BBC地道英語口語:Canary Wharf 金絲雀碼頭

Finn: Welcome to On the Town from BBC Learning English. My name's Finn.

Zoë: 大家好，我是劉佳, 歡迎收聽今天的都市掠影，今天我們來到了泰晤士河島上，周圍都是一些摩天高樓。

Finn: Yes today we've just arrived in a part of London which is called Canary Wharf. It's on the river Thames.

Zoë: Canary 金絲雀, wharf 碼頭. That's a cute name!

Finn: Yes but Zoë, you won't find many canaries here unfortunately! This area originally used to be one of the busiest docks in the world, with all the main docks for London.

Zoë: Dock 就是碼頭的另一種說法，就是裝卸碼頭。

Finn: You won't find many boats here either. It's now been transformed into an important financial centre for London, with modern buildings built on top of these old docks.

Zoë: It has been transformed 就是被改造了，改造成 a modern financial centre 非常現代的金融中心.

Finn: Yes and Canary Wharf is now home to the UK's three tallest buildings which are owned by banks, like HSBC and Citibank.

Zoë: 匯豐銀行和城市銀行. 是啊，我能看見他們在樓頂的標誌。

Finn: You can see these buildings from miles away at the other side of London.

Zoë: Finn, there's a museum over there.

Finn: Yes, let's find out a little bit more about the history. This is Brian and he works in the Museum of Docklands.

Insert 1

Yes in the early days this West India Dock where we are today was for the goods coming in from the West Indies: rum, molasses, sugar and bananas. This dock actually opened in 1802.

Zoë: Brian 說這個碼頭叫西印度碼頭 West India Dock, 這裏接受從西印度運來的貨物 goods。

Finn: Yes that's right, the goods. Did you hear which goods he mentioned? Let's listen again, Brian speaks quite fast.

Insert 2

Rum, molasses, sugar and bananas.

Finn: That's rum

Zoë: 雷姆酒

Finn: and molasses

Zoë: 糖漿

Finn: and sugar and bananas. So this dock, it opened in the year 1802 but it is now no longer used as a dock and in the 1980s all the docks were already closed and they lay empty. So a new project was started by the government to regenerate the area.

Zoë: Regenerate 重建. So now we have all these skyscrapers. It all looks very modern, very different to other parts of London. 我還真想知道在這裏工作的感覺是怎麼樣的。

Finn: Well let's find out. In between all these skyscrapers there's a few small parks and a few green spaces, and I can see some people taking their lunch break. Let's ask this lady what she thinks.

Insert 3

Well I think there's a very strong sense of community here. These are people who like to try new things. There's a very strong sense of it all being new. It is basically a pleasant place to work, and the facilities are superb, I mean, everybody eats very well here, for example. It's like that because people can work very long hours. People have been known to work day and night here for, sort of, 3 or 4 days at a time.

Zoë: People work so hard around here – that's crazy!

Finn: Yes, she said some people have been known to work 3 or 4 days and nights at a time. It has to be a pleasant environment because people work such long hours.

Zoë: 她說這裏的設施 facilities 是非常好。她用的形容詞就是 superb，就是很好的意思。

Finn: And she said the food is good. She said that people eat very well around here.

Zoë: 極其拼命的工作，也能使自己的胃口大開。 這兒坐着另外一個人，讓我們來問問他在這裏工作的感受。

Insert 4

I'm Brian and I work in corporate banking in Canary Wharf. Yeah, I work in one of the tallest towers in the UK but I'm only halfway up the tower on level 23. It's a bit like Sim City really, it's all ordered and planned and everything has its place.

Zoë: 他可真有意思，他說她雖然在最高的樓裏工作，可是他辦公的地方卻是在樓層的中段兒。

Finn: Yes, he said he's only halfway up. He describes the Canary Wharf area as being like Sim City which is the computer game.

Zoë: 你玩兒過嗎？是個非常流行的電腦遊戲，可以隨便設計自己喜歡的城市的樣子。

Finn: He thinks it's like Sim City because everything here is so ordered and so planned.

Zoë: 周圍的一切都設計的井井有條。

Finn: Yes, but I really like the way that some of these old docks have been developed. They've got cafes, art galleries and museums.

Zoë: Such a nice atmosphere. Fancy a bite to eat?

Finn: Well, I'd love a bite to eat but I think we really have to get back to the office.

Zoë: Ok then. 咱們來坐船回市中心吧。

Finn: And that's all for this week's programme. Don't forget you can log on to our website to practise your English and to hear the programme again. The address is:

Jean:

Finn: Bye for now.

Jean: 咱們下次節目再見！