听播客学英语 47 保持冷静

 　　This week’s phrasal verb is “to carry on”. I shall explain it in a minute, but first here is a story about a typical Monday morning for Kevin, in his new job as Assistant Sales Manager (South East England).

　　It is 6.30. Time to get up. The alarm clock rings. Kevin ignores it. He carries on sleeping. The alarm clock carries on ringing. Eventually, Kevin wakes up. He turns the alarm clock off, and falls out of bed.

　　Kevin has a shower and gets dressed. He turns on the radio. The radio presenter¹ chatters² cheerfully³, and plays cheerful music. But Kevin carries on eating toast and drinking coffee. The radio presenter carries on being cheerful. Kevin thinks, “It is Monday morning. It is not a time for being cheerful.”

　　Kevin travels to work by train. Today, there are problems on the railway. and the train is late. It is crowded with people. On the way into the city, it stops at a red signal and waits. The passengers on the train do what English people always do in a crisis⁴ – they ignore it. They carry on reading their newspapers. They carry on typing on their computers. There is silence, except for one man who is talking loudly on his mobile⁵ phone. He carries on talking. He has forgotten that the train has stopped and that everyone on the train can now hear him.

　　Eventually, the train moves a little bit, then it stops again. It carries on like this – stopping and starting and stopping again – until it reaches the main station. Because the train is late, Kevin arrives late at work. But everyone else has had problems getting to work as well, so perhaps it doesn’t matter. Monday has begun!

　　I have used “carry on” several times in this story, and I hope you can now understand what it means. It means “to continue”. Kevin continues sleeping. The people on the train continue reading. Another common expression which means almost the same as “carry on” is “go on”. The alarm clock goes on ringing. The man with the mobile phone goes on talking.

　　When I was thinking about what to say in this podcast, I did a Google search for “carry on” and found an interesting story. In 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, the British government printed millions of posters to send simple propaganda⁶ messages to the people. The posters appeared on billboards⁷, and in shop windows and railway stations and places like that. They tried to encourage and cheer people in the face of bombing raids⁸, food rationing⁹ and other hardships. However, one of the posters was never used. It was the poster which would tell people what to do if the Germany army actually invaded¹⁰ Britain. At the end of the war, the government destroyed all the copies. Well, not quite all, because in the year 2000 a second-hand¹¹ book seller¹² found a copy in a box of old books which he had bought. The poster said simply, “Keep calm and carry on”. In other words, do not panic, carry on as normal – go to work, look after your families, and so on. This was the very British message that our government wanted to send to the people if our country was invaded.

　　Since it was rediscovered, the poster has become very popular. You can buy copies on line, and mugs and t-shirts with the slogan “Keep calm and carry on”. Perhaps people feel that this simple slogan means as much today as it did 70 years ago. We have so many problems today – economic crisis, environmental problems and wars in many parts of the world. What can we do? Keep calm and carry on!

1 presenter   

n.（电视、广播的）主持人，赠与者

参考例句：

• Most people think being a television presenter is exciting.很多人认为当电视节目主持人是一件刺激的事情。
• The programme dispensed with its most popular presenter.这个节目最受欢迎的主持人被换掉了。

2 chatters   

（人）喋喋不休( chatter的第三人称单数 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤

参考例句：

• The dabbler in knowledge chatters away; the wise man stays silent. 一瓶子不响，半瓶子晃荡。
• An improperly adjusted tool chatters. 未调好的工具震颤作响。

3 cheerfully   

adv.高兴地，愉快地

参考例句：

• The train rolled cheerfully into the station.火车欢呼着驶进车站。
• He takes our advice quite cheerfully.他欣然接受我们的劝告。

4 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

5 mobile   

adj.可移动的，易变的，机动的；n.运动物体

参考例句：

• The old lady sits on a mobile chair every morning.那位老妇人每天上午坐在一把可携带使用的椅子上。
• She's much more mobile now that she's bought a car.自从她买了汽车后，活动量就大多了。

6 propaganda   

n.宣传，宣传机构

参考例句：

• A lot of propaganda has painted him as bad.大量宣传把他说得很坏。
• Art may be used as a vehicle for propaganda.艺术可以用作为宣传的媒介。

7 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

8 raids   

突然袭击( raid的名词复数 )； 劫掠，劫夺； 突然查抄[搜捕]

参考例句：

• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。
• We can annoy the enemy by raids. 我们可以用空袭骚扰敌人。

9 rationing   

n.定量供应

参考例句：

• Wartime austerities included food rationing and shortage of fuel. 战时的艰苦包括食物配给和燃料短缺。
• Food rationing was abolished in that country long ago. 那个国家早就取消了粮食配给制。

10 invaded   

v.侵入，侵略( invade的过去式和过去分词 )；涌入；侵袭；侵犯

参考例句：

• Troops invaded on August 9th that year. 军队是在那年的8月9日入侵的。
• The diseased tissue can be easily invaded by these microorganisms. 有病的组织容易被微生物侵袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 second-hand   

adj.用过的，旧的，二手的

参考例句：

• I got this book by chance at a second-hand bookshop.我赶巧在一家旧书店里买到这本书。
• They will put all these second-hand goods up for sale.他们将把这些旧货全部公开出售。

12 seller   

n.售货者，畅销品

参考例句：

• I hope for this book to become a best seller.我希望这本书会成为一本畅销书。
• She drove a hard bargain with the seller.她狠杀卖主的价。