(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Now, it's time for Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English.
In many parts of the United States, temperatures are falling. This change of season, from summer to autumn, gives Americans many things to watch. Many people travel to areas of the U.S. that are famous for autumn leaves that change into brilliant shades of red, gold and orange.
Something else to watch is the antics of squirrels! Squirrels provide some of the most interesting and entertaining behavior in the natural world.
Now, I use the word "antics," meaning silly or funny games, because that's what it looks like.
But I am not being fair to squirrels. They are actually doing something most important -- gathering and storing food for the winter months.
The fact that squirrels are doing an important activity, however, makes them no less entertaining to watch. The animals hurry across the ground, digging holes to find food or to find where they buried food. They chase each other around trees. They jump from one tree limb to another, higher and higher up in the tree, looking for nuts and seeds. Sometimes, squirrels drop this food to the ground below, and sometimes they hit people passing by.
As I said earlier, this behavior is very entertaining to watch!
These woodland creatures do not stay still for very long. And they are good at collecting things. So, it is not surprising that American English has a couple of expressions with the word "squirrel."
First, there is the adjective squirrelly.
Now, "squirrelly" has several definitions. The most common one describes someone who is unusually active and unable to sit still -- much like a squirrel. Another word with the same meaning is restless. When talking about word choice, "restless" may be more common in everyday speech, but "squirrelly" is much more fun!
Let's hear it used in an example.
"At the end of a school year, students may get a little squirrelly (restless) sitting in a classroom. It's best to let them run around outside during the day."
In this example, you can almost imagine a classroom of children suddenly turning into a group of squirrels running around and unable to sit in their seats! So, the word you use depends on the feeling you want to create in your sentence.
"Squirrelly" can also describe someone who is acting very strange or crazy -- again, like a squirrel. A word that means close to that is eccentric.
This meaning of squirrelly may come from the fact that the main food in a squirrel's diet is nuts. In American English, "nuts" is a slang expression for crazy.
"At the party, she behaved squirrelly (eccentric) the whole night -- walking quickly between rooms, hiding in corners and interrupting conversations with high-pitched laughter. She gave everyone a very odd impression."
Finally, the adjective "squirrelly" can describe someone or something that seems to be dishonest. A more commonly used word that means the same thing is shady.
Let's hear an example.
"That business deal sounds squirrelly (shady) to me. If something sounds too good to be true -- it probably is."
So, that is the adjective. We also have a very useful expression from the world of squirrels -- to squirrel something away.
Okay, so we know that squirrels collect nuts, seeds and other things to eat. Then they hide them away to survive winter weather, when food is hard to find.
People can do the same thing. When we squirrel something away, we put something in a safe or secret place so that we can use it in the future. When we collect or save things in an unusual, or even unhealthy way, you could use the word hoard.
Here's another example.
"She has squirreled away (hoarded) magazines for years. There are stacks and stacks in her attic. I'm not sure what she is saving them for but she won't get rid of them!"
The things people squirrel away usually aren't nuts and seeds. We most often squirrel away money for the future.
"When he retired he was able to live quite comfortably. He squirreled away over $400,000 in the bank!"
But we can squirrel away anything that is important to us and that we want to use later.
"She squirreled away her favorite color of wool yarn as if they weren't going to make it any more. She has more than 30 rolls of it in her closet!"
And that's Words and Their Stories for today. But we'll be back next week. It's my custom to squirrel away story ideas for this program. So we'll have a new one then!
I'm Anna Matteo.
重点解析
1.store food 储存食物
Some animals store food for the winter.
有些动物储藏食物过冬。
2.turn into 变成
We think he'll turn into a top-class player.
我们认为他会成为一流的选手。
3.get rid of 扔掉;丢弃;摆脱;甩掉;赶走
It fell to me to get rid of them.
由我来负责摆脱他们。
参考译文
现在是VOA学英语《词汇掌故》节目时间。
美国有很多地方正在降温，由夏入秋的季节变化给美国人带来了很多可供观赏的美景，有很多人就会到美国的一些以“秋叶”闻名的地方旅行，那里的秋叶到了秋天会变成亮红色、金色和橘色。
值得一看的还有滑稽（antics）的松鼠！松鼠会做出一些自然界中最有趣、最滑稽的行为。
这里我用了单词“antics”，意思是“愚蠢或者有趣的游戏”，因为松鼠就是这样的。
但是这么说对松鼠并不公平，因为它们其实是在做极其重要的事情：收集和储存过冬的食物。
“松鼠正在从事一项很重要的活动”的这个事实并没有减少人们观看的乐趣性。这些家伙会在地上匆忙地穿来穿去，挖掘洞穴寻找食物或者寻找他们之前埋藏的食物。它们会在树上互相追逐，从一个枝丫跳到另一个枝丫，在树上爬得越来越高，寻觅坚果和种子。有时松鼠的食物会掉到地上，有时它们会撞到路人。
正如我之前所说，这种行为看着会很有趣！
这些森林动物很好动，它们擅长收集东西，所以美式英语里有几个包含单词“squirrel”的表达也就不意外了。
首先是形容词“squirrelly”。
“squirrelly”有好几个含义，最常见的含义是“形容一个人异常活跃，坐不住，很像一只松鼠”。另一个有相同意思的单词是“restless”。那如何区分呢？“restless”或许在日常对话中更为常见，但“squirrelly”趣味性更强！
我们来听一个有关“squirrelly”的用法的例子。
“学期末的时候可能学生们在教室里会有些坐不住，白天最好让他们去外面玩。”
这个例子里，你几乎可以想象一下整个教室的孩子突然变成了一群松鼠到处乱跑的场景，他们没法老老实实坐在教室里！所以，用哪个单词取决于你自己想在句子里表达什么样的感觉。
“squirrelly”也可以形容“行为异常或疯狂的人”——还是像松鼠，和它意思相近的单词是“eccentric（异乎寻常的）”。
“squirrelly”的这个意思或许来源于“松鼠的主要食物是坚果（nuts）”这个事实。美语里“nuts”的意思是“疯狂的”，是一个俚语。
“她在聚会上整晚都表现得很疯狂：在屋子里来回踱步、藏在角落里、用尖锐的笑声打断谈话，她给每个人都留下了一个非常古怪的印象。”
最后，形容词“squirrelly”可以形容“某人或者某事似乎不可信”，和它意思相同且更常用的单词是“shady（不正当的）”。
我们来听一个例子。
“那笔交易听起来感觉不靠谱。如果某件事听起来好到难以置信，那么或许它本身就是假的。”
所以，squirrelly是它的形容词用法。此外还有一个出自松鼠界的有用表达——“squirrel something away（贮藏某物）”。
好的，我们知道松鼠喜欢收集坚果、种子和其他吃的东西，之后会把它们储藏起来留着过冬，因为冬天很难觅食。
人类也会做同样的事情。当我们贮藏什么东西时，我们会把它们放在一个安全或隐蔽的地方留着以后拿出来用。如果我们储藏东西的方式与众不同或者不健康，那么就可以使用单词“hoard（尤指秘藏）”。
下面是另一个例子。
“她收藏杂志很多年了，她的阁楼上有成堆成堆的杂志，我不知道她为什么收藏这么多杂志，但她是不会扔掉这些杂志的！”
人类储藏的东西不会是坚果和种子，通常会是为了未来而存“钱”。
“他退休的时候能过得很安逸，因为他在银行里存了40多万美金！”
但是我们可以储藏任何我们认为重要并想留着以后再用的东西。
“她囤了非常多自己最喜欢的颜色的毛纱，就像这些毛纱停产了一样，她衣柜里有30多卷！”
这就是今天的《词汇掌故》节目，我们下周还会再见。收集故事创意是我的习惯，所以之后我们还会有新的故事哦！
我是安娜·马特奥。
