英语访谈对话 29 The Visitor

 　　Todd: Hey Leath! Do you want to go ahead and talk about the story you we're going to say?

　　Leath: OK, um, yeah, this was about, I'd say a year and a half ago and it was in Harare, the capital, where my mom lives. I was on holiday back home seeing my mom and anyway it's a Sunday morning and I was in the shower, got up pretty late, it must have been about half ten, and all of a sudden my mom burst into the shower and said," Leath, Leath, there's a snake, there's a snake in the kitchen." And so I thought, "Ah, what kind of snake would this be" cause we live in the capital, residential¹ area, almost high-rise. Well, not high rise, but residential area. And so I put a towel around my waist and walked bad-temperedly throught to the kitchen. Um, attached to the kitchen we've got this little courtyard, where we set out to have morning coffee and breakfast. It's tiled² and leads onto a small garden. And so I walked out onto the courtyard and there was a seven foot Egyptian cobra! Wow. I was really, really blow away because I know a bit about snakes and I know that a bite from an Egyptian cobra in a country where antidote³ isn't readily⁴ available is almost certainly fatal⁵. And, there we were, mom and I, with a seven foot Egyptian cobra slithering between the courtyard and our kitchen. And, eventually, we trapped it in the courtyard and I went to fetch guys who work for national parks. National parks are the guys who kind of look after animal problems

　　within the city, and, uh, brought them around, and we were hoping that they were going to catch it because Zimbabwe isn't so rich at the moment and stuff⁶ like that. They don't have the facilities to keep caught animals so unless it's endangered they just shoot it, so the guy shot our seven foot cobra.

　　Todd: Oh, they shot it, uh!

　　Leath: Yeah, and we had to bury it out back.

　　Todd: Really, well, still I'm glad, you just didn't want to be bitten or anything.

　　Leath: No, no. No way.

　　Todd: What a story!

1 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

2 tiled   

adj.平铺的，用瓦管排水的

参考例句：

• The roof is ready to be tiled. 屋顶可以盖瓦了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• We heard footsteps on the tiled floor. 我们听到铺了地砖的地面上有脚步声。 来自辞典例句

3 antidote   

n.解毒药，解毒剂

参考例句：

• There is no known antidote for this poison.这种毒药没有解药。
• Chinese physicians used it as an antidote for snake poison.中医师用它来解蛇毒。

4 readily   

adv.欣然地，容易地，很快地，立即

参考例句：

• I promise all costs will be readily returned.我保证所有的费用会迅速偿还。
• Most plastics do not readily conduct heat or electricity.大多数塑料不易传热或导电。

5 fatal   

adj.致命的，灾难性的；重大的，决定性的

参考例句：

• The enemy got a fatal blow in the battle.敌人在战斗中受到致命的打击。
• I made the fatal mistake of letting her talk.我让她讲话是犯了严重的错误。

6 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。