听播客学英语 270 棺材

 　　I have another video for you today. It has been made by Carol. She paints coffins². She tells us that she started about ten years ago. People ask her how she GOT INTO painting coffins. She woke up one morning and knew that she wanted to paint coffins for the rest of her life. The first coffin¹ that she painted was her own. She has painted it with her favourite wild flowers (foxgloves, bull rushes, cow parsley), and also a poem by John Keats called “La Belle³ Dame⁴ Sans Merci”. Her coffin has a burgundy coloured lining⁵, because a COMFY lining is important. People ask her to paint all sorts of things – countryside scenes, hobbies, pets, flowers, football colours, angels – her Mum wants angels on her coffin.

　　One person has asked for a PAGE THREE GIRL to be painted on the inside of his coffin lid. “Whatever TURNS YOU ON!” she says.

　　Some vocabulary notes. How did Carol GET INTO painting coffins – this is a colloquial⁶ expression which means how did she first become interested in painting coffins, or how did she first start. COMFY is a colloquial word which means comfortable. A PAGE THREE GIRL – well, some of our newspapers – not the newspapers I read, naturally – contain pictures of young ladies with few if any clothes on. Traditionally, these are on page three. So a page three girl is a model posing naked or near naked. Finally, whatever TURNS YOU ON means whatever makes you excited.

　　Now view the video. Go to the podcast website (http://www.listen-to-english.com/). There is a link from this podcast to a BBC web page. Click on the link, and then on “View the Video”.

1 coffin   

n.棺材，灵柩

参考例句：

• When one's coffin is covered,all discussion about him can be settled.盖棺论定。
• The coffin was placed in the grave.那口棺材已安放到坟墓里去了。

2 coffins   

n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 )；使某人早亡[死，完蛋，垮台等]之物

参考例句：

• The shop was close and hot, and the atmosphere seemed tainted with the smell of coffins. 店堂里相当闷热，空气仿佛被棺木的味儿污染了。 来自辞典例句
• Donate some coffins to the temple, equal to the number of deaths. 到寺庙里，捐赠棺材盒给这些死者吧。 来自电影对白

3 belle   

n.靓女

参考例句：

• She was the belle of her Sunday School class.在主日学校她是她们班的班花。
• She was the belle of the ball.她是那个舞会中的美女。

4 dame   

n.女士

参考例句：

• The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
• If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会，你就要跟那个夫人结婚。

5 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

6 colloquial   

adj.口语的，会话的

参考例句：

• It's hard to understand the colloquial idioms of a foreign language.外语里的口头习语很难懂。
• They have little acquaintance with colloquial English. 他们对英语会话几乎一窍不通。