into church. So there we are, we're kind of in the middle of the crowd. You know, we weren't at the front of the back, kind of in the middle, and everybody's standing⁶ up singing the hymns, and really getting into, you know, the church singing and stuff like that, and then we decided⁷ that we would get the frogs out, so each of us, one at a time, one of us kids, one at a time kind of crouched⁸ down like we were tying our shoe lace, and let all of these frogs out of our pockets, so these tiny little frogs started jumping all over the church, and there's all these ladies in their Sunday best and started squealing⁹ and screaming and the minister didn't know what was going on, and he's trying to keep everybody calm, and we're just singing along with the hymn³, you know, we're really innocent and they had no idea, cause they didn't see us do it, so they had no idea what had happened, and yeah, we got away with it. We didn't get told off, cause we didn't get caught, and yeah, when after the church service, you know, we had such a laugh after the church service, and yeah, that's one of my greatest childhood memories. Getting up to mischief¹⁰ with my brothers.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

take (something) out

 

I found a cupboard on the street and I took the door out.

 

Here, ‘take the door out’ means to remove the door from the cupboard. Notice the following.

 

Last week my computer crashed so I took the main-board out and replaced it.

When I edit my writing, I usually start by taking out all unnecessary words.

the fathers of surrealists

 

 

He was called one of the fathers of surrealists.

 

When we talk about ‘the father of ‘something, it usually means the person who started it or made the greatest contribution. Here are two samples.

 

Louis Armstrong inspired millions and is the true father of jazz.

Sigmund Freud is often referred to as the father of modern psychology¹¹.

better than

 

There was one better than the other.

 

We usually hear this idiom spoken as ‘each was better than the last’. In this conversation, each new painting Yuri saw was more interesting than the one before. Notice the samples.

 

I love U2. For me, each CD is better than the last.

I could never judge a Miss Universe Pageant¹². Each contestant¹³ looks more beautiful than the last.

look through

 

Looking through your paintings, they’re all so colorful.

 

When we ‘look through’ a collection of things, we look at everything at one time. Here are some samples.

 

She looked through her wardrobe, but couldn’t find anything to wear.

When my wife and I looked through our old wedding photos, we laughed at how thin we were.

dark paintings

 

Do you have any kind of dark paintings?

 

A 'dark' painting, movie, or book makes us feel sad or serious. Notice the sample sentences.

 

After his dog died, it was a dark time in the young boy’s life.

I find dark movies much more interesting than action movies or comedies.

1 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

2 bribed   

v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂

参考例句：

• They bribed him with costly presents. 他们用贵重的礼物贿赂他。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He bribed himself onto the committee. 他暗通关节，钻营投机挤进了委员会。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 hymn   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌

参考例句：

• They sang a hymn of praise to God.他们唱着圣歌，赞美上帝。
• The choir has sung only two verses of the last hymn.合唱团只唱了最后一首赞美诗的两个段落。

4 hymns   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At first, they played the hymns and marches familiar to them. 起初他们只吹奏自己熟悉的赞美诗和进行曲。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821
• I like singing hymns. 我喜欢唱圣歌。 来自辞典例句

5 tadpoles   

n.蝌蚪( tadpole的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The pond teemed with tadpoles. 池子里有很多蝌蚪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Both fish and tadpoles have gills. 鱼和蝌蚪都有鳃。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 crouched   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He crouched down beside her. 他在她的旁边蹲了下来。
• The lion crouched ready to pounce. 狮子蹲下身，准备猛扑。

9 squealing   

v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Pigs were grunting and squealing in the yard. 猪在院子里哼哼地叫个不停。
• The pigs were squealing. 猪尖叫着。

10 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。

11 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

12 pageant   

n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧

参考例句：

• Our pageant represented scenes from history.我们的露天历史剧上演一幕幕的历史事件。
• The inauguration ceremony of the new President was a splendid pageant.新主席的就职典礼的开始是极其壮观的。

13 contestant   

n.竞争者，参加竞赛者

参考例句：

• The company will furnish each contestant with a free ticket.公司将为每个参赛者免费提供一张票。
• The personal appearance and interview of the contestant is another count.参加比赛者的个人仪表和谈话也是一项。