The English We Speak是英國BBC電臺為英語學(xué)習(xí)者量身打造的一檔英語學(xué)習(xí)節(jié)目。
本期節(jié)目中,兩位主持人被坑了一會爹,讓我們跟隨錄音看看是怎么一回事兒。
William: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I'm William.
Yang Li: And I'm Yang Li.
William: You look very pleased today Li.
Yang Li: Well, I should be. I've just won a prize!
William: Wow, great! What did you win?
Yang Li: I don't know yet. I ate this bar of chocolate and it told me to phone a number to find out my prize.
William: Oh wow, cool. Let's call them.
Yang Li: OK.
Welcome to the Choccy Choc Chocolate prize hotline. Please hold to find what amazing prize you've won.
Yang Li: Wow, this is exciting!
Welcome to the Choccy Choc Chocolate prize hotline. Please hold to find what amazing prize you've won.
William: Hmmm.
Welcome to the Choccy Choc Chocolate prize hotline. Please hold to find what amazing prize you've won.
Yang Li: It can't be long now...
William: Li, can I see that chocolate wrapper?
Yang Li: OK. What does it say?
William: It says "Calls to this line are charged at 20 a minute"!
Yang Li: What?! No way! Well, shall we hang up?
William: I should think so! What a swizz.
Hangs up
Yang Li: A swizz?
William: Yes, a swizz. A swizz is a scheme that tricks people to make money. Like this company is making you call an expensive phone line – it's a swizz.
Yang Li: I see.
William: We might say "What a swizz", or "That's a bit of a swizz".
Yang Li: So, how do we spell this word, swizz?
William: Well you know, I'm not too sure. I've seen it spelled S.W.I.Z.Z. but I've also seen S.W.I.Z.
Yang Li: You mean you don't know how to spell it? But this is BBC Learning English! We should know how to spell it. What a swizz!
William: Ha ha. Yeah, I'm sorry! But that's just the way English is sometimes, it's always changing! At least you know -Phone rings
Yang Li: Oh! Hello?
Choc Person: Hello, is that Yang Li?
Yang Li: Yes.
Choc Person: We have a missed call from you. Just ringing to say you've won a prize!
Yang Li: Wow, what is it?
Choc Person: You need to ring this number to find out. 0800 23 4…
Yang Li: Ha! What a swizz. Bye.
William: Bye.
賞析:
聽完這段錄音,才發(fā)現(xiàn),原來這種坑爹的電話騙局也不僅僅是中國的特色,英國同樣有。而且用的是同樣的伎倆,用一行一般人不會注意到的小字標(biāo)明“撥打此電話20英鎊每分鐘”。主持人把這種“設(shè)套騙人錢財?shù)娜恕苯凶觥癮 swizz”。比較有意思的是,錄音中的騙子竟然還回?fù)芰诉^來,還想多騙一次,不過我想,應(yīng)該沒人會連續(xù)上兩次當(dāng)吧。
主持人已經(jīng)記不清Swizz的拼寫了,說也有可能是swiz, 因為英語是在不停變化的,就像這部分賞析中出現(xiàn)的“坑爹”,兩年之前,在漢語中也是沒有的。因此,我認(rèn)為我們應(yīng)該學(xué)習(xí)與時俱進的、當(dāng)下英美人正在使用的、不斷更新的英語。
記住,天生怎么會掉餡餅,沒人會無緣無故送你人民幣,當(dāng)真碰到這種“好事”,也請多長個心眼,因為電話那頭就有一個swizz在一邊笑話你,一邊數(shù)錢。