美语情景对话 第401期:Rare Food 珍稀食物

Todd: So, Greg, in your travels have you ever eaten any wild food?

托德：格雷格，你在旅行中有没有吃过野生食物？

Greg: Oh, yeah, in Thailand I ate a lot of different wild food. One time, I had a really unusual experience. I was with one of the teachers from my school, and a couple of his friends and those guys are hunters. We went into the rain forest of Thailand, and we slept that night in an old tin mine.

格雷格：吃过，我在泰国旅行的时候吃过很多种不同的野生食物。我有过一次非常不同寻常的经历。当时我和学校的一名老师、他的几个朋友还有其他人一起去打猎。我们去了泰国的雨林，那天晚上我们在一个旧矿山睡的觉。

Todd: A tin mine? Was it open, or was it still?

托德：矿山？是开放的还是已经废弃了？

Greg: No, it was closed down, there were still a couple of old buildings there and you could have a fire. It was very exciting, and then in the morning, we went walking through the woods, but actually in the rain forest, it's really hard to walk. The only place you can really walk is through, up the river. There are so many thick branches,... but I was taking a photographs, at one point in the forest, and I saw in the corner of my eye my friend suddenly pick up their rifles and the were shooting at something in a tree, and then this animal came down, and I was amazed. It was a, in Thai they say "mi meow", which means bearcat, very low to the ground, thick fur animal and it came running down the stream towards me and my friends were shooting. At first, I was all, "Oh, this is so interesting" taking a picture and then I thought, "Oh, my God! This wounded animal is coming towards me and that is the most dangerous animal, and they kept shooting and it actually died about one meter away from me.

格雷格：不是，已经关闭了，不过那里还有很多旧楼，所以可以在那里生火。那真是太刺激了，之后第二天早上，我们要穿过树林，可是实际上雨林里面的路非常难走。你唯一可以走的地方就是穿过河流。那里有很多粗大的树枝……，我在雨林里正在照相的时候，用眼角余光看到我朋友突然拿起他们的步枪向树上的某个东西开枪，之后就有一只动物掉了下来，这让我感到很惊奇。在泰语里他们称那种动物为"mi meow"，实际上就是熊狸，这只拥有厚厚的皮毛的动物被打到地上以后，便冲下小溪向我跑过来，然后我的朋友们就一直开枪。刚开始我想“哦，这太有意思了”并照了相，之后我在想“哦，天哪！这只受伤的动物正在向我跑过来，那可是最危险的动物，而我朋友们一直在冲它开枪，这只动物在离我一米的地方被打死了。”

Todd: Whoa! It almost got you!

托德：哇！它差点就碰到你了！

Greg: Yeah, and my friends

格雷格：对啊，我的朋友们……

Todd: It wanted revenge.

托德：它想报复。

Greg: They should have gone to the hunters.

格雷格：它应该去找那些猎人。

Todd: Right. Right. Wrong guy.

托德：对，没错。它找错人了。

Greg: My friend's tied the bear up to a piece of bamboo and carried it back through the forest to where we were camping, and they cut up the meat and they cooked it, very hot and spicy Thai dish. It was delicious, and the next day, they brought the rest of the meat back to their village, and I thought it was very interesting, but then the next week, I went into another town and I saw an exhibition about endangered animals in Thailand, and that animal was an endangered animal, (Oh!) so I felt really bad about it, afterwards. (Yeah) I would never have eaten an endangered animal if I had known.

格雷格：我朋友把这只熊狸绑在了一根竹子上，然后带着它穿过森林，把它带回了我们露营的地方，他们把肉切开做成了麻辣的泰国食物，非常好吃。第二天，他们把剩下的肉带回了他们的村庄，我想那很有趣，可是第二周，我去另一个城镇看了一场有关泰国濒于灭绝的动物的展览，而那只动物就是一种濒临灭绝的动物，（哦！）所以我感到很过意不去。（是啊）如果我知道，我是不会吃濒临灭绝的动物的。

Todd: Wow! Man. Well, you know, at least you didn't pull the trigger.

托德：哇！伙计，你知道，至少你没有扣动扳机。

Greg: That's true. I used the chopsticks.

格雷格：那倒是。可是我动了筷子。

重点讲解：
1. close down
（工厂、商店、学校等）永久性关闭；（使）停业；（使）倒闭；
eg. When they did leave, it caused the local supermarket to close down.
当他们真走了之后，当地的超市也随即关门了。
eg. They wanted to close down the railway line, but hundreds of people objected.
他们想停止使用那条铁路线，但遭到数百人的反对。
2. pick up
拿起；提起；拾起；捡起；
eg. Send an email or pick up the phone and call those people you wish to see over the holidays.
给那些你想在节日里见到的人发邮件或拿起电话打给他们。
eg. They depend on the goodwill of visitors to pick up rubbish.
他们相信游客会自觉捡起垃圾。
3. at first
最初；起初；开始时；
eg. The finding was at first puzzling.
该发现起初让人感到困惑。
eg. At first progress was slow.
开始时进展比较缓慢。
4. cut up
切碎；切开；
eg. The woman cut up the watermelon and shared it out among the four boys.
那妇人把西瓜切开，分给四个孩子。
eg. Scraps of material were saved, cut up and pieced together for quilts.
边角碎料都保留下来，剪好后拼在一起做成被子。
5. at least
（表示相对于不利条件或糟糕情形）起码，不管怎样；
eg. At least you made that speech.
起码你还发表了那番演说。
eg. At least this second meeting had helped to thaw the atmosphere.
这第二次会议至少起到了缓和气氛的作用。