Recording 43
录音43
Good morning. Dave speaking. Oh, hi. I'm phoning about a short story competition. Urn, I saw an advert in a magazine and I was just calling to get some details.
早上好，我是戴夫。你好。我打来是想问问那个短篇小说比赛的。我在杂志上看到广告，就打过来咨询一些细节。
Yes, certainly. I'm the competition organiser, so I should be able to help. What kind of details are you looking for? Well, um... Does it cost anything to enter?
好的，当然。我是比赛的组织者，所以我应该能帮上忙。你想咨询什么内容？报名的话要交费吗？
Yes, there's an entry fee of five pounds. OK , that should be fine. It's a short story competition, so how many words is that?
要，报名费是5英镑。好的，这不是大问题。这是个短篇小说比赛，要求多少字呢？
Well, we want to give people a reasonable amount of freedom, but the guidelines are around 3000 words. Oh, that sounds quite a lot.
我们希望能给大家合理的自由发挥空间，但参考的字数范围约为三千字。噢，这听起来可真不少。
Well, it's not as much as it used to be. We did have a limit of 5,000 words, but some people thought that was too many, so this year we've reduced it. Right, and does the story need to be about anything in particular?
这已经不如以前字数多了。我们曾经要求最低五千字，但有人认为这太多了，所以今年我们降低了要求。好吧，这个故事有指定要求某方面内容吗？
No, you can write about any topic you like. But the main point of the competition is that it has to have a surprise ending. Oh, I see. That sounds interesting. I don't think I've ever written a story like that before.
没有，你可以写任何你喜欢的主题。但比赛主要要求故事有个出乎意料的结局。噢，我明白了。这听起来很有趣。我觉得我从未写过这样的故事。
Yes, it's something we've introduced for this year's competition. Right. Um... I'm eighteen. Is there any age limit?
这是我们为了今年比赛而引入的内容。好的。我十八岁，比赛有年龄限制吗？
Yes, you need to be sixteen or over. So if you're eighteen, that's fine. Great. So you have the competition once a year. Is that right?
有，你必须年满16岁以上，如果你已经18岁了，就没问题。太好了。你们一年举办一次比赛，对吗？
Yes, we start advertising in January and the competition takes up a lot of the year. We give people a few months to write their story and then it takes quite a long time to judge all the entries and to announce the winners. I see. So when is the closing date for the competition? It's already April. I hope I'm not too late.
对，我们从一月份开始进行广告宣传，比赛占去了一年中的大部分时间。我们给大家几个月时间来写故事，然后要评判所有的参赛作品，并宣布比赛赢家，这又要花上很长时间。我明白了。比赛的截止日期是什么时候？现在已经四月份了，我希望我不算太迟。
No, you've still got plenty of time. You need to submit your entry by the 1st of August. After then it will be too late, although you can always enter next year's competition. OK, good. So how do I enter?
不，你的时间还很充裕。你需要在八月一号前提交你的参赛作品，在此之后就太晚了，当然了，你总是可以参加下一年比赛的。好的。我怎么报名呢？