"布朗尼加分"口語課堂:會響鈴兒的小狗
大家好，我是ROSE。很開心能和的網友們共同學習、共同進步。今天我們來聽一個有關小狗的故事。相信很多人都喜歡養狗，這些小傢伙們也真能闖出花樣百出的小禍來。不信您聽聽~~
It's Christmas time in London. Rachel Murphy, 27, buys a Christmas gift for her roommate. It's a small cellular phone. She wraps it and puts it under the Christmas tree in their apartment. A little bit later, Rachel notices a pile of torn paper under the tree. The phone is gone! "What's going on?" she wonders. She suspects Charlie, her roommate's dog, who is sleeping like a log near the tree. She looks high and low for the phone, but it's nowhere. She can't figure it out. The phone has vanished into thin air!
Rachel gets the phone number from the telephone company and dials the number. She hears ringing in Charlie's stomach. "What in the world?" she thinks. She's confused, but all at once she gets the picture. Charlie swallowed the phone! She rushesthe dog to the vet. "Don't worry," the vet says. "Just let nature take its course." Sure enough, 24 hours later, the phone passes through Charlie's system. It seems to be in perfect working order!
聖誕節就要到了，大家忙着準備禮物，互贈禮物，Rachel給自己的室友準備的禮物是一個cellular phone，一個手機。不過，包裝好的手機卻不翼而飛，屋子裏沒有別人，rachel只能懷疑一下那隻sleeping like a log的小狗了。Sleep like a log. Log, “原木”，睡的跟一根木頭似地，可見sleep very deelply, 睡得很深，很沉。Beetles甲殼蟲樂隊的那首A Hard Day's Night裏就有這樣一句歌詞。Work like a dog, sleep like a log.
唯一的嫌疑人呼呼大睡，若無其事，那Rachel唯一能做的只能是 looks high and low for the phone了。Looks high and low for someone or something，去掉中間的high and low 剩下的部分就是look for，也就是“尋找”，整個短語意思相當於“look everywhere for someone or something”到處找某人或某物。
不過找的結果是，it's nowhere，哪兒也沒有。難不成the phone has vanished into thin air? Vanish, 消失，絕跡， thin air 稀薄的空氣。整個短語就意爲“disappear quickly and completly”，很快消失，徹底消失。再比如，Tourists to the mountains vanished into thin air. 那些去山裏遊玩的人莫名就消失了。
不死心的Rachel撥通了電話，結果聲音從小狗的肚子裏傳來，這讓rachel着實吃驚，she thinks, “What in the world?” 這裏要注意，what in the world 並不是一個真正的疑問句，而是用來表達震驚和驚訝的一個固定表達法。意思相當於“What?”“How strange!”
驚訝過後，Rachel gets the picture. Get the picture，意思相當於understand the situation or the facts。也就是明白怎麼回事兒了。再比如：I explained the point to her again and again, and finally she got the picture. 我就那一點向她再三解釋,後來她終於明白了。
原來，電話被小狗當骨頭給吃掉了。獸醫也束手無策，只能建議“Just let nature take its course.”任其自然發展，順其自然。好了，下期“布朗尼加分”口語課堂再見。
