(单词翻译:单击)
情景对话
When I was living in Pisa, a few friends and I decided to go to Venice for the carnival, so the carnival in Venice, it's usually, usually about February or March, depending on when Easter is that year cause Easter can change every year, it's a different day, so this time it was, I think about, it was about the middle of February, that's right, so we went there about the 11th or 12th of February, and it was so cold. I remember just being bitterly, bitterly cold. I remember a few of us had to buy extra scarves and gloves and jumpers cause it was just so, so cold, especially at night. During the day wasn't so bad, it was still cold but it was really awful at night if you were walking around, but it was an awful lot of fun to be in Venice for carnival because, em, lots of people dress up in really, really elaborate costumes and masks. One of my friends there, she goes almost every year to the carnival and she does face-painting on the streets so I met up with her, kind of by chance. We knew that we were both going to be there but it's such a busy time we weren't sure if we were going to meet or not, so it was really good that we met up in the huge piazza, Piazza San Marco. She told me roughly which side of the piazza she would be and I found her, so that was really great to see her after such a long time and then the other amazing thing we did that weekend or that few days was that my friends and I went on a gondola. So, a gondola, you've probably seen on television or in a book or something, a gondola is the long, kind of, boat that they have in Venice and there's a man who stands at the back with a big, long pole that he steers the boat with so he drives the boat along by pushing this long stick into the mud on the bottom of the canal, I suppose. It was really amazing because that's one of the, I suppose, the most stereotypical things when you think of Venice and when I'd been there the first time I hadn't gone on a gondola because I thought aw, it's too touristy, I'm not going to do that, but my friends this time, they really wanted to go on one, so we went and we asked some of the guys, the gondoliere as they're called, by piazza san Marco and asked them how much it would cost but we'd forgotten that that day it was the 14th of February so it was Valentine's Day and, as you can imagine, going out in a gondola is, is usually a very romantic occasion for a couple and whatever, to go off and be maybe serenaded by, by another gondoliere, so they sing all sorts of, of songs like you've probably seen on TV or heard in television adverts so they wanted an awful lot of money, I remember, just because it was Valentine's Day, so there were a few of us trying to argue with them in Italian and you know, we were saying that it wasn't fair because it was just a group of us and we just wanted the experience so I think eventually they kind of gave us a more reasonable price so we set off in the gondola and went along the canals, the little canals around Piazza San Marco so it was really, really, really nice. We got to see a lot of the, the backstreets, like I say, and lovely old bridges crossing, crossing the canals. It's a really unique experience as Venice is a pretty unique city really. There was, em, our gondoliere was pretty funny in the end as it turned out. He was very nice, and so there was a few of us from Ireland in the gondola he was asking us all where we were from and soas soon as we told him Ireland he started singing us a song by U2 which is a bit strange, not the usual song that you expect from a gondoliere but, em, it was quite funny, anyway. So, like I say, a really unique experience.
我住在比萨城的时候，决定和一些朋友去威尼斯参加狂欢节，威尼斯的狂欢节一般在二月或者三月举行，举办时间要取决于那年的复活节在什么时候，因为每年的复活节时间都会变动，每年的时间都不一样，我们参加的那场狂欢节是在二月中旬举行的，所以我们是二月11日或者是12日去的，当时非常冷。我记得当时很冷，非常寒冷。我记得因为当时太冷，我们中有些人不得不再买条围巾、手套和针织毛衫，而且晚上要更寒冷。不过那天还不算太糟，虽然非常冷，但是晚上出去走走还是非常不错的，在威尼斯参加狂欢节非常有趣，因为有很多人穿着精美的服装，戴着美丽的面具。我有一个朋友几乎每年都会参加狂欢节，她通常会在街头做面部彩绘，而我刚好和她偶遇了。我们知道我们都要去那里，可是因为时间太赶了，所以我们不确定我们是否会相遇，而我们在圣马可广场相遇了，那真是太好了。她大概跟我说了一下她会去广场的哪个地方，然后我就在那里找到了她，在那么长时间以后见到她真是太高兴了，而且那个周末或者说那几天我们还做了其他令人不可思议的事，那就是我和朋友们去坐了威尼斯吊船。你们可能在电视上或是在书上和其他地方看到过吊船，吊船是威尼斯一种很长的船，会有个船夫拿着又长又大的船杆站在船尾，他会那支船杆来控制船，我想他把船杆插入河流底部的泥土里来让船前行。那真是太不可思议了，因为我认为那是威尼斯最典型的事物，而我第一次去威尼斯的时候并没有坐吊船，因为我觉得那就是为吸引游客才设计的，所以我不会坐那种船，但是我朋友们非常想试试，所以我们就去了，我们向圣马可广场的一些船夫询问了吊船的价格，可是我们忘了那天是2月14日情人节，你可以想象，乘坐吊船对情况来说会是很浪漫的事情，船夫会吟唱小夜曲，他们会一路吟唱你可能在电视上或是电视广告中听过的那种歌曲，当然他们也会要一大笔钱，因为那天是情人节，我们中有些人试着用意大利语和他们争辩，我们说那并不公平，因为我们是一群人，我们只是希望有这种体验，我想最终船夫向我们要了更合理的价格，所以我们开始了乘坐吊船游览的行程，我们沿着圣马可大广场周围的河流游览，那真是非常美妙的经历。我们看到了一些后街的风景，就像我说过的，我喜欢跨海大桥。那真是次独特的经历，而威尼斯真是一个非常独特的城市。后来证明我们的吊船之旅非常有意思。船夫人非常好，我们中有些人来自爱尔兰，船夫问了我们所有人来自哪里，我们告诉他我们来自爱尔兰之后他就开始为我们演唱U2乐队的歌，那有点奇怪，因为那并不是船夫通常会唱的歌曲，不过不管怎么样说，那确实很有趣。就像我说过的，那真是次非常独特的经历。
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重点讲解
重点讲解：
1. depend on
取决（于）；有赖（于）；
eg. How much can you get depend on how much you pay.
你能得到多少取决于你付出了多少。
eg. And the next step up the ladder would depend on her performance in Paris.
而她的下一次晋升就取决于她在巴黎的工作表现。
2. dress up
装扮；打扮；
eg. For children, the main point of Halloween became to dress up and collect as much tasty candy as possible.
对于孩子们，万圣节最重要的就是打扮起来，并搜集尽可能多的美味糖果。
eg. She loved to dress up and she enjoyed the attention from other student she was living it up.
她喜欢打扮并乐意成为其他学生关注的焦点，她尽情地享受生活。
3. meet up
碰到；遇见；
eg. When he was in the supermarket, he met up with a buddy he had at Oxford.
他在超市遇见了他在牛津时的一个朋友。
eg. They met up in 1956, when they were both young schoolboys.
他们1956年相遇，那时他们俩都还是小男生。
4. by chance
偶然；碰巧；
eg. He picked up a purse on his way there by chance.
他碰巧在去那儿的路上捡了一个钱包。
eg. It was not by chance that he was able to open up a new field and perform great deeds.
他之所以能开辟新天地，成就一番事业，绝非偶然。
5. set off
动身；出发；启程；
eg, By midmorning we were done with the eiffel tower and had set off for versailles.
上午的时候，我们已经结束了埃菲尔铁塔的游览，出发前往凡尔赛宫。
eg. We were about to set off when it suddenly began to rain.
我们刚要出发，突然下起雨来。
6. in the end
最后；终于；
eg. Almost everyone gets their comeuppance in the end.
几乎每个人最终都会得到应有的报应。
eg. In the end, we all decided to organize a concert for Easter.
最终，我们一致决定组织一场复活节音乐会。
7. turn out
（以某种方式）发生；最后是；结果是；
eg. I was positive things were going to turn out fine.
我确信事情最终会好起来的。
eg. It's strange how things turn out.
事情的结局出乎意料。
8. as soon as
一…就…；
eg. As soon as the matter is cleared up. I shall write to them.
等到这事一弄清楚，我就给他们写信。
eg. I arranged the flowers in the vase as soon as I came back home.
一回到家里，我就把花在花瓶里插好。
