听播客学英语 51 冷冻

 　　For the last two weeks, our newspapers have been full of stories about “the Big Freeze”. Like many other places in Europe, the weather in Britain has been very cold. We have had lots of snow, and the roads are covered with ice. There are shortages¹ of gas, and of salt to put on the roads. As you know, we English love to talk about the weather, or – rather – we love to complain about the weather. So we have had a lot to talk about, and complain about, recently.

　　When water gets very cold, it “freezes”, that is, it turns into ice. “Freeze” is an irregular verb, and I know how much you love irregular verbs! The past tense is “froze” and the past participle is “frozen²”. “Freezing” and “frozen” can also mean simply “very cold” – we can say that the weather is freezing, or that my fingers or toes are frozen.

　　When the weather gets warmer, the snow will melt, that is it will turn into water. Another word that we can use is “thaw³”, which means a slow, gradual⁴ melting of the snow and ice. The weather forecast says that the snow in many parts of England will thaw slowly over the next week. Instead of the “Big Freeze”, the newspapers will probably have headlines about the “Big Thaw”.

　　When you visit a city in a foreign country, you can often learn quite a lot about the language of that country by looking at advertisements, or at notices in shop windows, or at the signs on public transport, and trying to translate them. There is a picture on the website and, I hope, on your iPod screens. It is a picture of a Birmingham bus, and on the front of the bus are the words “Our bus fares now frozen”.

　　What does this mean? Well, the bus company should have written “our bus fares are now frozen”, but they probably wanted the words to sound like a newspaper headline, and newspapers often leave out words like “is” and “are” in their headlines. But what does it really mean? The heating⁵ in British buses is not good, so many of the passengers are frozen, but how can the fares be “frozen”?

　　Well, as you probably guessed, “to freeze” can have a figurative meaning as well as a literal⁶ meaning. Water can move, but when it freezes to become ice, it cannot move. So if we say that something is “frozen”, we often mean that it stays the same, it cannot move or change. So, a shop may say that its prices are frozen, meaning that the prices are unchanged. A company may tell its employees that their pay is frozen, in other words that they will not get a pay increase. And if you are very frightened by something, you may be unable to move, and you can say that you are “frozen with fear”.

　　And Birmingham’s bus fares? It is a long tradition that the bus company increases its fares every January. Since I arrived in Birmingham 15 years ago, my bus fare into the centre of town has increased by 150%. Train fares throughout Britain also go up in January, every year. It is not surprising that people in this country use their cars so much. But this year is different. This year the bus company has decided⁷ not to increase its fares. Its fares are frozen. This is something to be happy about, when we are not complaining about the weather.

　　Of course, the bus fares will not stay frozen for ever. When they go up again, will there be a notice on the buses saying “Our bus fares now unfrozen”? I don’t think so.

　　There is a quiz about irregular verbs on the website. Have fun!

1 shortages   

n.不足( shortage的名词复数 )；缺少；缺少量；不足额

参考例句：

• Food shortages often occur in time of war. 在战争期间常常发生粮食短缺的情形。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• At the same time, worldwide food and fuel shortages eased. 同时，世界性粮食和石油短缺的现象终止了。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

2 frozen   

adj.冻结的，冰冻的

参考例句：

• He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上，他被冻死了。
• The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。

3 thaw   

v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和

参考例句：

• The snow is beginning to thaw.雪已开始融化。
• The spring thaw caused heavy flooding.春天解冻引起了洪水泛滥。

4 gradual   

adj.逐渐的，渐增的，徐徐的；n.赞美诗

参考例句：

• The doctor noticed a gradual improvement in his patient.医生注意到病人在逐渐恢复健康。
• To learn a language we must follow the principle of gradual improvement.学习语言必须遵循循序渐进的原则。

5 heating   

n.加热，供暖，暖气装置；adj.加热的，供暖的

参考例句：

• They will install a heating and lighting system in our house.他们将在我们家装上供热供电系统。
• If the pressure is too low,the heating system will act up.如果压力太低，供暖系统就会出毛病。

6 literal   

adj.照字面的，原义的，逐字的

参考例句：

• This word should not be taken in its literal sense.这个词不能按本义去理解。
• He made a literal interpretation.他逐字解释。

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。