各种汽车

E: Hi. Welcome to "Let's talk." Today we're going to be continuing to talk about cars. Remember last week we asked you to be thinking about if you were going to have a car. What kind of car would you like? What kind of car would you get?

R: It's fun to dream about a new car, and it's funny what people think about with a car. I know some girls who only like the color of the car and they don't care about anything else.

E: Yeah. Maybe they like a red car.

R: Yeah. That will be lucky.

E: Also when you think about what kind of car you like, some people think about how much gas you're going to have to buy. And they think about conserving gas. That's a good vocabulary word for you: to conserve, it means to save. Is your car going to save gas? That's the kind of car I like.

R: It's really true. I know in the west and maybe here in China, how you choose your car, or what you care about says a little about your personality. So if you're choosing a car that conserves gas, you would be a thrifty person. But what if you want to drive a fast car, and you like sports.

E: Oh. And then you'd say you want a sporty car. A sporty car, that would show that you like, maybe even you like to have a special kind of sports, fast, the shape would need to be just right.

R: Yeah. And then you might want to impress your neighbors with a big powerful expensive car. If you can afford it, it’s good for you. But that's something about you too, doesn't it?

E: Yeah. There's also another vocabulary word you can learn today. It's "trendy". That means following the trend, what's popular. Trendy流行. You might want to find whatever it's the current trending cars. For example, I do know that SUV is a kind of car called SUV, was very trendy, still is right?

R: Oh, still is very popular in the US. And they're very big cars. But, in fact it means sports utility vehicle. And they were meant to drive out in the desert or any on the beach or anywhere, where there might be rocks, or where it's difficult to drive a normal car. So those are very trendy and sporty.

E: Now Rebecca, we also have to remember the word "sports car.”

R: Yeah.

E: A sports car is some of the small cars like Thunderbird or some cars that's small and low and they don't really have a lot of seats. So maybe there're just even two seats in the front and not so much in the back. And it's supposed to look really wonderful. They will give you 给面子吗. Sports car.

R: Yeah. That brings us to our other phrase "a chick magnet".

E: Uh.

R: You know a magnet that draws things to metal. Well, that's a chick magnet, chick is for a girl. So if you're a young single man you might want to drive a chick magnet. It would impress all the girls if you drove a sporty car.

E: Yeah.

R: But you know for me I have to drive around with children in my car. So I wanna to be safe and be big enough to have a lot of kids and friends in the car. So I drive a mom van.

E: A mom car.

R: It's like a 面包车 or a station wagon.

E: Yeah. We need, in that case you don't wanna to be beautiful, you wanna to be safe and big. So you can take lots of children to different places.

R: You know my husband loves to rent a car with no roof and that's called a convertible. So when we don't have children with us, he likes to rent a car when he visiting some place, put the top down and drive around with the wind. That's also a fun thing to do if the weather is good.

E: Maybe not always so safe though.

R: No. I know, not a safe mom car.

E: No. You have to be careful. What kind of car would you like? Have you thought about the colors? I know in China one of the big colors for wedding is red. So if you have a red car, you'll be using your red car for a wedding. But in the west, red car is not for weddings. Red car is, for a young person who's maybe not married yet, more like a chick magnet to have a red car.

R: Yeah. And of course many important businessmen drive black cars, and that's true in China and everywhere else I think. But you know my mother-in-law lives in a very hot climate in Arizona. And when I borrowed her car once, I drove

to the store, parked her white car. Everyone drives the white car in Arizona because it's so hot there. And white car doesn't get so hot on the inside.

E: As the black ones.

R: But I went inside and bought some groceries. I came out the store with my groceries and I thought, oh, which car is her car. I know it was white, every car was white. I was just in a panic. So really where you live makes the difference in your car.

E: Do you know what kind of car you want? Just think, now you can say it in English. Let's try these vocabulary words.

E: Sedan.

R: Jeep.

E: Station Wagon.

R: Convertible.

E: Van.

R: SUV.

E: Truck.

R: Pick Up.

E: Mini.

R: Beetle.

E: Used Car.

R: Did you know all those vocabulary words about cars. Good luck learning them. We'll see you next time on "Let's talk."

E: 欢迎收看“你说我说”，我们今天继续上次汽车的话题。上周我们要大家思考一个问题：如果你要买车，你会买什么车呢？

R: 梦想一部新车是件很美妙的事。有时你会觉得很有趣，我知道有些女孩只关心车的颜色，不关心车的其它方面。

E: 也许她们喜欢红色的车。

R: 是的，那很吉利。

E: 有些人在选择爱车的时候还会考虑到车的耗油量。他们会考虑节约汽油这个问题，这个词很好, "conserve"是节省的意思，我喜欢省油的车。

R: 有一点很明确，无论在西方国家还是在中国，你如何选择汽车，以及你所顾及的相关问题无不显示着购车者的个性。所以，如果你选择的是省油的车，说明你是个节俭的人。如果这个人的个性喜欢运动呢？

E: 这么说你喜欢"sporty car"（运动跑车），这说明你喜欢高速行驶，要求车的形状一定要合适。

R: 你可以让你的邻居吃惊一回，如果你买了一辆豪华的大功率车。只要你买的起也很不错。这也展现了你的个性。

E: 你今天还可以学习一个词 "trendy"，它的意思是紧随潮流，流行。你可能会买最流行的车，比如有一种叫SUV的车就很流行。

R: 现在它在美国很流行。它的车体很大，SUV的意思是"sport utility vehicle"（多用途越野车）。这种车是用来在沙漠或海滩上，或崎岖不平的路上行驶的。所以这种车既很流行又具动感。

E: 芮贝卡，我们现在还要记住“sports car”（跑车）这个词。

R: 是的。

E: 我们还要说一下"sports car" （跑车），跑车车体不大，比如“雷鸟”跑车。车的底盘很低，座位不多，前面只有两个座位，后排没有座位。车的外观非常引人注目，很有面子。

R: 这让我想起另一个短语 "chick magnet"。

E: 哦。

R: "magnet"（磁铁）是吸引金属的东西。"chick magnet"中的 "chick"是指女孩。所以，如果你是年轻的单身汉，你可能会喜欢开这种车，这会吸引所有女孩的目光。

E: 没错。

R: 对我来说，我要开车带孩子们外出，所以我要保证安全，而且要求车的空间要够大，要能容得下很多孩子和朋友，所以我开的是妈妈用车，

E: A mom car （妈妈用车）。

R: 就像面包车或者是旅行车。

E: 这种时候你不能只想着漂亮，你要考虑车的安全和车的大小。因为你要带着孩子们去很多地方。

R: 我丈夫喜欢租敞篷车开，这种车叫"convertible"。当孩子们没和我们在一起的时候，他会把车的顶篷放下在清风中驰骋。如果天气好，这样做很惬意。

E: 有时可能有点不安全。

R: 是的，不像妈妈用车那样安全。

E: 你喜欢哪种车呢？你考虑过车的颜色吗？我知道中国人的婚礼上人们喜欢红色，如果你有辆红色的车就可用在婚礼上。在西方，红车不是用在婚礼上的，红车往往是一些单身男性的选择，它有点像"chick magnet"。

R: 一些重要的生意人喜欢黑色的车，这在中国及其它国家都一样。我婆婆住在炎热的亚利桑那州。有一次我借她的车去买东西，我停好她的白车。因为天气的原因那里的人都开白车，白车不至于使车内太热。

E: 黑色车吸热。

R: 我买了东西从商店出来，我想，糟糕！哪辆车是她的？我知道是白色的，可眼前所有的车都是白色的，我简直要疯了。所以居住地点也影响人对车的选择。

E: 你知道你想要什么车吗？先想一想，现在我们学习一些车的词汇。

E: "Sedan"（轿车）。

R: "Jeep"（吉普车）。

E: "Station Wagon"（旅行车）。

R: "Convertible" （敞篷车）。

E: "Van" （有篷货车）。

R: "SUV" （多用途越野车）。

E: "Truck" （卡车）。

R: "Pick Up" （小型货车）。

E: "Mini" （小面包车）。

R: "Beetle" （甲壳虫轿车）。

E: "Used Car" （二手车）。

R: 你知道以上这些汽车词汇吗？祝学习进步，下次节目见。