听播客学英语 261 夏洛特

 　　Today I would like to introduce to you a poem by Allan Ahlberg. Allan is a well known¹ writer of poems for children. He used to be a school teacher, and he understands the things that interest children, and also the way that children speak. The poem is called “Talk us through it, Charlotte”, which means² “Tell us about it, Charlotte, one bit at a time starting at the beginning.” So Charlotte explains what happened. She went to a football match to watch her brother play. But his team was a man short – they only had 10 players instead of 11. So they asked her to play. They told her to stay on the wing, that is to play at the edge³ of the field. She says that for an hour no-one passed the ball to her. But then the ball bounced⁴ towards her; she ran with it past one player, then another. She ignored her brother shouting to her to pass the ball to him, but carried on, tricked the goalkeeper (the goalie) and scored “the winner”, that is the goal that won the match. The manager said she was very good and asked her to come to training next Tuesday.

　　Charlotte comes from the Black Country, the old industrial area to the west of Birmingham. She speaks with a Black Country accent, and some of her English is not standard English. She says “they was” instead of “they were”, and “I run” instead of “I ran”. Sometimes she leaves out the first few words of her sentences, for example “Only there to watch me brother” instead of “I was only there to watch my brother.”

　　Now, please click⁵ on the link on the podcast website. It will take you to a page in the children’s poetry archive, where you can read the poem. If you click on the little green arrow⁶ you can hear Allan Ahlberg himself reading it.

1 known   

adj.大家知道的；知名的，已知的

参考例句：

• He is a known artist.他是一个知名的艺术家。
• He is known both as a painter and as a statesman.他是知名的画家及政治家。

2 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

3 edge   

n.边(缘)；刃；优势；v.侧着移动，徐徐移动

参考例句：

• Sight along the edge to see if it's straight.顺着边目测，看看直不直。
• She lived on the extreme edge of the forest.她住在森林的最边缘。

4 bounced   

v.弹回( bounce的过去式和过去分词 )；（电子邮件）被退回；拒付；（朝某个方向）颠簸行进

参考例句：

• The ball bounced twice before he could reach it. 球弹了两次他才接到。
• The new car bounced along the bumpy mountain road. 这辆新车在崎岖的山路上颠簸行驶。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 click   

n.点击，滴答声，拍答声；v.点击，作滴答声，使...作拍答声

参考例句：

• Click the Allow button on the yellow bar.点击黄色栏中的允许按钮。
• Click on the links for each city for a detailed map.点击连接看城市地区详细地图。

6 arrow   

n.箭，矢；箭状物，箭头符号

参考例句：

• He was shot in the shoulder with an arrow.他的肩膀被箭射中。
• The letter was nailed to the wall with an arrow.一支箭把信钉在了墙上。