The english we speak(BBC教學)第42期: white elephant昂貴而又無用的

Feifei: Hi. I'm Feifei and joining us here today in the zoo to present The English We Speak is Finn.

菲菲：大家好。我是菲菲，今天和我一起在動物園錄製我們所說的英語節目的是芬。

Finn: Hi.

芬：大家好。

Feifei: What's the matter, Finn? You sound worried. The zoo is a place of fun.

菲菲：發生了什麼，芬？你聽起來很煩惱。動物園是好玩的地方。

Finn: Yes, and I love animals too. But I don't know what I'm going to do with that white elephant.

芬：是的，而且我也喜歡動物。但是我不知道我該怎麼處理那個白色的大象。

Feifei: That one over there?

菲菲：那裏的那隻？

Finn: No. The one my uncle is giving me.

芬：不是。是我叔叔給我的那個。

Feifei: Your uncle is giving you an elephant?

菲菲：你叔叔給了你一隻大象？

Finn: Yeah, he is moving to South Africa and he's giving away some of his things.

芬：是，我要搬去南非了，所以他送出了他的一些東西。

Feifei: And are you ready to take care of an elephant?

菲菲：那麼你準備好照料一隻大象了嗎？

Finn: That's the problem. I'm not. It is beautiful...

芬：這就是問題所在。我還沒有準備好。它很美麗...

Feifei: Oh yes, I'm sure it is!

菲菲：哦是的，我確定它一定很美！

Finn: it is powerful...

芬：而且它很有力量...

Feifei: Yes, very powerful!

菲菲：是的，很有力量！

Finn: But it needs too much petrol!

芬：但是它需要太多汽油了！

Feifei: Petrol?!

菲菲：汽油？！

Finn: Yes. Old sports cars need a lot of petrol, you know.

芬：是的，舊的運動汽車需要大量的汽油，你明白的。

Feifei: That's a relief. You're talking about a car.

菲菲：真是如釋重負。你在說一輛汽車。

Finn: Of course! I wasn't talking about an actual elephant.

芬：當然了！我不是在說一隻真正的大象。

Feifei: The elephant sounds relieved too.

菲菲：那隻大象聽起來也放鬆了。

Finn: Yes, he does. In English, when you call something a 'white elephant' you mean that it's large, costs a lot of money to keep and has no useful purpose.

芬：是的，他確實是。在英語中，當你叫某物“白色的大象”，意味着它很大，消費大量的錢而且沒有實用的地方。

Feifei: A sports car is useful.

菲菲：一輛運動汽車很有用。

Finn: Not for me. I am a cyclist and I love my bicycle. Listen to some examples of how to use this expression.

芬：對我就不是。我是自行車愛好者，我喜歡我的自行車。聽一些關於這個表達用法的例子吧。

I've paid a lot of money for this posh designer dress that I never use. It is a white elephant!

我花了好多錢在這個高檔名牌裙子上但我從沒用過它。這真是一個昂貴又無用之物。

The new airport is a white elephant! It's got four runways and it's equipped with the latest technology, but not many people visit this region.

新的飛機場是一個昂貴又無用的東西！它有四條跑道而且配備有最先進的技術，但是沒有很多人來這個地區。

Feifei: Oh. So a 'white elephant' is something that might look good but in reality it's a waste of space.

菲菲：哦，所以一個“白色的大象”就是某些或許看起來不錯但是實際上是空間浪費的東西。

Finn: Yes, it is.

芬：是的，正確。

Feifei: Unlike these elephants we have here in the zoo. They seem to be very popular.

菲菲：不像我們在動物園看到的這些大象。它們似乎很出名。

Finn: Shall we go and have a look, Feifei?

芬：我們可以去看一看嗎，菲菲？

Feifei: Indeed and they're grey, not white!

菲菲：當然可以，而且它們是灰色的，不是白色！

Finn: Bye.

芬：再見。

Feifei: Bye.

菲菲：再見。