英语博客(A cup of English):038 Stoke up the fire!
时间：2019-01-28 作者：英语课 分类：英语博客 A cup of English
Beginners.
Announcement: "The cold weather is back." Why would I say that in the middle of Winter? Surely, it has been cold since the beginning of the season? Well, not exactly. We had a break for about two weeks, when it stopped snowing and warmed up. How wonderful! I love the snow, but I do love to see the green grass again, and feel the warm sun on my skin. Yesterday, however, the real Winter weather returned. The air is moving down again from the North. It is icy. A tiny amount of snow fell during the day. Everything was cold and quiet again outside. Well, we went to bed, thinking nothing more about the weather. When we woke up it was freezing in the house. Our heater had broken down. Before the kids woke up, I built a fire in the fireplace, and my husband brought in an electric heater from the garage. That helped to warm the rooms so I could get the children off to school comfortably. I even turned the oven on for a short while to heat up the kitchen. It was, actually, a bit exciting, like we were camping. When things like that happen, it makes you appreciate electricity and how it makes life easy.
Grammar notes.
Useful vocabulary: announcement, not exactly, to warm up, tiny, freezing, to brake down, fireplace.
Verbs: to brake (brake, broke, broken), to wake up (wake, woke, woken).
* Would: Why would you say that? ( can mean "Why are you saying that?" or "Why did you say that?" ) Why would he spend all of the money in one store? I would run if I could. Would you pass me the salt, please?
Advanced.
I had a flash back this morning. I remembered my father's house in Scotland, and how he chooses to heat it. It is a two hundred year old building that used to house monks 1. The kitchen, as in many old farm houses, is central to the house. Though there are fireplaces in each room, the kitchen fireplace is active most of the day, and highly useful. Dad's routine in the morning is to get a fire going, using scrunched 3 up newspapers, small bits of wood, and then logs. The heat quickly fills up the kitchen dining area. Then, the water tank, which is located somewhere above the fireplace on the second floor, heats up and provides plenty of warm water. Of course, my father and his wife have electrical heating and all the modern amenities 4, but they choose to have fire as a main heat source. Their previous house, in the South of England was the same, but two hundred years older. They renovated 6 it, putting in radiators 7 which were heated by the fireplace. It all worked really well. The reason I thought about this is because our electrical heating system broke down last night, and we don't have a backup. The house was very chilly 8 this morning, so I lit a fire, turned on the oven, and got my children off to school quickly. How we take our amenities for granted! The ease of flicking 9 a switch at a whim 10 can make us lazy. Let's hope that the workmen get here soon...
Grammar notes.
Useful vocabulary: a flash back, to house, central, fireplace, routine, to scrunch 2 up, water tank, amenities, a heat/ light source, to renovate 5, a backup, chilly.
Verbs: To backup. We only have gas in our house, and no other backup. Why didn't you back me up in the argument?
To get .... going/ on. Let's get a fire going/on. She will get the dinner going/on as soon as she's ready. (Both colloquial 11 British).
- The monks lived a very ascetic life. 僧侣过着很清苦的生活。
- He had been trained rigorously by the monks. 他接受过修道士的严格训练。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The sand on the floor scrunched under our feet.地板上的沙子在我们脚下嘎吱作响。
- Her mother was sitting bolt upright, scrunching her white cotton gloves into a ball.她母亲坐得笔直，把她的白手套揉成了球状。
- The snow scrunched underfoot. 雪在脚下发出嘎吱嘎吱的声音。
- He scrunched up the piece of paper and threw it at me. 他把那张纸揉成一个小团，朝我扔过来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The campsite is close to all local amenities. 营地紧靠当地所有的便利设施。
- Parks and a theatre are just some of the town's local amenities. 公园和戏院只是市镇娱乐设施的一部分。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The couple spent thousands renovating the house.这对夫妇花了几千元来翻新房子。
- They are going to renovate the old furniture.他们准备将旧家具整修一番。
- He renovated his house. 他翻修了房子。
- The house has been renovated three years earlier. 这所房子三年前就已翻新。
- You can preset the radiators to come on when you need them to. 你可以预先调好暖气，使它在你需要的时候启动。
- Stars are radiators of vast power. 恒星是强大的发光体。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
- I feel chilly without a coat.我由于没有穿大衣而感到凉飕飕的。
- I grew chilly when the fire went out.炉火熄灭后，寒气逼人。
- He helped her up before flicking the reins. 他帮她上马，之后挥动了缰绳。
- There's something flicking around my toes. 有什么东西老在叮我的脚指头。
- I bought the encyclopedia on a whim.我凭一时的兴致买了这本百科全书。
- He had a sudden whim to go sailing today.今天他突然想要去航海。
- It's hard to understand the colloquial idioms of a foreign language.外语里的口头习语很难懂。
- They have little acquaintance with colloquial English. 他们对英语会话几乎一窍不通。