【话匣子英语】家就是心灵可以栖息的地方

今天毛拉和安德鲁讨论的是家的定义.....

Maura: OK. Now let’s get to our episode¹. And today’s episode is a Chatterbox one and that is where we chat about all different kinds of topics. And today we’re going to talk about something that is near and dear to our hearts.

 

Andrew: And today’s topic is home.

 

Maura: Yeah. So we’re going to be talking about the idea of home. What the word home means. It’s kind of a special word.

 

Andrew: Yes. It’s a very special to lots of people.

 

Maura: So first we’re gonna talk to you about the difference between the word home and house. Because there is a little bit of a difference and they can often get confused.

 

Andrew: Yeah. This is really confusing. Even for us, we had to think about this a little bit.

 

Maura: So after that, we’re going to talk about expressions with the word home in them.

 

Andrew: Yup. And then finally we’re going to talk about what it means to be away from home. So expressions relating to being away from your house, being away from your home.

 

Maura: Mmhmm. And some of our own experiences being away from home.

 

Andrew: Yeah. That’s right. We’ll get personal.

 

Maura: OK. So first we’re going to try help clarify the difference between house and home, which actually can get quite complicated.

 

Andrew: Yeah. These words are very similar, but basically we use home to talk about any place where you live. So it’s a building, it could be an apartment, it could be a condominium. It’s just place where you live. That’s your home.

 

Maura: That’s right. And when you use home it often has the feeling of being a comfortable place, a cozy² place, a place where you feel comfortable and you can be yourself and relax.

 

Andrew: Exactly. There’s a feeling associated with the word home. It’s just a warm and cozy place. Your home is a warm and cozy place.

 

Maura: And then we also have the word house. Now your home could be a house, but, like we said, a home could be an apartment or a condo or any type of other dwelling³. But a house is a specific kind of building where people live.

 

Andrew: Exactly. So a house is a building where people live, and it’s usually big enough to house a family. So four or five people could potentially live in a house.

 

Maura: You know, I was scouring⁴ the Internet before looking for a really good definition of house, but it gets confusing because there are so many different kinds of houses. And like you said, usually there is one family living in a house, but there are all different kinds of living situations nowadays.

 

Andrew: Exactly. So to keep it simple, I think we can think of a house as just a place where people live.

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 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。

3 dwelling   

n.住宅，住所，寓所

参考例句：

• Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
• He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。

4 scouring   

擦[洗]净，冲刷，洗涤

参考例句：

• The police are scouring the countryside for the escaped prisoners. 警察正在搜索整个乡村以捉拿逃犯。
• This is called the scouring train in wool processing. 这被称为羊毛加工中的洗涤系列。