"布朗尼加分"口语课堂:会响铃儿的小狗
大家好，我是ROSE。很开心能和的网友们共同学习、共同进步。今天我们来听一个有关小狗的故事。相信很多人都喜欢养狗，这些小家伙们也真能闯出花样百出的小祸来。不信您听听~~
It's Christmas time in London. Rachel Murphy, 27, buys a Christmas gift for her roommate. It's a small cellular phone. She wraps it and puts it under the Christmas tree in their apartment. A little bit later, Rachel notices a pile of torn paper under the tree. The phone is gone! "What's going on?" she wonders. She suspects Charlie, her roommate's dog, who is sleeping like a log near the tree. She looks high and low for the phone, but it's nowhere. She can't figure it out. The phone has vanished into thin air!
Rachel gets the phone number from the telephone company and dials the number. She hears ringing in Charlie's stomach. "What in the world?" she thinks. She's confused, but all at once she gets the picture. Charlie swallowed the phone! She rushesthe dog to the vet. "Don't worry," the vet says. "Just let nature take its course." Sure enough, 24 hours later, the phone passes through Charlie's system. It seems to be in perfect working order!
圣诞节就要到了，大家忙着准备礼物，互赠礼物，Rachel给自己的室友准备的礼物是一个cellular phone，一个手机。不过，包装好的手机却不翼而飞，屋子里没有别人，rachel只能怀疑一下那只sleeping like a log的小狗了。Sleep like a log. Log, “原木”，睡的跟一根木头似地，可见sleep very deelply, 睡得很深，很沉。Beetles甲壳虫乐队的那首A Hard Day's Night里就有这样一句歌词。Work like a dog, sleep like a log.
唯一的嫌疑人呼呼大睡，若无其事，那Rachel唯一能做的只能是 looks high and low for the phone了。Looks high and low for someone or something，去掉中间的high and low 剩下的部分就是look for，也就是“寻找”，整个短语意思相当于“look everywhere for someone or something”到处找某人或某物。
不过找的结果是，it's nowhere，哪儿也没有。难不成the phone has vanished into thin air? Vanish, 消失，绝迹， thin air 稀薄的空气。整个短语就意为“disappear quickly and completly”，很快消失，彻底消失。再比如，Tourists to the mountains vanished into thin air. 那些去山里游玩的人莫名就消失了。
不死心的Rachel拨通了电话，结果声音从小狗的肚子里传来，这让rachel着实吃惊，she thinks, “What in the world?” 这里要注意，what in the world 并不是一个真正的疑问句，而是用来表达震惊和惊讶的一个固定表达法。意思相当于“What?”“How strange!”
惊讶过后，Rachel gets the picture. Get the picture，意思相当于understand the situation or the facts。也就是明白怎么回事儿了。再比如：I explained the point to her again and again, and finally she got the picture. 我就那一点向她再三解释,后来她终于明白了。
原来，电话被小狗当骨头给吃掉了。兽医也束手无策，只能建议“Just let nature take its course.”任其自然发展，顺其自然。好了，下期“布朗尼加分”口语课堂再见。
