生活英语对话 Episode 70:Heartbreak for Alice?

本单元是关于心烦意乱的 Alice 的对话。

Alice's mum: Alice, you sound dreadful 1 - what's the matter?
Alice: Oh nothing Mum.
Alice's mum: Doesn't sound like nothing to me Alice.
Alice: Mum, you can't do anything to help.
Alice's mum: Maybe not Alice, but you might feel better if you talk about it.
Alice: Ok, well, I had a date with Paul last night, and when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone, but he didn't see me come in, and I didn't mean to eavesdrop 2, but I heard what he was saying, and I heard him say something like, 'I can't wait to see you' and he said, 'darling' and then I heard him say, 'I love you'!
Alice's mum: Oh Alice, there's probably a perfectly 3 reasonable explanation.
Alice: He's seeing someone else Mum, that's the explanation!

Vocabulary 字汇

dreadful: 糟糕的
terrible, awful

to eavesdrop:偷听到...
to listen to another person's conversation without them knowing you are listening

本单元的语言点是过去进行式和过去简单式，请看下面的解释和例句。

Past continuous 4 and past simple - interrupted activities

Past continuous and past simple - interrupted activities 过去进行式和过去简单式
English speakers often use the past simple and past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else. In this episode 5 of The Flatmates, Alice says:

'...when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone...'

This means that Paul started talking on the phone before Alice arrived at the restaurant, and he was still talking when she entered the restaurant.
The order of the clauses 6 is not important here. It is possible to change the clause 7 order without changing the meaning of the sentence.

'...he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant...'


'When', 'while' and 'as' 表时间之关系

'when', 'while' and 'as' are important time markers. They can be used with the past simple or the past continuous part of the sentence.

'...when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone...'

'...he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant...'

'As I was walking down the street, I met my old teacher.'

'I met my old teacher as I was walking down the street.'

'While the teacher was talking, two of the students fell asleep.'

'Two of the students fell asleep while the teacher was talking.'


Past simple 过去简单式

The past simple is usually used when things happen one after another.
She got up, had a shower, got dressed , made breakfast and went to work.


Stative verbs 静态动词
Some verbs are not normally 8 used in the continuous tense. These are often verbs associated with thoughts and feelings such as: believe, know, understand, want, think, feel, like, love, smell, taste, hear.

In this example, 'think' means 'to have an opinion':

I am thinking that this book is very expensive - wrong

I think that this book is very expensive - right

However, if the verb describes an action , the continuous tense can be used. In this example, 'think' refers to an activity:

My mum called just when I was thinking about her.