美語情景對話 第341期:Dogs 狗狗

Adrienne: So, Mary, who are these guys here?

埃德里安娜：瑪麗，這些傢伙都是誰？

Mary: This one's Piper. She's seven. She just had a birthday in October, and this one's Daisy, she's got kind of an older face on her. I think she's probably about nine years old.

瑪麗：這個是派珀，她七歲了。她剛剛在十月份過了生日，這個是黛西，她的臉看上去有點老。我想她可能有九歲了。

Adrienne: Are these your children?

埃德里安娜：這些都是你的孩子嗎？

Mary: You know, they could be my children, but they’re actually dogs. Golden Retrievers.

瑪麗：你知道，它們可以是我的孩子，不過實際上它們都是狗。品種是黃金獵犬。

Adrienne: They're so pretty.

埃德里安娜：它們真漂亮。

Mary: Yeah, they're a lot of my attention. They really have my heart captured right now, so I do spend a lot of time, you know, working on them and training them and taking them out for walks during the day and as you can tell by the big giant basket behind you they have a lot of toys so they're kind of active. They like swinging stuff around and playing outside. (Pipe. Hi, there!).

瑪麗：是啊，我要花很大精力照顧它們。我現在完全被它們迷住了，所以你知道，我要花好多時間訓練它們，白天的時候會帶它們出去散步，你可以從你後面的那個大籃子看出來，它們有很多玩具，所以它們非常活躍。它們喜歡時髦的東西，也喜歡在外面玩。（派珀，那裏！）

Adrienne: So how did you get them?

埃德里安娜：那你是從哪裏得到的它們？

Mary: I actually raised a Golden Retriever puppy for about 8 years. When I lost her, I remember thinking to myself, I'd love to have another golden retriever but puppies are really hard work, and wouldn't it be great if I could just find a dog that was already an adult, and I made mention to it to someone at work one day and she let me know of an organization, a rescue organization that worked primarily with Golden Retrievers, so I contacted the organization and they had several dogs available for adoption and I went and met a few, and kind of figured out their personalities and decided that there was one there for me, and that was Tucker, my big, big male who I had for a long time, so I ended up adopting him when he was a year and a half. He still had a lot of puppy in him, but he was already housebroken, and you know, in pretty good shape for bringing home so he was a lot of fun. That was my first experience with the organization, and they are a great organization. I really believe in a lot of the work they do, because a couple of the dogs, Piper in particular, happen to have been an abused animal unfortunately in the first part of her life so this organization spent a lot of time kind of evaluating the right kind of environment for an animal, and the right kind of animal for a family so the adoption process, as they call it, it's really involved, It's almost like adopting a child because they want to make sure that you're home is, you know properly set up for a dog this size and that your yard is fenced and that you can handle a dog like this and have what it takes to train him and get him to trust humans again so it's been a really long process in some cases. When I adopted daisy, almost two years ago, that was not so hard. She was a very easy dog to adopt. She just came in, made herself at home, got along great with Piper right away and, you know, she has never given me any concern or any reason to worry about her temperament. She's been just such an easy going dog.

瑪麗：實際上我曾經養過一隻黃金獵犬，而且養了8年的時間。當我失去她的時候，我記得我對自己說，我想再養一隻黃金獵犬，但是養小狗太辛苦了，如果我養一隻成年狗不是很好嗎，有一天我在上班的時候和別人說了這個想法，她告訴了我一個組織，那是一個主要幫助黃金獵犬的救助組織，於是我聯繫了那個組織，而他們有幾隻可供收養的狗，我去那裏見了幾隻狗，簡單瞭解了一下那些狗的性格然後決定收養一隻，那就是塔克，它是我收養的第一隻狗，這隻狗我已經養了很長時間了，我收養它的時候它只有一歲半。其實它還是一隻小狗，不過它已經經過訓練養成了家居衛生習慣，很適合帶回家收養，它真的很有趣。那是我在那個組織收養的第一隻狗，那真是個偉大的組織。我真的非常相信他們做的工作，因爲有一些狗，尤其是派珀，之前曾經很不幸地遭遇過虐待，而這個組織花費了大量的時間來評估適合動物生活的環境，適合動物生活的家庭，所以所涉及的收養過程其實很像領養兒童的過程，因爲他們希望確保你的家庭適合這種大型犬生活，確保你的院子有柵欄，還要確保你可以照顧這種狗，而且可以訓練它，讓它再次相信人類，所以在某些情況下，收養過程耗時很長。我在大概兩年前收養的黛西，那時收養過程並不複雜。我很容易地就收養她了。她只是進來我的家，像在自己家一樣，而且馬上就和派珀相處融洽了，你知道，她從來沒讓我擔心過，完全不用擔心她的性情。她是一隻非常好相處的狗。

Adrienne: Yeah, she seems like a sweetheart. Both of them are.

埃德里安娜：對，她看起來像戀人。它們都是。

Mary: Yeah, they're fun. They're fun.

瑪麗：對，它們真有趣。它們很有趣。

重點講解：
1. in good shape
狀況良好；情況良好；
eg. The 57-year-old champion jockey said he was in good shape.
這位57歲的職業騎馬冠軍說他的狀態很好。
eg. The ancient silk painting is still in good shape.
這幅古代絹畫依然完好無損.
2. in particular
尤其；特別；
eg. The whole meal was good but the wine in particular was excellent.
整頓飯都很好，尤其是葡萄酒更好。
eg. Sociologists in particular are trying to figure out how mobile communications are changing interactions between people.
社會學家尤其想弄清移動通信技術是如何改變了人與人之間交流的方式的。
3. get along with
（與…）和睦相處；
eg. It's impossible to get along with him.
根本無法跟他和睦相處。
eg. He's a bit quick-tempered, but not difficult to get along with.
他只是脾氣暴躁些，並不難處。
4. right away
立刻；立即；馬上；
eg. I am getting in touch with him right away.
我馬上和他進行聯繫。
eg. He did not reply to her question right away.
他沒有馬上回答她的問題。
5. easy going
好相處的；善於與人溝通；
eg. She is an easy-going girl.
她是一個隨和的女孩子。
eg. He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow.
他脾氣柔順，心地善良，性情溫婉，待人隨合，兼帶幾分傻氣，真是個可愛的人。