有關節日禮物的英語口語對話

  在中國,由於實用英語的逐漸重視,英語口語學習也尤為重要,今天小編就給大家分享一下英語口語,大家好好學習一下吧

  Hot and Cold Christmas 炎熱的聖誕節VS寒冷的聖誕節

  Todd: So Megen, we are both teachers, English teachers in Japan, and we both come from countries that Christmas, but Christmas is so different in Japan than in our home countries, so I though we would talk about that.

  託德:梅根,我們都是老師,都在日本教英語,我們兩個的祖國都過聖誕節,不過日本的聖誕節和我們祖國的聖誕節很不一樣,所以我想我們可以談談這個話題。

  Megen: Yeah, absolutely. It's particularly different to Australia because we have ... we have it in summer.

  梅根:好,當然可以。日本的聖誕節和澳大利亞的尤為不同,因為我們夏天過聖誕節。

  Todd: Oh, that's right. So it's a beautiful summer holiday, right?

  託德:哦,沒錯。所以聖誕節對你們來說是美好的夏日假期,對吧?

  Megen: It is, though when it get hotter here in Japan, I start to feel that it's getting into Christmas season.

  梅根:對,所以當日本越來越熱時,我就開始覺得要到聖誕節了。

  Todd: Oh, right! So summer is Christmas.

  託德:哦對!夏天過聖誕節。

  Megen: Yes, yeah.

  梅根:對,是的。

  Todd: That's so cool. Do you still do the Christmas tree and the gifts under the tree?

  託德:那太酷了。你們現在還裝飾聖誕樹嗎?還會在聖誕樹下放禮物嗎?

  Megen: We do and we have a lot of the same Christmas traditions, but the food is pretty different. We eat a lot of fresh fruits, and we have like fresh prawns. I guess you might call them shrimps.

  梅根:會,我們的很多聖誕傳統是一樣的,不過食物很不相同。我們在聖誕節時會吃很多新鮮的水果,還有鮮蝦。我想你們用shrimp這個單詞指蝦。

  Todd: Right, no we call them prawns too. Prawns or shrimp. Wow! That's interesting. You know, it's cool that you brought up food because we're both in Japan and I think it's very interesting that in Japan the Christmas dinner is fried chicken.

  託德:對,不過我們也用prawn這個詞。兩個詞都可以。哇哦!那太有意思了。你提到食物太好了,因為我們現在都在日本,而日本的聖誕晚餐是炸雞,這很有趣。

  Megen: Yeah! I can't imagine eating KFC or any kind of chicken for Christmas.

  梅根:對!我簡直無法想象在肯德基過聖誕節,或是吃其他炸雞過聖誕節。

  Todd: Now did you know about this before you came to Japan?

  託德:你在來日本之前知道這件事嗎?

  Megen: I didn't actually. I was shocked when I heard about it.

  梅根:我不知道。我聽說以後非常震驚。

  Todd: Yeah, I didn't believe it at first, and then when I came to Japan, I saw the long lines outside KFC, and I thought, wow, this really is a thing. And now in Japan, not only do they have KFC chicken, but everywhere. So the supermarkets make fried chicken. The convenience stores have fried chicken. Other hamburger stores have fried chicken, all just for Christmas.

  託德:對,一開始我也不相信,我到日本以後,看到肯德基外面排了很長的隊,當時我還想“哇哦,這真受歡迎”。現在日本不只是肯德基有炸雞,到處都在賣炸雞。超市也有炸雞。便利店也賣炸雞。其他漢堡店也賣炸雞,都是為了聖誕節準備的。

  Megen: Yeah, yes, I don't think we usually eat chicken. Maybe some families would eat roast chicken, but usually we eat cold meats.

  梅根:對,我們一般不吃雞肉。可能有些家庭會吃烤雞,不過通常我們吃冷肉。

  Todd: Oh, right, so Australia is fresh fruit, shrimp, and cold meats.

  託德:哦對,所以澳大利亞在聖誕節時吃新鮮的水果、蝦和冷肉。

  Megen: Yeah, we have a few Australian desserts that I haven't seen in any other coutries, but I think in Australia there's a lot of variety though, so my family in particular, that's what we eat, but I think every family is different. How about in America?

  梅根:對,我們澳大利亞有一些特別的甜點,我在其他國家沒有看到過,不過我認為澳大利亞的聖誕食物非常多樣化,尤其是我家,不過我想每個家庭的聖誕食物都各不相同。美國呢?

  Todd: Ah, in America it's very close to Thanksgiving, so usually you have a big bird, so you have turkey or chicken or ham. Ham is a big one. So you might have baked ham. But you have lots of sweets, lots of cakes, Christmas cakes, pies, cookies. Things like that. So everybody gains a lot of weight. Do you eat a lot of sweets for Christmas in Australia?

  託德:啊,在美國,聖誕節和感恩節離得很近,所以通常聖誕晚餐會做火雞、雞或火腿。火腿非常大。所以晚餐會有烤火腿。另外還有很多甜食,很多蛋糕,聖誕蛋糕、各種餡餅和餅乾,基本上就是這些。所以所有人都會長胖很多。澳大利亞在聖誕節時會吃很多甜食嗎?

  Megen: Well, I imagine they eat more baked goods in America, but we eat a lot of cold, like parfait, kind of desserts. With a mix of like sponge cake and jelly and cream, and we do eat cookies and different like chocolate sweets, and yeah, I think we do some baking but, yeah, not so much pies.

  梅根:嗯,我認為美國吃很多烘烤食品,而我們吃很多冷食品,比如冰淇淋水果凍,這相當於甜點。把海綿蛋糕和果凍還有冰淇淋混合起來,我們也吃餅乾和各種巧克力甜點,我們也吃烘烤食品,不過不會吃太多餡餅。

  Todd: So in Australia because it's so warm, do you spend the day at the beach?

  託德:因為澳大利亞的聖誕節很溫暖,那你們是在海灘過聖誕嗎?

  Megen: We do! Yeah, a lot of people have pools. Their own pools, so they will go swimming in their backyard, or they'll go to the beach, or play cricket outside.

  梅根:沒錯!很多人家裡都有游泳池。他們有自己的私人泳池,所以他們會在後院游泳,或是去海灘,或者在室外打板球。

  Todd: That's great! So do you barbecue? Is Barbecue a common way?

  託德:那太棒了!那你們燒烤嗎?燒烤常見嗎?

  Megen: Yeah! Especially for Christmas. It's really great to be outside. And there are barbecues you can use near the beach or in the parks, so a lot of people go outside and mingle with the locals. It's great.

  梅根:有!尤其是聖誕節。在戶外燒烤太棒了。可以在海灘附近或是公園裡燒烤,很多人會去戶外,和當地人交流。非常不錯。

  Todd: Oh, that's fantastic. So in the Northern Hemisphere, Christmas is often associated with snow, so you have the snowman and things like that. Do you have those types of decorations in Australia?

  託德:哦,那真美好。在北半球,聖誕節時通常會下雪,所以會有雪人之類的。澳大利亞有這種裝飾嗎?

  Megen: We do! Although we don't have any snow, we still have the snow decoration. And usually Santa Claus still wears the long sleeve winter clothing, although we do have our own version of Santa Claus, that wears singlets and shorts.

  梅根:我們有!雖然我們過聖誕節時並不下雪,不過我們也有雪花裝飾。通常聖誕老人也是穿長袖的冬季服裝,雖然我們有澳大利亞版的聖誕老人,是穿背心和短褲的聖誕老人。

  Todd: That's nice. So you've lived in a country with a warm Christmas, and a country with a cold Christmas. Which do you prefer?

  託德:那不錯。你的祖國在過聖誕節時天氣很溫暖,你也在聖誕節時很寒冷的國家生活過。你更喜歡哪種?

  Megen: Well, I think because I've spend so many Christmases in Australia, that I still feel like it's Christmas when it gets warmer, and when I see things like peaches and watermelon in season I want to celebrate Christmas.

  梅根:因為我在澳大利亞過了太多次聖誕節了,所以我依然覺得天氣越來越暖和時就快到聖誕節了,我看到桃子和西瓜等應季水果,就想慶祝聖誕節。

  Todd: That's so cool.

  託德:那太酷了。

  Megen: Do you want to experience a Christmas in Australia?

  梅根:你想體驗一下澳大利亞的聖誕節嗎?

  Todd: I do. I do! That is definitely on my bucket list now, to have a warm weather Christmas.

  託德:我想,非常想!在溫暖的氣候中過聖誕節肯定在我的遺願清單上。

  Megen: It would be so strange for you!

  梅根:那對你來說會很奇怪的!

  Adopting Holidays 適應節日

  Todd: So Megen we are talking about Holidays and Christmas and in the last interview we talked the difference between Christmases in a cold country and a warm country, so now I thought we would talk about Christmas in countries that aren't really Christian countries. They don't really celebrate it for religuous reasons. So we're in Japan and it's interesting that in Japan it's a romantic day, right?

  託德:梅根,我們來討論一下節日和聖誕節,在上期節目裡我們討論了在寒冷國家過聖誕節和在溫暖國家過聖誕節的不同之處,現在我想我們可以來討論一下非基督教國家的聖誕節。他們慶祝聖誕節不是出於宗教原因。我們兩個人都在日本,有意思的是,聖誕節在日本是很浪漫的節日,對吧?

  Megen: Yes. Yeah it is.

  梅根:對,沒錯。

  Todd: It's like Valentine's Day

  託德:就像情人節一樣。

  Megen: Yes, you have to spend Christmas with your partner.

  梅根:對,要和另一半一起過聖誕節。

  Todd: Right, and everybody looks forward to it. To go out on a date and give each other gifts, and yeah.

  託德:沒錯,所有人都很期待聖誕節的到來。在那一天去約會,互送禮物。

  Megen: Yeah, yeah, I think the fireworks are for the boyfriend and girlfriend and I think, and I think there are a lot of decorations that are similar to like Valentine's actually.

  梅根:對,對,有為戀人準備的煙花秀,而且還有很多類似情人節的裝飾。

  Todd: Yeah, it's interesting because they have the Christmas decoration everywhere, but nobody gets the day off. No families celebrate it really.

  託德:對,這很有意思,因為日本在那天到處都是聖誕節的裝飾,可是沒有人休息。沒有家庭慶祝聖誕節。

  Megen: Yeah, it's a regular day.

  梅根:對,那只是普通的一天。

  Todd: Except eating the chicken dinner, which we talked about — the fried chicken dinner. Yeah, so it's kind of like one of those, like I call it a soft holiday. Like in America a soft holiday would be St Patrick's Day. Like everybody has to go to work but you do something that day related to the holiday even though you have no historical connection to it at all.

  託德:除了吃雞肉晚餐,我們之前提到過,日本在聖誕節吃炸雞晚餐。那有點像我稱之為的“軟節日”。在美國,聖帕特里克節就是軟節日。那天所有人都要上班,雖然人們會做一些和節日有關的事情,但卻完全沒有歷史聯絡。

  Megen: Ah, I see.

  梅根:啊,我明白了。

  Todd: So for example on St Patrick's Day you drink green beer and you wear green. Like, do you do that in Australia?

  託德:比如,在聖帕特里克節要喝綠啤酒,穿綠色的衣服。澳大利亞也這樣做嗎?

  Megen: Ah, that started to become a thing in Australia that the bars do tend to have green beer, and you have green clothing that you might wear and people go out. It's definitely a drinking holiday. Not a holiday though.

  梅根:啊,那在澳大利亞已經成為一種流行了,酒吧會提供綠啤酒,人們會穿著綠色的衣服外出。那絕對是一個飲酒的假日。雖然那天並不放假。

  Todd: Right, are there any other holidays that you've absorbed into Australia?

  託德:對,澳大利亞還吸收了哪些節日?

  Megen: Well, people are starting to celebrate Halloween more these days and people take their kids trick or treating.

  梅根:嗯,最近人們開始慶祝萬聖節,人們會帶孩子去做“不給糖就搗蛋”的惡作劇。

  Todd: Oh, really?

  託德:哦,真的嗎?

  Megen: Yeah! Not everyone does it, though I think that some people like to put a sign on their front door to say that trick-or-treaters are welcome, because generally we don't do that kind of thing in Australia, but the departments, the department stores are having more decorations and it's definitely infiltrating from America I think.

  梅根:對!雖然並不是所有人都會這樣做,不過有些人會在房子的前門掛個牌子,上面寫著:歡迎玩不給糖就搗蛋的孩子,通常我們澳大利亞不會做這種惡作劇,不過現在百貨商店裡有關萬聖節的裝飾越來越多,我認為那一定是從美國滲透進來的。

  Todd: Oh, that's interesting. So, in America Halloween is a big time to have parties. Do you have parties?

  託德:哦,那真有趣。在美國,萬聖節是舉行派對的絕佳時間。你們舉行派對嗎?

  Megen: I think more and more people are having parties. They have their own party in their house with decorations and costumes, but it's hard to say how many people celebrate Halloween really.

  梅根:現在越來越多的人會舉辦派對。他們在自己家裡辦派對,在家裡進行裝飾,穿上萬聖節服裝,不過很難說清楚現在有多少人會慶祝萬聖節。

  Todd: Well, what about costumes? Did you wear a costume?

  託德:嗯,那服裝呢?你們會穿萬聖節服裝嗎?

  Megen: I never wore a costume in Australia. I had never celebrated Halloween, but I noticed that some of my friends, and friends with children, they are celebrating it more, and it's becoming just a chance to have a party and dress up.

  梅根:我在澳大利亞從來沒穿過萬聖節服裝。我沒慶祝過萬聖節,不過我注意到,我的一些朋友,尤其是那些有孩子的朋友,他們會過萬聖節,那天是舉辦派對和裝扮的好機會。

  Todd: As an English teacher did you dress up here in Japan?

  託德:作為英語老師,你在日本有穿萬聖節服裝裝扮一下嗎?

  Megen: Yes, I did actually. Twice.

  梅根:有,我裝扮過兩次。

  Todd: Oh, you did. Did you like it?

  託德:哦,你穿過萬聖節服裝。你喜歡嗎?

  Megen: I did. It was fun to dress up. I dressed up as a character from a Jubilee movie, and it was really good to get together with my friends and to go out. Have you ever dressed up before?

  梅根:我很喜歡。穿萬聖節服裝裝扮一下很有意思。我打扮成了電影《慶典》裡的一個角色,和朋友們聚會、一起出去玩非常開心。你以前裝扮過嗎?

  Todd: Oh, countless times. Countless. Yeah, so as a kid it was a big thing definitely in America.

  託德:哦,我裝扮過無數次了。無數次。在美國對孩子來說,萬聖節裝扮是件大事。

  Giving Gifts 送禮物

  Todd: Do you feel pressure to get certain gifts for your kids?

  託德:你在給孩子買禮物時會感到壓力嗎?

  Aimee: I ... sometimes. Sometimes. Thankfully they ... it's not ... there's not too much pressure where we live right now, so I don't feel too much pressure and I also work hard to fight against it. Yeah. Every year I tell myself, "OK, they're so young. We have so much stuff already. We don't need to go crazy with gifts. Just get one or two" and we do that and then last minute is like "Oh, no! We don't have many gifts" and then we end up buying a few more, so... We're not as bad as we could be. There's not as much pressure as there could be.

  艾米:有時。有時會有壓力。幸運的是,他們……我們現在生活的地方沒有太大壓力,所以我沒有感受到太大壓力,我也在努力對抗壓力。每年我都跟自己說,“好,他們還小。我們已經有很多東西了。我們不必執著於禮物。只要買一兩個就好了”,我們會這樣去做,可是下一秒我們又會想,“哦不!我們沒有太多禮物”,最後我們會再買幾個禮物。我們沒有使情況變得很糟糕。我們沒有太大的壓力。

  Todd: Yeah. I'm lucky in that I live in Japan. You know, we both teach in Japan. So my family's in America, so Christmas usually always falls like the day after we finish school, so I can't actually make it home in time for Christmas, which is awesome because then I don't have to buy gifts for everybody. And I don't mind ... its not the money. I don't mind spending the money, but I really don't like shopping, and I hate having ... I have a huge family. Huge!

  託德:嗯。我很幸運我生活在日本。我們兩個人都在日本教書。我的家人在美國,聖誕節通常在學期結束後的那天,所以我不能趕回家過聖誕節,這其實很不錯,因為我不用給所有人買禮物。我不是介意錢的問題,錢倒是無所謂。我不介意花錢,不過我很不喜歡購物,而且我有個龐大的家庭。非常大!

  Aimee: Right.

  艾米:好。

  Todd: So the thought of having to buy 20 different gifts!

  託德:所以我要買20個不同的禮物!

  Aimee: It's a lot of gifts.

  艾米:那真是很多禮物了。

  Todd: Oh, really it's not the cost either, it's just I'm too lazy to think of "Oh, what sweater can I buy this person or ..." it's not my thing. And I don't want gifts and I don't want to give gifts.

  託德:哦,真的和花錢無關,我只是太懶了,不想去考慮“哦,我能給這個人買哪件毛衣或是其他的”,那不是我擅長的事情。我不想要禮物,也不想送禮物。

  Aimee: Well, you know that's fair.

  艾米:嗯,那很公平。

  Todd: How about you? Are gifts still something special for you?

  託德:你呢?你擅長挑禮物嗎?

  Aimee: I'm not ... I'm not very good at it. I'm trying to improve cause I know a well-thought-out gift can mean the world to someone, so I'm trying to improve. Yeah, but I'm not the best. I don't mind, I'm not like. I won't fall out with someone if they don't get me a present. I'm not like that.

  艾米:我也不太擅長。我在努力改進,因為我知道精心考慮的禮物對某人來說可能有非凡的意義,所以我在努力提高挑選禮物的能力。不過我還沒有做到最好。我不太介意那種事情,如果有人沒送我禮物,我不會和他們吵架。我不會那樣做。

  Todd: Well, like, I like getting people birthday gifts, I have to admit that. Birthday gifts I like. It's just having to buy twenty, thirty gifts within a one-month period to me just seems obscene.

  託德:我得承認,我喜歡送生日禮物。我喜歡生日禮物。可是在一個月的時間內要買好20或30件禮物,我認為那太可怕了。

  Aimee: I know, and that's the pressure people are under cause that's the way it is, isn't it? And it's always ... it's always the mothers of the family that have to do it as well right? They're the ones that have to make sure they buy all the gifts for everyone, so they feel they have so much to do. That mental list of everything, and everyone they have to buy for, of course they have to organize it, so they maybe start earlier, right, and taking advantage of things like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are manageable ways to deal with that load.

  艾米:我明白,那就是人們面臨的壓力,就是那麼回事,不是嗎?而且準備禮物通常是媽媽要負責的事情,對吧?媽媽要確保買好了所有人的禮物,所以她們感到有很多事情要做。要在頭腦裡列出每件事情,給每個人買禮物,要安排一切,所以她們會提前準備,利用“黑色星期五”或“網購星期一”來解決那種負擔是易管理的方法。

  Todd: You've changed my mind. I was very anti- both but now that you put it that way, maybe you're right.

  託德:你改變了我的想法。我本來是反對“黑色星期五”和“網購星期一”的,不過既然你這樣說了,那也許你是對的。

  Aimee: I don't know.

  艾米:我也不知道。

  Todd: Let's go!

  託德:我們走吧!