【英语趣味课堂】可怕的食物-Scary Food

Paul: One interesting thing for me is that, you know, over the recent years, we've had countless¹ incidents where cattle and animal stock have become diseased, and they've had to be culled³, you know; they've had to be killed to stop the disease. I think, you know, that's also a kind of a very important issue, why these animals are becoming so diseased. Is it a sign that we're doing something wrong? What do you think about that?

Todd: Yeah. I mean, that's a scary one. I've lived in quite a few countries over the years, and every country that I've lived in has always been paranoid about the - mad cow disease. So, even in England, I lived in your country in England about seventeen years ago, and there were concerns about that first propping⁴ up. And then, you know, in Asia now, the Asian countries are worried about it.

 

Paul: Hm.

 

Todd: To be honest, I don't even give it any thought, you know. I mean, I hear about there's high levels of mercury in salmon⁵. You shouldn't eat too much salmon. You have to worry about mad cow disease if you eat beef. I think you have to worry about other diseases with the chicken. You know, they had the bird flu a while ago. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to think, really.

 

Paul: Yeah.

 

Todd: I mean, it hasn't changed my eating patterns. Has it changed your eating patterns?

 

Paul: Um, no, not particularly. I'd have to say that I do still eat meat. I had grilled⁶ chicken yesterday. And so, you know, like I said, it's very difficult to be or kind of morally high when you eat animals. One interesting thing is about animals that we select for captivity⁷, like you know, if they're not cute or -

 

Todd: Right.

 

Paul: You know, it seems to be like it's only the cute animals in the world that we care about.

 

Todd: Right.

 

Paul: What about the ugly ones? And this kind of give you - it's a bit warped⁸, isn't it? It's not really true to kind of, you know, representative of the animal kingdom.

 

Todd: And there's definitely a bias⁹ towards animals, let's say, than versus¹⁰ insects. You don't hear about people like crusading against - to save insects.

 

Paul: That's right, huh.

 

Todd: Cockroaches¹¹, centipedes, spiders, whatever. And yet technically¹², that's a life form as well, right?

 

Paul: Yeah. You know, insects, they - you know, within ecosystems¹³ they carry out very key roles, you know.

 

Todd: Right.

 

Paul: Yet, we're not fascinated with insects. In fact, most people have some sort of repulsion towards insects.

 

Todd: Right.

 

Paul: So yeah, again, it's kind of like we choose to kind of make this kind of Disneyland of animals of we have curiosity about, the cute ones and the ones that are able to do tricks and stuff. But you know, what about the other guys?

 

Todd: Fair enough, man. Good point.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

culled

 

The animals have to be culled.

 

Cull² means to kill some animals to stop disease or to control the population. Notice the following:

 

In 2008, huge numbers of chickens were culled to stop the spread of the avian flu.

Culling¹⁴ is controversial in many countries.

paranoid

 

Paranoid about disease.

 

Paranoid describes an unreasonable¹⁵ belief that someone or something is going to harm you. Notice the following:

 

When I travel, I'm always paranoid about drinking the water.

He's really paranoid about eating street food.

give (it) a thought

 

I don't even give it a thought.

 

To give something a thought means to think about it. Notice the following:

 

I never gave it a second thought.

Give it some thought and let me know by tomorrow.

eating patterns

 

These concerns haven't changed my eating patterns.

 

The term eating patterns describes what we usually eat. Notice the following:

 

My eating patterns have never changed.

The doctor ordered him to change his eating patterns.

warped

 

It's a bit warped.

 

Warped ideas are thoughts and opinions that most people think are not normal. Notice the following:

 

His idea of a healthy diet seems a bit warped.

After reading my short story, Our English teacher said I had a warped mind.

1 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

2 cull   

v.拣选；剔除；n.拣出的东西；剔除

参考例句：

• It is usually good practice to cull the poorest prior to field planting.通常在实践上的好方法是在出圃栽植前挑出最弱的苗木。
• Laura was passing around photographs she'd culled from the albums at home.劳拉正在分发她从家里相册中挑选出的相片。

3 culled   

v.挑选，剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The herd must be culled. 必须有选择地杀掉部分牧畜。 来自辞典例句
• The facts were culled from various sources. 这些事实是从各方收集到的。 来自辞典例句

4 propping   

支撑

参考例句：

• You can usually find Jack propping up the bar at his local. 你常常可以看见杰克频繁出没于他居住的那家酒店。
• The government was accused of propping up declining industries. 政府被指责支持日益衰败的产业。

5 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

6 grilled   

adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• He was grilled for two hours before the police let him go. 他被严厉盘查了两个小时后，警察才放他走。
• He was grilled until he confessed. 他被严加拷问，直到他承认为止。

7 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

8 warped   

adj.反常的；乖戾的；（变）弯曲的；变形的v.弄弯，变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾，

参考例句：

• a warped sense of humour 畸形的幽默感
• The board has warped. 木板翘了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

10 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

11 cockroaches   

n.蟑螂( cockroach的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At night, the cockroaches filled the house with their rustlings. 夜里，屋里尽是蟑螂窸窸瑟瑟的声音。 来自辞典例句
• It loves cockroaches, and can keep a house clear of these hated insects. 它们好食蟑螂，可以使住宅免除这些讨厌昆虫的骚扰。 来自百科语句

12 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

13 ecosystems   

n.生态系统( ecosystem的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样，从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句

14 culling   

n.选择，大批物品中剔出劣质货v.挑选，剔除( cull的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The mathematicians turned to culling periodic solutions. 数学家们转而去挑选周期解。 来自辞典例句
• It took us a week to find you, a week of culling out prejudice and hatred. 我们花了一个星期的时间找到你们，把偏见和憎恨剔除出去。 来自演讲部分

15 unreasonable   

adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的

参考例句：

• I know that they made the most unreasonable demands on you.我知道他们对你提出了最不合理的要求。
• They spend an unreasonable amount of money on clothes.他们花在衣服上的钱太多了。