【英语趣味课堂】柬埔寨公路旅行-Camboida Road Trip Part 2

Todd: What were the road conditions like that you were riding on?

Julia: I'd say at least half, maybe more than half were unpaved roads. Thankfully Cambodia is very flat so it wasn't so difficult. We averaged about seventy, eighty kilometres a day but on some days it was like thirty five degrees so it was hot, so we'd try to leave at around six o'clock in the morning. A lot of mornings we saw the sun rise. We'd grab some breakfast at a roadside market or something, noodles that kind of stuff and so the roads were unpaved and the dirt in Cambodia is very red. It's like a red clay and...

 

Todd: But very dusty though right?

 

Julia: Very dusty so we had to wear scarves round our faces. When we arrived in the evenings at our destination, we were absolutely filthy¹ and I always looked at myself and thought wow I've got such a great tan today and then I got out of the shower and realized it was all dirt, completely dirt, so we'd have to, yeah, a lot of Cambodians, I think it's called a krama, it's a kind of scarf they were around the mouth and when they travel in the back of trucks and things because the dust is phenomenal.

 

Todd: The dust in some ways might have helped with maybe sun protection from the rays? Did you find that because you were covered in dust that maybe like you didn't get sunburn?

 

Julia: I did put a lot of sunscreen on every day because I was worried about that and perhaps it did protect us yeah in that way. It just made us dirtier.

 

Todd: So what did the locals think? So you're driving through this, you know Cambodia is a very rural country.

 

Julia: It is and we chose some of the most rural areas because we wanted to see some of the more picturesque² areas. I mean it's stunning³, the landscape there was stunning. There's a word in Cambodian language for foreigner which is barang and we got very used to hearing this word. Kids would come running across the fields shouting barang, barang, barang and they'd line the roads and they'd be going hello, hello, hello, I love you, I love you, hello, hello, so we got used to this waving and cheering. I think they probably thought we looked like from another planet because we were on these quite high-tech⁴ mountain bikes, laden⁵ with front and rear panniers. We had some film equipment with us. A friend of ours had put a bracket on the front of his handlebars with a camera on it and we often would have our iPods, our digital cameras out. They probably had never seen anything like us coming through and then when we'd stop at this roadside kind of cafes, we'd just lie our bikes down beside the road and they'd all come round but they were so polite and courteous⁶ and very reserved people. They never touched any of our stuff. They were always very respectful and I had a very positive experience. Before we went there, I met quite a few people, quite a few Cambodians even who said you can't do it, it's dangerous, you know you can't do it, you're going to get robbed, there's bandits. It's going to be really dangerous and we didn't encounter a single danger and in the whole two months, six riders, we had one puncture⁷ in the whole time. It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing.

 

Todd: You only had one flat tire?

 

Julia: One flat tire, that was it, one and we had no problems with the bikes.

 

Todd: And these are bumpy⁸ roads.

 

Julia: Bumpy roads, yeah, we were blessed. We actually we went and had a blessing⁹ in a Buddhist¹⁰ temple before we set out and the monk¹¹ blessed us and blessed us for safe travel, blessed our bikes and that was a nice ritual to do before we embarked¹² on the, but it worked.

 

Todd: That's fantastic.

 

Julia: Yeah.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

filthy

 

 

When we arrived in the evenings, we were absolutely filthy.

 

When a person is 'filthy,' she is really dirty. In this case, Julia was covered with dust from the road. Notice the following:

 

How did this jacket get so filthy?

Our car was filthy after the road trip.

stunning

 

 

I mean, it's stunning; the landscape there was stunning.

 

Something or someone that is 'stunning' is very beautiful.Notice the following:

 

She looked stunning on her wedding day.

She is stunning, even without make-up.

high-tech

 

 

We were on these quite high-tech mountain bikes.

 

If something is 'high-tech,' it means that is has a high level of recent technology.. Notice the following:

 

He always has the most high-tech computers.

I don't think I could ever learn how to work all this high-tech equipment.

laden

 

 

...laden with front and rear panniers.

 

When something is 'laden', it is carrying a lot of extra weight. Notice the following:

 

When we moved, this whole car was completely laden with boxes.

He walked into the house, laden with gifts.

bandits

 

 

You're going to get robbed. There's bandits.

 

A 'bandit' is another word for a 'robber' or 'thief.' Notice the following:

 

There have been some bandits stealing things from people's cars outside this store recently.

Bandits are a big problem in the jungle areas.

puncture

 

 

In the whole two months, we had one puncture in the whole time.

 

Here, 'puncture' refers to a hole in a tire that lets all the air go out. Notice the following:

 

I can't believe you rode 2,000 kilometers and you never got a puncture.

We hit the only pothole¹³ in the hole road and got a puncture.

Keep Listening

1 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

2 picturesque   

adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的

参考例句：

• You can see the picturesque shores beside the river.在河边你可以看到景色如画的两岸。
• That was a picturesque phrase.那是一个形象化的说法。

3 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

4 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

5 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

6 courteous   

adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的

参考例句：

• Although she often disagreed with me,she was always courteous.尽管她常常和我意见不一，但她总是很谦恭有礼。
• He was a kind and courteous man.他为人友善，而且彬彬有礼。

7 puncture   

n.刺孔，穿孔；v.刺穿，刺破

参考例句：

• Failure did not puncture my confidence.失败并没有挫伤我的信心。
• My bicycle had a puncture and needed patching up.我的自行车胎扎了个洞，需要修补。

8 bumpy   

adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的

参考例句：

• I think we've a bumpy road ahead of us.我觉得我们将要面临一段困难时期。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track.铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。

9 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

10 Buddhist   

adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒

参考例句：

• The old lady fell down in adoration before Buddhist images.那老太太在佛像面前顶礼膜拜。
• In the eye of the Buddhist,every worldly affair is vain.在佛教徒的眼里，人世上一切事情都是空的。

11 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

12 embarked   

乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事

参考例句：

• We stood on the pier and watched as they embarked. 我们站在突码头上目送他们登船。
• She embarked on a discourse about the town's origins. 她开始讲本市的起源。

13 pothole   

n.坑，穴

参考例句：

• As the car sped over a pothole she lurched forward.车子飞驶过一个坑洼时，她身子猛地向前一倾。
• The young teacher knows every pothole in the 10-minute ride to school.这位年轻的老师熟悉这条往学校的10分钟路上的每一个坑洞。