Step by Step 3000 第2册 Unit1:Happy Family Life(3)

 　　Part 3. First meetings.

　　Keywords. baseball diamond, pizza, fancy-dress party, film, river.

　　Vocabulary. frizzly, yearbook, platonic¹, hit it off, chap², trip over.

　　You're going to hear five people talking about their first meetings.

　　A. Before listening, read and consider the following questions.

　　B. Listen to five people describing their first meetings with their present partners.

　　Listen carefully, and take notes in the following chart.

　　I was on my way home from junior high, and in order to get to my house, you have to walk by this baseball diamond.

　　And there was a game of baseball going on, and it looked kind of interesting, so I stopped.

　　There weren't very many people watching.

　　And there was this guy and he wasn't really very good-looking, but he had frizzly hair and glasses, and he was really funny.

　　He did this kind of monologue³ thing, which was great.

　　And I went home and I told my mother I was going to marry him after talking to him for half an hour.

　　And when I got to high school, he was president of the student body.

　　And he asked me out, and we've got our picture in the yearbook together holding hands, and it's really nice.

　　Well, I'd arranged⁴ to have a drink with a friend of mine, a woman friend of mine who is a platonic friend of mine.

　　And she insisted on bringing this friend of hers which who she said I'd like to meet.

　　And I thought she was trying to fix us up and I said, "please don't".

　　But she did bring this friend.

　　And we hit it off.

　　And after the wine bar, we went to have a pizza, and we'll got had a few more drinks.

　　And the other woman who ended up ordering a pizza that had a bunch⁵ of stuff⁶ on it that I really liked and she...

　　I ordered a pizza that had a bunch of stuff on it that she really liked.

　　So we picked at each other's pizzas all night and we realize we were sort of had a ideal⁷ relationship, so that we could order really any pizza on the menu and we'd both be happy.

　　And anyway we ended up living together and still are.

　　We met at a party, and it was a fancy-dress party.

　　A friend of mine is 21, and it was quite big. And I went dressed as Alice in Wonderland.

　　And this person, this guy that I married was dressed as the Cheshire Cat. And it just seemed so amazing that, you know, we were both from the same thing.

　　And we started chatting and ended up being together.

　　Well, I'd arranged to go to the cinema with a group of friends.

　　And unfortunately, I missed the train, that would have got me to the cinema on time.

　　So all my friends had gone in, and I was left standing⁸ outside.

　　The film had started, so I wasn't allowed in.

　　And there was a chap outside, he'd also missed the film.

　　And we started to talk, and we talked quite a bit, and he said, "Let's go down the road and see that film, because that one hasn't started at the Odeon."

　　So we went down there and well, we've been going out ever since.

　　I first met my partner when he was on a boat, and I was on the river bank, standing and looking generally into the distance.

　　And he was coming in to land with his boat and he threw me a rope and said,"would you mind catching⁹ this?".

　　And I caught it and missed and tripped over it and fell in the river, and he had to dive in and rescue me.

　　And that was it.

1 platonic   

adj.精神的；柏拉图（哲学）的

参考例句：

• Their friendship is based on platonic love.他们的友情是基于柏拉图式的爱情。
• Can Platonic love really exist in real life?柏拉图式的爱情，在现实世界里到底可能吗？

2 chap   

n.男人；小伙子；家伙

参考例句：

• This chap can't keep anything to himself.这人肚里藏不住话。
• This chap is quite a smooth character.这人很世故。

3 monologue   

n.长篇大论，（戏剧等中的）独白

参考例句：

• The comedian gave a long monologue of jokes.喜剧演员讲了一长段由笑话组成的独白。
• He went into a long monologue.他一个人滔滔不绝地讲话。

4 arranged   

adj.安排的v.安排，准备( arrange的过去式和过去分词 )；把…（系统地）分类；整理；改编（剧本等）

参考例句：

• The party was arranged quickly. 聚会很快就安排好了。
• Chairs in rows are not as conducive to discussion as chairs arranged in a circle. 椅子成排摆放不如成圈摆放便于讨论。

5 bunch   

n.串，束；群，帮

参考例句：

• A bunch of girls was[were] sitting on the grass.一群女孩坐在草地上。
• I received a bunch of flowers yesterday.昨天我收到了一束鲜花。

6 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。

7 ideal   

adj.理想的，完美的；空想的，观念的；n.理想

参考例句：

• The weather at the seaside was ideal—bright and breezy.海边的天气最宜人，风和日丽的。
• They promised to be faithful to their ideal for ever. 他们保证永远忠于自己的理想。

8 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。

9 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。