"布朗尼加分"口語課堂:失而復得

大家好。感謝您繼續關注，關注“布朗尼加分”口語課堂。記得鼴鼠的故事裏有一集講一隻喜鵲喜歡偷了人類的首飾藏到自己的窩中欣賞，今天我們要聽的故事則和一隻偷東西的烏鴉有關。只是，這隻烏鴉不像喜鵲那麼會保存東西。 一起來聽個究竟吧。

One day, when Frank Landstrom was playing golf in Clearwater, Florida, something strange happened. His $450 gold bracelet was in his golf cart. All of a sudden, a big crow flew down out of nowhere and grabbed the bracelet. "What in the world?" Frank thought. He watched wide-eyed as the crow made off with his bracelet. Frank was in a bad mood because he was sure the bracelet was gone for good.

Later that day, a man named Tom Johnson pulled into a supermarket parking lot 35 miles from Clearwater. Something shiny on the ground caught his eye. He picked it up. It was a gold bracelet!

The next morning, Tom saw a story in the newspaper about a crow and a gold bracelet. He put two and two together. Then he got in touch with Frank Landstrom to give the bracelet back. Frank couldn't believe his luck.

一個人正在打高爾夫球，並將自己的金手鐲放到車裏，這時，一隻烏鴉flew down out of nowhere and grabbed the bracelet. Out of nowhere, “突然冒出來, 不知打哪兒來的”，在本文中相當於suddenly and unepectedly，毫無預兆的。例如，《哈利波特與死亡聖器》一書的第一章有這樣一句話：The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. 在一條灑滿月光的狹窄小路上，兩個男人憑空出現在了相距幾碼的地方。Out of nowhere 憑空出現，和我們文中的用法一樣。

烏鴉突然從天而降，而且叼走了金手鐲，這一過程除了讓Frank感嘆“What in the world”之外，只能watched wide-eyed。睜大眼睛瞧着，說明非常surprised. 和“what in the world”相呼應。都表示feel so strange and surprised. Frank心情很糟。因爲他認爲手鐲was gone for good，這裏good等於ever，gone for ever也就是永遠找不回來。

就在同一天，另一個名叫Tom的人，正在pulled into a supermarket parking lot. 這裏pulled into a place 可不是拖拽什麼東西到某處，而是“drive one’s car into a place”也就是，“開着車進入某處”的意思。本文Tom開車進入的是parking lot。Parking大家都知道意思是“停車”，後面的lot作名詞用時有“(作特定用處的)一塊地”來講。那麼此處parking lot就是停車場的意思。再來看一個例句，理解lot這一用法。He is looking for an empty lot on which to build his house. 他正在找一塊空地蓋房子。

停車場的地面上something shiny，一個亮閃閃的東西Caught Tom's eye。 這一部分首先強調一下something shiny的用法。形容詞修飾不定代詞時要放在後面。比如，somebody nice, something different, anything interesting等等。再來看Catch one's eye這一表達法。現在，我們常常能聽到類似“吸引……眼球”“捉住……眼球”來表示取得注意。Catch one’s eye就表示”attract one’s attention” 吸引某人的注意力。再來看一個例子。That antique vase caught my eye and I just had to buy it. 那個古董花瓶着實吸引了我，我必須得買下它。

Tom撿到了一隻金手鐲，報紙上又說一隻烏鴉叼走了一個人的金鐲，那麼，put two and two together，“根據事實推測”，Tom撿到的就是Frank丟掉的了。Put two and two together, 是figure something out from what one sees,hears and learns. 根據自己看到聽到了解到的弄明白事情。比如：John didn't tell me that he loves her , but I put two and two together. 約翰沒有告訴我他愛她，但我根據事實看得出來。

調皮的烏鴉，誠實的Tom，先是壞運氣，又得好運氣的Frank，一起上演了一幕失而能復得的喜劇。好了，本期就到這裏，下期再繼續和Rose一起聽故事，學英語吧。