The English We Speak是英国BBC电台为英语学习者量身打造的一档英语学习节目。
本期节目中,两位主持人被坑了一会爹,让我们跟随录音看看是怎么一回事儿。
William: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I'm William.
Yang Li: And I'm Yang Li.
William: You look very pleased today Li.
Yang Li: Well, I should be. I've just won a prize!
William: Wow, great! What did you win?
Yang Li: I don't know yet. I ate this bar of chocolate and it told me to phone a number to find out my prize.
William: Oh wow, cool. Let's call them.
Yang Li: OK.
Welcome to the Choccy Choc Chocolate prize hotline. Please hold to find what amazing prize you've won.
Yang Li: Wow, this is exciting!
Welcome to the Choccy Choc Chocolate prize hotline. Please hold to find what amazing prize you've won.
William: Hmmm.
Welcome to the Choccy Choc Chocolate prize hotline. Please hold to find what amazing prize you've won.
Yang Li: It can't be long now...
William: Li, can I see that chocolate wrapper?
Yang Li: OK. What does it say?
William: It says "Calls to this line are charged at 20 a minute"!
Yang Li: What?! No way! Well, shall we hang up?
William: I should think so! What a swizz.
Hangs up
Yang Li: A swizz?
William: Yes, a swizz. A swizz is a scheme that tricks people to make money. Like this company is making you call an expensive phone line – it's a swizz.
Yang Li: I see.
William: We might say "What a swizz", or "That's a bit of a swizz".
Yang Li: So, how do we spell this word, swizz?
William: Well you know, I'm not too sure. I've seen it spelled S.W.I.Z.Z. but I've also seen S.W.I.Z.
Yang Li: You mean you don't know how to spell it? But this is BBC Learning English! We should know how to spell it. What a swizz!
William: Ha ha. Yeah, I'm sorry! But that's just the way English is sometimes, it's always changing! At least you know -Phone rings
Yang Li: Oh! Hello?
Choc Person: Hello, is that Yang Li?
Yang Li: Yes.
Choc Person: We have a missed call from you. Just ringing to say you've won a prize!
Yang Li: Wow, what is it?
Choc Person: You need to ring this number to find out. 0800 23 4…
Yang Li: Ha! What a swizz. Bye.
William: Bye.
赏析:
听完这段录音,才发现,原来这种坑爹的电话骗局也不仅仅是中国的特色,英国同样有。而且用的是同样的伎俩,用一行一般人不会注意到的小字标明“拨打此电话20英镑每分钟”。主持人把这种“设套骗人钱财的人”叫做“a swizz”。比较有意思的是,录音中的骗子竟然还回拨了过来,还想多骗一次,不过我想,应该没人会连续上两次当吧。
主持人已经记不清Swizz的拼写了,说也有可能是swiz, 因为英语是在不停变化的,就像这部分赏析中出现的“坑爹”,两年之前,在汉语中也是没有的。因此,我认为我们应该学习与时俱进的、当下英美人正在使用的、不断更新的英语。
记住,天生怎么会掉馅饼,没人会无缘无故送你人民币,当真碰到这种“好事”,也请多长个心眼,因为电话那头就有一个swizz在一边笑话你,一边数钱。