英文原版对话1000个:623 Meet the Family

Todd: Lucinda, has Kwame been to New Zealand?

Lucinda: Yeah, he has. He came with me on my last vacation to New Zealand.

Todd: OK, so how was it? It was his first trip to New Zealand.

Lucinda: It was quite funny actually because, he's, I'm from New Zealand in the Western Country and I'm from the country and he's from Africa and he's from the city so a lot of people assume that if your from Africa you're from the country and if you're from a Western Country, you're from the city and when he came to visit us I think he was a little bit shocked to end up in the middle of the country and my family thought he's be able to, he'd know his way around a spade and a shovel¹ and and be able to plant trees which is what my parents spent a lot of time doing and so, I think in the beginning he was very, he was quite shocked about the type of lifestyle we had but after awhile he really settled in really well.

Todd: What did you guys do on his trip to New Zealand?

Lucinda: I taught him to swim. (Really) Kwame, well, he still can't swim very well. He can float, so we put actually, we, it's quite embarrassing, but we put a life jacket on him from, cause we have race boats, so we put a life jacket on him, and just sent him out into the water on his back

Todd: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would work.

Lucinda: So we were quite shocked that he could't swim because coming from an island country, I have never before met anyone in my life that couldn't swim. I learned to swim when I was maybe 4 years old and we have swimming lessons at school so at least you don't go to school, there's no way that you can't swim.

Todd: So are you a good swimming teacher? Did you teach him successfully?

Lucinda: I gave up halfway² through it. My mom had to teach him because I'm very small and my mom used to be a lifeguard so she, she was able to, cause Kwame is so big. He's over 6 foot, so and I'm almost 5 foot so it's kind of a bit, a bit dangerous for me to be teaching him how to swim.

Todd: What else do you remember about his first trip to New Zealand?

Lucinda: Oh, gosh. I remember that my parents, they really, really loved him and my family spent the whole time fighting over who got to spend time with Kwame and I think that my parents want to adopt me out and adopt Kwame instead. I really think they prefer him. He's the good son.

Todd: What did Kwame think of New Zealand?

Lucinda: He really liked it. He, my stepfather, he goes fishing all the time and Kwame, coming from the city, he, when my stepfather asked him to go fishing he kind of squirmed at the thought of the start, but after coming back fishing, he asked every night after that to go fishing (really) and now all he talks about is the large snapper that he caught in New Zealand.

 

1 shovel   

n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出

参考例句：

• He was working with a pick and shovel.他在用镐和铲干活。
• He seized a shovel and set to.他拿起一把铲就干上了。

2 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。