The english we speak(BBC教學)第153期:Awesome 太棒了

William: Hello, and welcome to the English We Speak, I'm William.

威廉：大家好，歡迎收聽地道英語節目，我是威廉。

Yang Li: And I'm Yang Li…

楊莉：我是楊莉……

William: And your task, Yang Li, is to guess today's word, OK?

威廉：楊莉，你來猜猜今天要講什麼短語吧？

Yang Li: OK.

楊莉：好的。

William: Awesome. Li, try some of this cake…

威廉：太好了。莉，來嚐嚐這塊蛋糕……

Yang Li: A cake? Oh, thanks! That's very nice…

楊莉：蛋糕？哦，謝謝你。太好了……

William: Do you like it? Awesome. They're pretty awesome cakes, huh?!

威廉：你喜歡嗎？太棒了。蛋糕很好吃，對吧？

Yang Li: Yes, and I think I know what this week's word is. It's…

楊莉：對，我想我知道這周要講的詞了。就是……

William: Hang on Li, try some of this coffee as well–it's really…

威廉：莉，等等，再來嚐嚐這杯咖啡，它非常……

Yang Li: Awesome?

楊莉：棒？

William: Exactly-it's really awesome. You got it. So listen to this. Which three adjectives are used in this clip?

威廉：沒錯，真的非常棒。你已經學會了。來聽聽下面的例子。在這個片段中用了哪三個形容詞？

Example

例子

This party is awesome. The food is amazing. The wine is excellent.

這個派對太棒了。食物非常好吃。紅酒也很美味。

Yang Li: Awesome, amazing and excellent.

楊莉：三個形容詞爲太棒了，令人驚歎和妙極了。

William: That's right. Awesome means excellent or amazing.

威廉：沒錯。Awesome就是太棒了，令人驚歎的意思。

Yang Li: Awesome. This word has existed in English for a long time, hasn't it?

楊莉：太棒了。這個詞由來已經久，對吧？

William: Yes, and it used to mean awe-inspiring. So awe means great respect or admiration, so something that’s awesome or awe-inspiring makes you feel great respect and admiration.

威廉：對，原本的意思是令人感到驚歎。awe的意思是非常尊敬或欽佩，所以如果用來形容某樣東西就是說那個東西讓你尊重且讚賞。

Yang Li: Full of respect and admiration. But now it just means cool?

楊莉：滿含敬畏和讚賞。但是現在只有太棒了這個意思嗎？

William: Exactly, and that’s thanks to the influence of American slang. So the word can now be used to describe almost anything.

威廉：沒錯，這是由於受到美國俚語的影響。所以這個詞幾乎可以用來形容任何事物。

Examples

例子

These shoes are awesome.

這些鞋子太漂亮了。

This is an awesome radio programme.

這檔廣播節目太精彩了。

Wow! You are awesome at singing, mate!

哇！夥計，你唱得太棒了！

William: And there is one slightly different usage of this word. Listen to this.

威廉：這個詞還有一種不同的用法。來聽這個例子。

Example

例子

A: Are you free to come for hotpot tonight?

A：你今晚有時間來吃火鍋嗎？

B: Yes, I should be.

B：有，我會去的。

A: Awesome. That makes four of us!

A：太好了。這樣我們就有四個人了！

William: So what does awesome mean in that clip, Li?

威廉：莉，awesome在剛纔的例子中是什麼意思？

Yang Li: It's like when we say 'great' at the beginning of a sentence.

楊莉：和用於句首的great的意思差不多。

William: Well, that's it, yeah, exactly. Awesome can also be used at the beginning of a sentence to indicate agreement or approval.

威廉：嗯，沒錯，就是這個意思。Awesome也可以用在句首表示贊同或是認可。

Yang Li: Awesome! That's clear now.

楊莉：太好了！現在都弄明白了。

William: Awesome. And that's the end of this awesome programme.

威廉：太好了。我們今天這期精彩的節目就要結束了。

Yang Li: William, do you have any cakes left?

楊莉：威廉，你還有蛋糕嗎？

William: Er, just one. Do you want to share it, Li?

威廉：額，只剩一塊了。莉，我們來共享吧？

Yang Li: Awesome. Bye.

楊莉：太好了。再見。

William: Bye.

威廉：再見。

重點講解：
1. used to do sth.
過去常常；過去曾；
eg. Emerging markets used to be known as the markets you couldn't emerge from in an emergency.
新興市場過去常常被稱作你在危急時刻脫不了身的市場。
eg. John used to visit his parents once a week when he worked as an assistant in the city.
約翰在城裏當服務員的時候，總是每週去看望父母一次。
2. thanks to
幸虧；歸因於；
eg. We had a bit of a drought last summer thanks to the heat-wave.
去年夏天，由於酷暑我們遭受了輕微的旱情。
eg. Thanks to the love and encouragement of her mother, she finally defeated the disease and faced the disability bravely.
後來多虧她媽媽的愛和鼓勵，使她戰勝了疾病並勇敢面對殘疾。
3. at the beginning of
起初；開始；
eg. They usually play the national anthems of the teams at the beginning of a big match.
在大型賽事開始前，他們通常演奏參賽國國歌。
eg. At the beginning of the winter , supplies were laid in, in case heavy falls of snow should block the road.
爲預防下大雪阻塞道路，在初冬人們就把生活必需品儲備起來了。