美語情景對話 第410期:Birthday Memory 生日記憶

When I was younger I was in an organisation called the guides. Guides are girls who are between 10 and 14 who get together once a week to do things like have competions and play games and go camping and generally just have fun together. I really enjoyed being in the guides. There's a similar organisation called the scouts for boys although I think these days girls can be scouts and maybe boys can be guides - I'm not sure. Anyway I used to go camping quite a lot with guides. I remember I went one weekend and it was the same weekend as my birthday and I was going to be 13 that weekend. We had a really good weekend and we cooked different things and we played games and we didn't really get much sleep as you generally don't when you're sleeping in a tent with a lot of people your age you tend to stay up all night.

我小的時候參加過女童子軍組織。這個組織的成員是10歲到14歲的女孩，我們每週聚在一起做些事情，比如參加競賽、玩遊戲、野營，一起度過愉快的時光。我真的很享受在女童子軍組織裏的時光。還有一個類似的男童子軍組織，不過我認爲現在這個時代女孩也可以參加男童子軍，而男孩可以參加女童子軍組織，不過我不太確定。我以前經常和女童子軍組織一起去露營。我記得有一個週末我們去露營了，那個週末是我的生日，當時我就要13歲了。我們度過了非常愉快的週末，我們做了多種不同的食物，還一起玩了遊戲，我們睡覺的時間沒有很多，一般來說和很多年齡相仿的人一起睡在一個帳篷裏的時候，通常都會整晚不睡。

So on my birthday which was the Sunday, everybody sang Happy Birthday to me and they gave me a cake and they wrote on a card for me and I had a really nice day. That evening I went home and I was so tired and I started to unpack my things. And then the doorbell rang and my friend arrived and then one by one - it was very strange- all of my friends arrived, and what had happened was my parents had organised a surprise birthday party for me! I was so excited but I was also very smelly. I hadn't had a shower for the whole weekend. We had a great time, we went bowling and it was really a day to remember.

我生日那天是週日，所有人都給我唱了生日快樂歌，他們給我準備了蛋糕，而且給我寫了祝賀卡片，我真的過的很快樂。那天晚上我回到家以後非常累，我打開包收拾東西的時候，門鈴響了，我的朋友們一個接一個地過來了，那非常奇怪，我所有的朋友都來到了我家，因爲我父母爲我準備了一個驚喜生日派對！我當時非常激動，不過我身上有味道。因爲我整個週末都沒有洗澡。不過我們還是度過了很棒的時光，我們一起去打了保齡球，那真是難忘的一天。

重點講解：
1. used to do sth.
過去常常；過去曾做某事；
eg. We used to be good friends, but fell apart about a year ago.
我們過去曾經是好朋友，但一年前關係破裂了。
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. stay up
深夜不睡；熬夜；
eg. People often do not sleep on the last day of year and stay up to welcome the new year. We call it pernoctating.
守歲，就是在舊年的最後一天夜裏不睡覺，熬夜迎接新一年的到來。
eg. I hope you will not always stay up late, but form a good habit of early to bed, early to rise.
我希望你不要總是熬夜，要養成早睡早起的好習慣。
3. one by one
逐個地；依次地；
eg. Researchers, sometimes working more or less in teams, divide problems into small pieces and try out different solutions to them one by one.
有時候，研究人員或多或少地分組合作，把問題分解並且逐個找到相應的解決辦法。
eg. All the applicants were interviewed one by one.
所有的申請者一個接着一個參加面試。