美語情景對話 第476期:Family Road Trip 家庭公路旅行

Todd: So Tres, you said when you were younger, you took many family car trips.

託德：特雷斯，你說過你年輕時曾有過很多次家庭駕車旅行。

Tres: Oh yes. You can say I grew up in the car. We'd take road trips from Oklahoma (state of Oklahoma) to say Florida or Georgia, Mississippi. We'd even drive up north to New York, and I've taken road trips to Colorado, and Seattle Washington. Inside the car, when I'm with my brothers and sisters, sometimes we'd fight but most of the time we'd play various games. For example we'd count the license plates.

特雷斯：是的。可以說我是在車裏長大的。我們會開車從俄克拉荷馬州前往佛羅里達州或是喬治亞州和密蘇里州。我們也曾開車北上前往紐約，我曾開展過前往科羅拉多州和華盛頓州西雅圖市的公路旅行。我和哥哥姐姐在車裏的時候會互相打鬧，不過大多數時間我們會玩各種遊戲。比如我們會數車牌。

Todd: So license plates are the, like I.D. on the back of a car.

託德：車牌是指車後面標的I.D.這種嗎？

Tres: Right. I.D. on the back of a car, and depending on the state, the license plate changes. So we try to see, how many states we can count. And who every got the most states by the end of the trip of course would win. We'd do other things, for example, my parents always made sure that we visited historical sites to learn about the local culture of the area. And we'd also try the local foods that existed. So whenever we'd drive to the south, for example, if we drove through Louisiana, we'd try Cajun food. Which is full of gumbo (which is another word for okra), and rice, and Cray fish (which is sort of like a lobster).

特雷斯：沒錯。是車後面標的I.D.，不過不同的州車牌標識也會不同。所以我們會比賽看我們能數到多少個州的車牌。在旅行結束後記錄到最多州的人就是勝利者。我們也會做其他事情，比如我的父母會確保我們參觀了歷史古蹟，這樣我們就能瞭解當地的文化。我們也會嘗試當地的食物。所以每次我們開車去南部旅行時，舉例來說，如果我們去路里斯安那州旅行，我們就會吃卡真風味美食。卡真食物以秋葵（這是秋葵的另一種說法）、米飯和螯蝦（與龍蝦類似）爲主。

Todd: Sounds good. It's spicy?

託德：聽起來不錯。卡真食物是辣的嗎？

Tres: Oh yea it's very spicy. Very very spicy. So we had a lot of fun times in the car.

特雷斯：是，非常辣。非常非常辣。總的來說我們會在車裏度過很多愉快時光。

Todd: So did you have some bad times in the car? Did you fight with your brothers and your sisters?

託德：那你在車裏有沒有不愉快的時光？你會和你的哥哥姐姐打架嗎？

Tres: Occasionally we would fight. I was the youngest of three, so I always lost. So it was very hard. And I had the middle seat. So if my older brother fought with my older sister, then I was stuck in the centre.

特雷斯：有時我們會打架。我是三個孩子中最小的，所以我總是輸。這非常困難。我坐在中間，如果我哥哥和我姐姐打架，那我就會被困在中間。

Todd: Not fun.

託德：這可不好玩。

Tres: Not fun at all. But we hardly ever fought and I would say the road trips were a lot of fun.

特雷斯：一點兒也不好玩。不過我們幾乎不打架，所以我們的公路旅行有很多樂趣。

Todd: Yeah. I took a lot of road trips with my family I remember them very fondly.

託德：好。我也和我的家人一起進行過公路旅行，在我記憶中這些旅行非常美好。

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重點講解：
1. make sure that
一定要；設法保證；
eg. But, we want to make sure that everything we do has the right nutritional value for our kids.
但我們還是希望確保我們提供的所有食品對孩子有恰當的營養價值。
eg. We have to respect individuals' rights and make sure that they're not harassing people online.
我們必須尊重個人的權利，確保人們在網絡上不受干擾。
2. be full of
有大量…的；滿是…的；
eg. The book is full of amusing sidelights on his family background.
書中有很多關於他家庭背景的趣聞。
eg. This young man is full of conceit.
這個年輕人非常自負。
3. hardly ever
幾乎不；幾乎沒有；
eg. We ate chips every night, but hardly ever had fish.
我們每晚吃炸薯條，但幾乎從不吃魚。
eg. I have hardly ever been out of this city.
我幾乎未曾離開過這個城市。