賴世雄高級美國英語教程Unit 36 Vancouver: Asia's Newest City
Hello, everybody, welcome again to Radio English on Sunday.
This is Bruce,
/ and this is Peter,
/ Welcome back. Today we look at unit thirty six, Vancouver: Asia's Newest City.
Mmm, ..read the first paragraph or two, and then we can clear up this unusual title.
What? Wait a minute! Did read that right? I though Vancouver was in Canada, not in Asia. Why is the title of this article "Vancouver, Asia's Newest city"?
Relax, everyone. Yes, Vancouver is still in Canada, North America's largest country, not in Asia. Over the past twenty years, however, Asians from China, Taiwan, Hongkong, Thailand, the Philippines, and other countries across the Ocean, have flocked into this largest city on Canada's Pacific Coast. By some accounts, as many as thirty percent of household in Vancouver speak Mandarin or Cantonese, making the Chinese there the largest minority by far. Just what is the attraction of this English speaking city, however?
Ok, we are going back here. Yes, that's right, Vancouver is still part of Canada, but because so many Asians have moved into Vancouver, especially over the last two decades or so, at least thirty percent of the people who live in Vancouver, are of Chinese heritage, and there are other people from Thailand, Philippines, probably Korea, India and other Asian nations, that have also moved into Vancouver, because it's on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, just as many large California cities, also have sizable, oriental populations.
/ Oh, they have a sizable, oriental population, the city has a sizable, oriental population.
They are American's or they are Canadian's of Chinese heritage, 華裔，or descent.
/ "Descent" or "extraction." ____都表示“血統(tǒng)”.還有這個heritage.
____decent, 卻表示：正派的，端莊的，有分寸的，得體的，相當好的，與descent完全不一樣哦。Pan.
...of Chinese heritage, of Chinese descent, of Chinese extraction. They are all the same.
Now let's continue about Vancouver.
A visit to Vancouver quickly reveals her charms. Situated on the ocean and possessing a fine, deepwater port, British Columbia's largest city faces Vancouver Island to the West, and mountains to the East and North. Most of the city is relatively new,
4:28 having been rebuilt after a great fire in eighteen eighty six. The completion of the Panama Canal in nineteen fifteen, during the Wrold War One helped spur growth all along the West Coast of America. As products from the Western states of the US, and the Western provinces of Canada could be profitably shipped to Europe. By the Nineteen thirties, Vancouver has become Canada's third largest city, a position it maintains today. Lumber from the extensive forested areas within the province, minerals, seafood, and assorted industries, including tourism, give the million-plus residents of metropolitan Vancouver a high standard of living.
Now we take a look at some of the geographic information about Vancouver, it's on the West Coast of Canada, that is on the Pacific Ocean, in the province of British Clumbia. In the US, we use "state", so do (BroZio 地名) and India. Many countries use "province" such as China or Frence and here we have Canada, which use "province." The history of this city is not very long, it was small and got smaller in eighteen eighty six, due to a great fire. It didn't really start to develop until after the Panama Canal was completed in World War One. Since then, since British Clumbia has a lot of rich natural resources, the people in Vancouver have a wild variety of jobs to do, including tourism.
/ lumber, 木材，timber, 也是木材， wood, 木頭，log, 也是木頭，How on earth should we distinguish them from one to another?
/ Well, I would say, that "lumber" and "timber" are almost exactly the same. We can talk about the lumber industry or the timber industry. So those two you can use interchangeably in most cases. But "log" and "wood", no. If we cut down a tree, the long, round trunk of the tree, is called a "log", and it is composed of "wood". After we cut the log into pieces, 7:35 we can make furniture or building materials. The material itself is wood, but "log" refers to a felled tree, or sections of that.
/ log 是可數(shù)的，he was sleeping like a log. 我們中國人常說的這個“睡得象豬一樣”差不多的意思羅。wood通常是不可數(shù)的。a piece of wood. 當這樣說的時候，I enjoy walking in the woods, 表示樹林。
一片樹林的時候，there's a wood in front of my house, there's a woods in front of my house, are both right.
/I would say "a woods", but some people would say "a wood" because of the grammatical relationship.
Ok, let's continue and talk more about ..we can call it "the political geography of the city", what the city actually looks like or what it offers people.
The city itself is comfortable and attractive. A large center park called "Stanly" Park includes a zoo, gardens, arboretum, and aquarium. The university of British Clumbia and (Siman Frasea 鳥地名) university are located in the greater Vancouver area, as are many small and quaint farming and fishing villages within a few hours' drive. Scenic, unpolluted, and prosperous, who could ask for anything more?
_______arboretum,
A place where an extensive variety of woody plants are cultivated for scientific, educational, and ornamental purposes.
樹木園，植物園為科學(xué)、教育及裝飾目而大量種植各類木本植物的地方
quaint,
Odd, especially in an old-fashioned way:
離奇的奇異的，尤指以一種老式的方法：
揟here is something almost quaint in the image of Irish organized crime, something that calls to mind old movies with Jimmy Cagney?James Traub)
“在愛爾蘭有組織犯罪的影像中，有一些離奇古怪的東西，這讓人想起吉米·卡格尼的老式電影”(詹姆斯·特勞布)
Unfamiliar or unusual in character; strange:
古怪的特征不熟悉或不尋常的；奇怪的：
quaint dialect words.
古怪的方言單詞
See: strange
離奇有趣的; 優(yōu)雅的; 奇怪的
做得很精巧的
性格或外表異常的, 奇特的
a quaint old house
一座古雅的老房子
a quaint method (custom)
一個奇怪的方法 (風(fēng)俗)
So we find out what Vancouver offers people. If you like the natural life and the city life together, there're few better choices than Vancouver. It has some of the best gardens, and parks in the world, and the aquarium or zoo, this sort of thing, many students like Vancouver because of these famous universities and of course several smaller ones as well. And if you are tired of the city, you don't have to drive very long to go to quaint farming and fishing villages. These are small, so beautiful, so unpolluted, it looks like pictures, they don't even look real as you're driving along the ocean highway.
/ Quite agree with you because I just have been to Vancouver, it's a very beautiful city, you know. I took a (croose), a rather (croose) trip, all the way to (Alasca, Absonr, 地名) you know. When I first landed at the airport over there, I was shocked, or rather amazed at the beautiful view all around. The air there is really fresh, you know, it's really beautiful, beyond description, I should say.
/ Especially when we think about Taibei, or Los Angeles, or (Huston, 休斯頓什么的), and other polluted cities, going to a city where the air is freshing and clean, is a shocking, amazing, ..
/ It's more moderate in climate, as you go east in North America, in Canada that will be to (Montrilo or Toronto, 蒙特利亞，多倫多什么的), or in the states from San Francisco over to Boston and New York, the temperature falls quite a bit. It's much colder on the east coast than on the west coast. That's something you should remember.
/ fall, fell, fallen, 而砍樹 v,，的原始形為fell, felled, felled,
to fell a tree,
I felled a tree yesterday,
Many trees here have been felled.
Ok, let's go ahead.
Certainly not the Chinese. Although limited immigration from the Far East began as early as the nineteen century, it was not until the nineteen seventy's that immigration to both Canada and US began to increase significantly. By the nineteen eighty's, the steady stream had become a flood. Today, Vancouver's Chinatown is set to be North America's second largest. Given the large numbers of Chinese living in the much larger cities of New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, that represents astronomical growth.
Here we are talking about immigration. Remember, immigration, I-M-M-I...but emigration, which refers to leaving or going out from one's country, is E-M-I...
Well, from the nineteen seventy's until now, these twenty to thirty years, immigration from the Far East, sometimes we say the "orient", has increased dramatically. The number of Asians living in the US and in Canada has inscreased by many hundreds of percent since the nineteen seventy's. And Vancouver has received a very large share of this large immigration. That's why we began by saying "about one third of the poeple in Vancouver city are of Chinese extraction. Now it's much higher a percentage than in big cities like New York, Toronto, (Alli, 鳥地名), or San Francisco.
/ ..
/ We also have many Spanish-speaking Americans, I don't know about Canada, but because the US is next to Mexico, in California, (Erozona and Texis 一些鳥地名得克殺死什么什么的) there are small towns that speak Spanish, not English. And you can be born in the town, and live your whole life in the town, knowing only Spanish.
/ Mmm,
/ Hey, what's the problem? They can make their living, and they don't even have to learn English.
Ok, let's go on and over to the next page.
Vancouver's Chinatown is located within walking distance of the downtown area as are most Chinatowns in North America. Here one can find both traditional Chinese herbal stores and fresh food markets, as well as small retails and service businesses. From mid-May to September, Friday to Sunday evenings from six thirty to eleven thirty, both Chinese and foreign visitors to this area might mistake themselves as being in ShangHai or Hongkong. For daytime visitors, the Dr. (Sunias Sun) classical Chinese Gardens is a must, offering beautiful landscape floral gardens. The nearby Chinese cultural Center conducts walking tours of its historic district, and even the slide show revealing the historic development of the area.
Are you worried that your English isn't so good? Don't worry when you are in Vancouver, because the Chinatown there is very well-organized to help the Chinese, the foreign visitors of Chinese extraction, from main-land China, HongKong, Taiwan, Singapore and so on, if you don't know English, don't worry. Because you will find all the Chinese services, restaurants, shops and stores you are used to, and if you want to learn something about Vancouver, and get around, there will be tours in Mandarin and Cantonese, and possibly some other dialects of Chinese as well.
/ Because of the trip to Vancouver, I conclude that what Bruce has just said is one hundred percent right. If you ever have a chance to visit a city, if you in case, if you get lost, don't worry, stay over there, pretty soon you will run into someone that is able to speak Chinese. No doubt about that.
/ Yeah, a lot of people in Vancouver are not only of Chinese extraction, but because of the recent immigration, most of them speak Mandarin, Cantonese as their native langauge, English or French is their second language.
/ Right. ..the old time for quite a long time, Chinese over there spoke Cantonese only, but today the things have already changed. Most of them speak Mandarin, very beautiful Mandarin.
/ Right, and the same thing now is happening in HongKong.
/ Oh, yes.
/ They used to speak only Cantonese but more and more people also speak Mandarin in Hongkong.
Well, we'll finish up. Our concluding paragraph tells us,
Of course, Vancouver has much more to offer its residents and out-of-town and overseas visitors. Though, or perhaps because, it lacks the manic energy of east coast cities of America, or those of modern Asia, Vancouver continues to attract new residents with its serene, safe, and, well, sane lifestyle.
________serene,
Unaffected by disturbance; calm and unruffled.
安詳?shù)牟皇芨蓴_所影響的；平靜和安定的
See: calm
Unclouded; fair:
睛朗的無云的；晴朗的：
serene skies and a bright blue sea.
晴朗的天空和亮藍色的大海
OftenSerene
常作Serene
Used as a title and form of address for certain members of royalty:
尊貴的用作對特定的貴族成員的頭銜和稱呼形式：
Her Serene Highness; His Serene Highness.
公主殿下；殿下
Well, why do people go to Vancouver? And we could also say other cities like San Francisco, or (Seato 西雅圖什么什么的) on the west coast, they don't have that manic energy, "manic" is an adjective that really means crazy, and if you've been to Tokyo or Hongkong, here in Taibei or New York, you know what I'm talking about, it seems that everybody is in the rush all the time, and so serious, and everything's important and busy, busy, busy, that's a little bit crazy, let's face it, it's stimulating, and for us workaholic, it's fun.
/ Mmm-hum,
/ But it's a stressful life. And if we look at the last sentence here, we can see that Vancouver may be attracting so many people because it's serene, it's peaceful, it's safe, you don't have to worry when you go out at night, and maybe we could say, sane, too. It's a healthful lifestyle, not like a crazy one like in New York.
/ Well, in appearance, of course, life there is ..but in private I talked to someone in Canadian over there, they complain that it's very hard to find a job over there, so...
/ Really?
/ ..big city of hustle and bustle, cities like New York and San Francisco, so ..there're always two sizes to a coin.
Ok, let's go back and review this beautiful city, Vancouver, Asia's newest city.
21:26
/ Yeah...with San Francisco, Vancouver actually came into being because of the gold (brosh) in the eighteen hundred's or something.
/ Yeah, after the Civil War, ...
..ok, by the way, on the page three hundred seven, we said that Canada is the largest country in North America, we mean area, not popullation, that will be the US. Anyway, join us next time for unit thirty seven, the Germanic Lanuages.
_____________Pan. 2003, 5.
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Unit 36
Vancouver: Asia's Newest City 溫哥佛－－－亞洲的新都市
What? Wait a minute! Did I read that right? I thought Vancouver was in Canada, not in Aisa. Why is the title of this article "Vancouver: Asia's Newest City"?
Relax, everyone. yes, Vancouver is still in Canada, North America's largest country, not in Asia. Over the past twenty years, however, Asians from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, and other countries across the ocean have flocked into this largest city on Canada's Pacific coast. By some accounts, as many as 30% of households in Vancouver speak Mandarin or Cantonese, making the Chinese there the largest minority by far. Just what is the attraction of this English-speaking city, however?
A visit to Vancouver quickly reveals her charms. Situated on the ocean and possessing a fine, deepwater port, British Columbia's largest city faces Vancouver Island to the west and mountains to the east and north. Most of the city is relatively new, having been rebuilt after a great fire in 1886. The completion of the Panama Canal in 1915 during World War I helped spur growth all along the West Coast of North America, as products from the western states of the United States and the western provinces of Canada could be profitably shipped to Europe. By the 1930s Vancouver had become Canada's third-largest city, a position it maintains today. Lumber from the extensive forested areas within the province, minerals, seafood, and assorted industries. including tourism, give the million-plus residents of metropolitan Vancouver a high standard of living.
The city itself is comfortable and attractive. A large central park called Stanley Park includes a zoo, gardens, arboretum, and aquarium! The University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University are located in the greater Vancouver area, as are many small and quaint farming and fishing villages within a few hours' drive. Scenic, unpolluted, and prosperous: who could ask for anything more?
Certainly not the Chinese. Although limited immigration from the Far East began as early as the 19th century, it was not until the 1970s that immigration to both Canada and the United States began to increase significantly. By the 1980s, the steady stream had become a flood. Today, Vancouver's Chinatown is said to be North America's second largest. Given the large numbers of Chinese living in the much larger cities of New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, that represents astonomical growth.
Vancouver's Chinatown is located within walking distance of the downtown area, as are most Chinatowns in North America. Here one can find both traditional Chinese herbal stores and fresh food markets as well as small retail and service businesses. From mid-May to September, Friday to Sunday evenings from 6:30 to 11:30, both Chinese and "foreign" visitors to this area might mistake themselves as being in Shanghai or Hong Kong. For daytime visitors, the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Gardens is a must, offering beautifully landscaped floral gardens. The nearby Chinese Cultural Center conducts walking tours of the historic district and even a slide show revealing the historic development of the area.
Of course, Vancouver has much more ot offer its residents and out-of-town and overseas visitors. Though--or perhaps because--it lacks the manic energy of East Coast cities of North America or those of modern Aisa, Vancouver continues to attract new residents with its serene, safe, and, well, sane lifestyle.
*****************************************************************************
flock,
Shoppers flocked to the department store during its year-end sale.
reveal,
Mary smiled at the sight of John, revealing that she was very much in love with him.
be situated in/ on, 座落于…之內(nèi)/之上
= be located in/on,
lie in/on,
stand in/on,
My hometown is a small village situated deep in the mountain.
relatively, adv, 相當?shù)兀?br />
Indonesia is a relatively populous nation, but it has only one-sixth the population of China.
spur, v, 激動，刺激，激勵，
Low taxes and good infrastructure spur a nation's growth.
低稅率和完善的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施能激勵國家的成長。
assorted, adj, 混合的，
My boyfriend gave me a box of assorted chocolates on Valentine's Day.
astronomical, adj,
Many computer companies have experienced astronomical growth in the past ten years.
Be within walking distance of ...離...走路就到了，距離不遠，走幾步就到了，
The post office is within walking distance of where I live.
landscape, 這里是v, 將...作景觀美化，
The city government had the dump landscaped and changed into a beautiful park.
manic, adj, 狂躁的，
Life in HongKong is manic compared to the simple life of agricultural village.
serene, adj, 寧靜的，
After he retired, Peter led a serene life in the country.
