听播客学英语 249 Eden Rock

 　　I have another poem for you today. It is called “Eden Rock” and it is by Charles Causley, who lived in Cornwall in the far south-west of England.

　　In the poem he imagines his parents as they were when they were young. His father is wearing a tweed suit, and his dog Jack¹ is with him. His mother has spread out a cloth on the grass for a picnic. She pours tea out of a vacum flask² (a Thermos) and milk from a bottle. She sets out plates and cups for the picnic. She shades her eyes with her hand and looks towards her son. His father spins a stone so that it bounces on the surface of the stream. They wave to their son and call to him to cross over the stream to them.

　　Charles Causley wrote this poem when he was an old man. He is of course imagining his own death – crossing over the stream to join his parents. He says in the last line of the poem, “I had not thought that it would be like this.”

　　If you go to the podcast website (http://www.listen-to-english.com/) you will find a link to the text of the poem. You can then click on the audio button to hear Charles Causley himself reading it.

　　Note : In one of the lines of the poem, it says “She pours milk straight from an old H P Sauce bottle”. HP Sauce is a brown-coloured sauce that some people pour on their chips. It is one of the reasons why English food is despised³ throughout the civilised world. HP Sauce is made here in Birmingham. Sadly, the HP sauce factory will soon close. Production is to be transferred to the Netherlands.

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 flask   

n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱

参考例句：

• There is some deposit in the bottom of the flask.这只烧杯的底部有些沉淀物。
• He took out a metal flask from a canvas bag.他从帆布包里拿出一个金属瓶子。

3 despised   

鄙视，看不起某人（某事）( despise的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She despised gossip in any form. 她对任何形式的流言飞语都嗤之以鼻。
• He despised people who were lavish with their praises. 他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。