本單元是關(guān)于心煩意亂的 Alice 的對話。
Alice's mum: Alice, you sound dreadful - what's the matter?
Alice: Oh nothing Mum.
Alice's mum: Doesn't sound like nothing to me Alice.
Alice: Mum, you can't do anything to help.
Alice's mum: Maybe not Alice, but you might feel better if you talk about it.
Alice: Ok, well, I had a date with Paul last night, and when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone, but he didn't see me come in, and I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard what he was saying, and I heard him say something like, 'I can't wait to see you' and he said, 'darling' and then I heard him say, 'I love you'!
Alice's mum: Oh Alice, there's probably a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Alice: He's seeing someone else Mum, that's the explanation!
Vocabulary 字匯
dreadful: 糟糕的
terrible, awful
to eavesdrop:偷聽到...
to listen to another person's conversation without them knowing you are listening
本單元的語言點是過去進行式和過去簡單式,請看下面的解釋和例句。
Past continuous and past simple - interrupted activities
Past continuous and past simple - interrupted activities 過去進行式和過去簡單式
English speakers often use the past simple and past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else. In this episode of The Flatmates, Alice says:
'...when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone...'
This means that Paul started talking on the phone before Alice arrived at the restaurant, and he was still talking when she entered the restaurant.
The order of the clauses is not important here. It is possible to change the clause order without changing the meaning of the sentence.
'...he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant...'
'When', 'while' and 'as' 表時間之關(guān)系
'when', 'while' and 'as' are important time markers. They can be used with the past simple or the past continuous part of the sentence.
'...when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone...'
'...he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant...'
'As I was walking down the street, I met my old teacher.'
'I met my old teacher as I was walking down the street.'
'While the teacher was talking, two of the students fell asleep.'
'Two of the students fell asleep while the teacher was talking.'
Past simple 過去簡單式
The past simple is usually used when things happen one after another.
She got up, had a shower, got dressed , made breakfast and went to work.
Stative verbs 靜態(tài)動詞
Some verbs are not normally used in the continuous tense. These are often verbs associated with thoughts and feelings such as: believe, know, understand, want, think, feel, like, love, smell, taste, hear.
In this example, 'think' means 'to have an opinion':
I am thinking that this book is very expensive - wrong
I think that this book is very expensive - right
However, if the verb describes an action , the continuous tense can be used. In this example, 'think' refers to an activity:
My mum called just when I was thinking about her.