實戰(zhàn)口語情景對話：Life in Wales 威爾士的生活

Todd: So, Steven, where did you go to college?

托德：史蒂文，你在哪里上的大學(xué)?

Steve: I went to the University of Wales, um, the College of Cardiff there, so it the United Kingdom, obviously we have England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland and so I spent three years over in Wales.

史蒂文：我上的是威爾士的卡迪夫大學(xué)，英國包括英格蘭、威爾士、蘇格蘭和愛爾蘭四個部分，我在威爾士度過了三年的時間。

Todd: Wow. Sounds fun. So what's university like in Wales? Is it different than University life in Britain?

托德：哇，聽起來很有意思。威爾士的大學(xué)怎么樣?和英國其他的大學(xué)生活有什么不同嗎?

Steve: Yeah, it is. Um, for example Wales has it's own distinguished, distinctive language and culture as well, so if you go to Wales you'll see street signs written not only in English, but above that you'll have the Welsh language there and Welsh people are very, very proud of their language, and their heritage and there culture and it made it just a slightly different experience from studying over the border in England.

史蒂文：有。舉例來說，威爾士有自己獨特的語言和文化，所以如果你去威爾士，你會看到街上的標(biāo)志不僅僅是用英語寫的，在英語上面還有威爾士語，而且威爾士人對他們的語言、傳統(tǒng)和文化感到非常自豪，這和在英格蘭邊界學(xué)習(xí)的經(jīng)驗有所不同。

Todd: So they speak Welsh? Is that the language?

托德：那他們說威爾士語嗎?這是那種語言的名稱嗎?

Steve: That's correct. Yeah. Yeah, they do. It's not spoken by everybody in Wales. Since the middle ages, the usage of the language has declined somewhat but there has been a revival over the last 30 or 40 years, and now about, maybe about 40% of the Welsh population speak it as either as their first of second language.

史蒂文：沒錯。他們說威爾士語。但是并不是威爾士的所有人都說威爾士語。威爾士語在中世紀(jì)的使用有所減少，但是過去三四十年以來，威爾士語又再度復(fù)興，現(xiàn)在威爾士大約有40%的人口把威爾士語當(dāng)成第一或第二種語言來使用。

Todd: Did you learn it while you there?

托德：你在那里的時候有學(xué)威爾士語嗎?

Steve: No, no, I didn't, no. Everybody speaks English there. but there is a lot of good music coming out in Welsh now. There's lots of cultural festivals and when I was at Cardiff, there's lots of pubs where it's Welsh speaking only and it was quite good fun to go in there and try to order a beer and stuff in the Welch language, but that was about as far as I got.

史蒂文：沒有，我沒學(xué)。那里所有人都說英語，現(xiàn)在威爾士有很多不錯的音樂。那里有很多文化節(jié)，卡迪夫有許多只說威爾士語的酒吧，去那里試著用威爾語點一杯啤酒和其他東西真的很有趣，不過我也只會那點威爾士語。

Todd: Could you say that there's any, it's a stereo type, that's there's any difference between the Welsh people and the British people?

托德：有沒有那種刻板印象，威爾士人和英國人有什么區(qū)別嗎?

Steve: There is yeah, because they've had a different history and obviously that affects how people have evolved over many centuries. They like different sports for example. They're more into rugby than they are into football. They tend to look slightly different than they do to English people. They tend tohave sort of redder hair and darker eyes than English people, but also they're very, very loyal, they're very, very fierce, they're very passionate people. They're very nice people.

史蒂文：有，因為他們的歷史不同，而歷史影響著人們數(shù)個世紀(jì)以來的發(fā)展方式。舉例來說，他們喜歡的體育運動就不同。相較于足球，威爾士人更喜歡橄欖球。他們總是會看起來和英國人的做法有些不同。他們的發(fā)色比英國人更紅、眼睛的顏色也比英國人深，但是他們也同樣踏實又堅定，他們是充滿熱情的人，他們是非常棒的人。

Todd: Well, it sounds like a nice place to go. I'd love to go someday.

托德：聽起來那是個不錯的地方。我希望有一天能去看看。

Steve: Yeah it was nice!

史蒂文：當(dāng)然了，那里很不錯!