Lesson Twelve

Key phrases & Expressions　关键短语和表达方式：

comment on　评论，发表意见

communicate with　与人沟通，交流

compare with（to）与某事物相比，比……好（差），相媲美

concentrate on　把注意力集中于，全神贯注于

Can you comment on the new magazine we published last week？

——It always has too much gossip.I don't like it.

You haven't commented on the movie we saw yesterday yet.

——Yes，I did.I said that it was an excellent movie and their acting was superb.Don't you remember？

Would you care to comment on the cultural impact of Multinational companies on local economies？

——I'm afraid that's outside the scope of my talk，I can talk to you more individually afterwards.

She is dumb and how do you communicate with her？

——Most of the time she just listens to me.She nods her head if she agrees with me.

Well，you're working hard but not efficiently.And you don't work well with other employees.

——Well，some of those other guys are not the same kind I'd like to communicate with，but if that's important to you，I'll try to get along with them.

It sounds like we'll be able to communicate with home appliances like my fridge.

——Once they finish the next stage of smart appliances，you'll theoretically be able to restock your fridge using your mobile.And after that，your fridge will be able to place its own order when it is empty.

Compared with a house in the suburbs，the price of this one is much higher.

——But the traffic here is more convenient.You can save a lot of transportation costs.

You have to buy food and make a house for your puppies and then clean up their houses.

——Yes，but compared with the fun they bring us，those are nothing.In fact，my cellphone will cost me much more money every month than the puppies.

StarCraft can't compare with CS.CS is my favourite game of all time.That game is so cool，I could play it for more than a day straight.

——StarCraft is more addicting than CS in my opinion.I actually did play StarCraft a lot，and now I play the game even more.

Hi，Steve，how do you find China？

——Well，I've just been here for a week，and I think everything is great.There're so many places to visit.The people are friendly and the food is so delicious.You know we also have Chinese restaurants back home，but they cannot be compared to what you can get in China.

Hi，Nate.How is it going with the survey part for your essay on finding jobs.You need to classify the people，probably by age.

——Yes.In particular I'm aiming to concentrate on high-school graduates，college graduates，women after pregnancy，the unemployed and the retired.

I suppose you think analysing a whole week of news programs would be too many？

——Well，that depends on how much of each program.If you concentrate on one particular type of news item，say the sports news or local items，it might be alright.

Certainly the Sun needs to be studied because of its influence on the Earth.Those Sun spots cause all sorts of problems at times.

——Yes.And Meteors are another thing that astronomy should concentrate on.We need to know if one is going to hit the Earth.

I've spent a whole month hunting a job，but many companies just turn me down.

——Maybe they're worrying that a new mother may not concentrate totally on her work.

Notes to the text　课文注释：

gossip八卦新闻；acting演技；superb高超，极佳的；cultural impact文化影响；multinational company跨国公司；local economy当地经济；that's outside the scope of my talk这可不在我的演讲范围内；scope范围；I can talk to you more individually afterwards我们以后可以私下谈；individually私下地，个别地；afterwards以后，事后；dumb哑的；to nod his head点头；efficiently效率高地；employee雇员，员工；to get along with好好相处；home appliance家用电器；the next stage of smart appliance下一阶段的智能电器开发；smart（smart cards智能）智能的；theoretically（theory理论）理论上地；to restock（to stock存放）再存放货物；to place its own oder自行订货；suburb郊区；transportation cost交通费；puppy小狗；StarCraft星际争霸；cool酷毙了，凉快；a day straight一整天（直落）；addicting（addictive）易上瘾；in my opinion据我看来；now I play the game even more现在更喜欢玩了；Survey part for you essay短文的（社会）调查部分；to classify by age按年龄分类；in particular特别是；to aim（at）针对；high-school graduate中学毕业生；women after pregnancy怀孕后的妇女（孕妇）；the unemployed失业人士；the retired（retirement退休）退休人士；to analyse分析；to be depend on依据，依靠；news item新闻栏目；local item本地栏目；alright可行；influence（on）影响；sun spot太阳黑子；to cause problems造成麻烦；meteors流星；astronomy天文学家；to hit the Earth撞击地球

Practice　练习

Oral Translation　口头汉译英：

如果你要我评论一下我们昨天晚上看的那场电影。我觉得这是一部出色的电影，它的情节（plot）非常吸引人，男女演员（actor and actress）的表演（acting）也非常棒。说到（talking about）这部电影的主题曲（theme song），它的曲调（tune）确实感人。我想以后（later）会有许多歌星会选唱这首歌。至于（as to）这部电影的缺点（drawbacks），我感到有些情节有点像动作片（action film），有一点毫无意义（meaningless）的性（sex）和暴力（violence），这对孩子们是有害的（harmful to）。

你是否想到，某一天，我们可以用我们的手机与我们的家用电器沟通（to communicate with home appliances）。你可以通过手机命令（order）你的吸尘器（vacuum cleaner）打扫你的房间。你也可以在离开办公室之前，要求（to demand）电饭煲工作，让微波炉加热（warm）你的菜。当你一回到家就可以享受晚餐。你也可以用你的手机为你的冰箱配备新货。从此，冰箱空了，它就会自己下订单。这看起来像是一场梦，但你很快就能梦想成真（to come true）。

Paragraphs Recitation　背诵英语口语短文：

Traveling offers people a good chance to forget all about their daily routine（日常琐事）and walk into a different and new world.No worries，no chaos（混乱），they are filled with excitement（兴奋）everyday.They would feel that a lot of things which were seemingly important were not as important compared with（与……比较）nature and life.Different cultures and different people are another thing that offers an exotic（异国情调）feeling，which is richer than watching TV.After traveling，people often change their views towards a lot of things，and just become optimistic（乐观主义）and happy.

If asked to comment on（评论）numbers，people in Guangdong have their special meaning behind the numbers.For them，“8”is a luck number，because“8”has a similar pronunciation（发音）to the word“prosper”（兴隆，繁荣）in Cantonese.Similarly，“6”is often associated with（与……有关联）smoothness.（顺利，流畅）Many people like to choose a date for weddings which includes the number“6”.But“4”sounds very similar to word“death”which is considered a bad number.Many buildings don't use the number“4”for their elevator programming（电梯程序）.Now，as a result of Western influence，more people began to dislike“13”.