【话匣子英语】终有一天我们都会长大

终有一天我们都会长大，在加拿大对于成年人的规定年龄是多少呢，他们在未成年时，不允许做哪些事呢

 

Maura: All right. So, today’s episode¹ is a Chatterbox episode and that is where Harp² and I get to chat about all kinds of different topics of interest.

 

Harp: Yes. And today we’re talking about adulthood³.

 

Maura: Mmhmm. So we did an episode a month or so ago called Childhood, and now we’re talking about as you grow up, you get older, and you start to become an adult.

 

Harp: So today we’re gonna break down the episode. We’re gonna talk first about coming of age, becoming an adult.

 

Maura: Right, when you’re just growing up and becoming an adult, like you said. And then we’re going to talk about some slang⁴ related to adults.

 

Harp: Yes. And then we’re going to talk about having kids when you’re an adult.

 

Maura: Right. So, once you’ve grown up a bit, then you have kids. And we’ll talk about some terms and expressions related to that.

 

Harp: OK, so let’s get started.

 

Maura: First, as we said, we’re going to talk about coming of age. And this is really an expression in itself. To come of age means that you’ve grown up, you’re older, and that you are taking the steps to become an adult.

 

Harp: Yeah. And the interesting thing in North America is that in Canada, we consider someone an adult at 18. They’re able to vote, they’ve been driving for a couple of years, they can drink alcohol.

 

Maura: In some provinces.

 

Harp: Yes, 18 or 19, it depends on the province. But in the US, it’s 21.

 

Maura: Yeah. So between Canada and the US, we have different standards for when someone legally becomes an adult. But when someone actually becomes an adult, like they’re mature enough, that is different from person to person. But it does happen between the ages of 18 to 21, usually.

 

Harp: Usually.

 

Maura: Right. Some people you know in their late 20s, and they barely⁵ seem like adults.

 

Harp: Yeah. Some people are older and act like kids still.

 

Maura: Today the generation that is coming of age and becoming adults is Generation Y. Now, people part of Generation Y are born in the 1980s and the 1990s. There are different ideas of when exactly Generation Y is. So, some people say that Generation Y includes people born in the late 1970s and in the 2000s as well, but Generation Y is the people born around the 1980s and 1990s.

1 episode   

n.（作品的一段）情节，插曲，系列事件中之一

参考例句：

• The episode was a huge embarrassment for all concerned.这段小插曲令所有有关人员都感到非常尴尬。
• This episode remains sharply engraved on my mind.这段经历至今仍深深地铭刻在我的心中。

2 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

3 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

4 slang   

n.俚语，行话；vt.使用俚语，辱骂；vi.辱骂

参考例句：

• The phrase is labelled as slang in the dictionary.这个短语在这本字典里被注为俚语。
• Slang often goes in and out of fashion quickly.俚语往往很快风行起来又很快不再风行了。

5 barely   

adv.仅仅，几乎没有，几乎不

参考例句：

• The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
• He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。