英语博客:I'm innocent! It's someone else's fault!

Beginners.

When my computer doesn't work, or when I cannot get a good internet connection, I miss podcasting. I'm sorry that I missed last week, but it was one thing after another with computers. Do you ever have problems with them? They are so useful sometimes, and then, at other times, they can be a real pain. Well, I suppose the reason for me missing a couple of podcasts has given me a story for this podcast. A week ago, I showed A Cup of English to a friend of mine. While we looked at the computer, the battery sign flashed once. I checked that the cable was plugged into the socket¹ properly. But the sign kept on flashing, twice, three times. "Battery failure, two minutes of power," it said. Then, "Battery failure, thirty seconds of power." Then suddenly the screen went black. "Oh, shoot!" as they say around here in cowboy country. Well, off to the computer wizard it went the next day. At home, we have another computer, but it is a bit of a dinosaur². It is big, and slow, and seems to eat important information, just like a T-Rex eats meat. But at least I had a chance to do a podcast, so I thought. I happily turned it on, put in my password, selected the big E sign for the internet, but no luck! "No connection available" was the message it gave me. "Sugar!" as we say in England and a few other places. "What on earth is wrong now?"

Grammar notes.

 Vocabulary: battery, to charge, failure, to plug in.

Exs:

We bought a new toy for Tommy, but we forgot to buy batteries.

The car battery needs to be charged; I think someone left a light on all night.

Lack of study will lead to failure on your exam.

Of course the tv is not working. You need to plug it in!

Advanced.

The next day, when I woke up, there was a lot of noise in the neighborhood. I looked out of the window and saw lots of trucks of different kinds, a crew of workmen, a backhoe, and a roller. Hmm, interesting. I wondered what needed to be done. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the road. Then, someone rang the door bell. "Hello. I'm from the local council. We're putting in a drain because of the excess water that gathers on the street." I thanked the man for letting me know. Our cul-de-sac does get huge puddles³ when it rains, so what they were doing made sense. The trouble was, as they were digging, they cut the internet cable for our area. Oops! They notified⁴ us and fixed⁵ the problem, but not until a few days had passed. So, what was I going to do? A friend told me that the local library has internet access for one hour for free. Great! The problem was that I didn't have recording⁶ access, or my sound editing⁷ software. After the workman told me that they had fixed the internet cable, I tried to get on again, but no luck. Nothing! So, I jumped into action, called our internet provider, and a technician came to the house to see what was causing the problem. He looked here and there, pulled out wires and cables, and put them back. "I think I've found the problem," he said. The plastic head of one of the tiny cables that plugs into the router kept on slipping out slightly, totally unnoticed by us. Oh my goodness! All this technology, and we depend on a little piece of plastic.

Grammar notes.

Computer vocabulary: router, screen, software, cable, high speed access.

Exs:

The router is a little box that connects to the computer and supplies the internet.

My baby squirted his milk on the computer screen.

I need a new software for virus protection.

The main power cable has been cut.

I'm tired of this slow computer. I need high speed internet access to do my job properly.

 

1 socket   

n.窝，穴，孔，插座，插口

参考例句：

• He put the electric plug into the socket.他把电插头插入插座。
• The battery charger plugs into any mains socket.这个电池充电器可以插入任何类型的电源插座。

2 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

3 puddles   

n.水坑， （尤指道路上的）雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The puddles had coalesced into a small stream. 地面上水洼子里的水汇流成了一条小溪。
• The road was filled with puddles from the rain. 雨后路面到处是一坑坑的积水。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 notified   

通知，告知，报告( notify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Competition winners will be notified by post. 将发信通知竞赛的优胜者。
• I notified the post office that my address had changed. 我把变更的地址通知了邮局。

5 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

6 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

7 editing   

adj.编辑的

参考例句：

• The processing of data in random order,not subject to preliminary editing or sorting.未经预先编辑或分类，以任意次序对数据进行的处理的做法。