【有声英语文学名著】CHAPTER THREE(1)

 ATTENTION PLEASE! Can  I have  your attention? Some attention if  you don‘t mind? If you could listen? Don‘t throw things, listen please? Please? ATTENTION, PLEASE? Thank you.‘

Scott McKenzie settled on his bar stool and looked out at his team of eight staff: all under twenty-five,  all  dressed  in  white  denim  jeans  and  corporate  baseball  caps,  all  of  them desperate to be anywhere but here, the Sunday lunch-time shift at Loco Caliente, a Tex-Mex restaurant on the Kentish Town Road where both food and atmosphere were hot hot hot.

Now before we open the doors for brunch¹ I‘d just like to run through today‘s so-called ―specials‖, if I may. Our soup is that repeat offender², the sweetcorn chowder, and the main course is a very delicious and succulent fish burrito!‘

Scott  blew  air  out  through  his  mouth  and  waited  for  the  groaning  and  fake  retching  to subside³.  A small,  pale  pink-eyed  man  with  a  degree  in  Business  Management  from Loughborough,  he  had  once  hoped  to  be  a  captain  of  industry.  He  had  pictured  himself playing golf at conference centres or striding up the steps of a private jet, and yet just this morning he had scooped⁴ a plug of yellow pork fat the size of a human head from the kitchen drains. With his bare hands. He could still feel the grease between his fingers. He was thirty-nine years old, and it wasn‘t meant to be this way.

Basically,  it‘s  your  standard  beef-stroke-chicken-stroke-pork  burrito  but  with,  and  I quote, ―delicious moist chunks⁵ of cod⁶ and salmon‖. Who knows, they may even get a prawn⁷ or two.‘

That‘s  just . . .  awful,‘  laughed  Paddy  from  behind  the  bar,  where  he  sat  cutting  limes into wedges for the necks of beer bottles.

Bringing a little touch of the North Atlantic to the cuisine⁸ of Latin America,‘ said Emma Morley, tying on her waitress‘s  apron and noticing a new arrival appearing behind Scott, a large, sturdy man, fair curly hair on a large cylindrical⁹ head. The new boy. The staff watched him warily¹⁰, weighing him up as if he were a new arrival on G-wing. 

On a brighter note,‘ said Scott, ‗I‘d like to introduce you to Ian Whitehead, who will be joining our happy team  of highly trained staff.‘  Ian slapped his regulation baseball cap far back on his head and, raising an arm in salute¹¹, high-fived the air. ‗Yo, my people!‘ he said, in what might have been an American accent.

Yo my people?  Where does Scott find  them?‘ sniggered Paddy from behind the bar, his voice calibrated¹² just loud enough for the new arrival to hear.

1 brunch   

n.早午餐

参考例句：

• They eat much the same thing for brunch every day.每天早午餐他们总是吃同样的东西。
• What did you have for your brunch?你早午饭都吃些什么？

2 offender   

n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者

参考例句：

• They all sued out a pardon for an offender.他们请求法院赦免一名罪犯。
• The authorities often know that sex offenders will attack again when they are released.当局一般都知道性犯罪者在获释后往往会再次犯案。

3 subside   

vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降

参考例句：

• The emotional reaction which results from a serious accident takes time to subside.严重事故所引起的情绪化的反应需要时间来平息。
• The controversies surrounding population growth are unlikely to subside soon.围绕着人口增长问题的争论看来不会很快平息。

4 scooped   

v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

6 cod   

n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗

参考例句：

• They salt down cod for winter use.他们腌鳕鱼留着冬天吃。
• Cod are found in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.北大西洋和北海有鳕鱼。

7 prawn   

n.对虾，明虾

参考例句：

• I'm not very keen on fish, but prawn.我不是特别爱吃鱼，但爱吃对虾。
• Yesterday we ate prawn dish for lunch.昨天午餐我们吃了一盘对虾。

8 cuisine   

n.烹调，烹饪法

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• This restaurant is renowned for its cuisine.这家餐馆以其精美的饭菜而闻名。

9 cylindrical   

adj.圆筒形的

参考例句：

• huge cylindrical gas tanks 巨大的圆柱形贮气罐
• Beer cans are cylindrical. 啤酒罐子是圆筒形的。

10 warily   

adv.留心地

参考例句：

• He looked warily around him,pretending to look after Carrie.他小心地看了一下四周，假装是在照顾嘉莉。
• They were heading warily to a point in the enemy line.他们正小心翼翼地向着敌人封锁线的某一处前进。

11 salute   

vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮

参考例句：

• Merchant ships salute each other by dipping the flag.商船互相点旗致敬。
• The Japanese women salute the people with formal bows in welcome.这些日本妇女以正式的鞠躬向人们施礼以示欢迎。

12 calibrated   

v.校准( calibrate的过去式和过去分词 )；使标准化；使合标准；测量（枪的）口径

参考例句：

• Power pesticide dusters can be calibrated and used to apply pertilizer. 动力杀虫剂可以调整用来施肥。 来自辞典例句
• The flexible diaphragm is connected to a plat cantilever-calibrated spring. 柔韧的膜片一扁平的悬臂校正弹簧相连。 来自辞典例句