美語咖啡屋第3課聲音 J: Hello I'm Jody and welcome to American Cafe.
Y: 各位聽眾好， 歡迎您到美語咖啡屋。我是楊晨。
J: You know, Christmas is just around the corner and I am already starting to feel Christmas all around me.
Y: 你是說商店裏現在擠滿了搶購禮物的人，還有電視上不停地在播放耶誕節的廣告，對不對？
J: No, no! I ignore all of that stuff. No, what I mean, is I'm starting to hear and smell Christmas. OK, Close your eyes, Yang Chen, and think about Christmas and tell me what you hear and smell.
(Silence. Long pause)
J: Yang Chen? Yang Chen, anything yet? You know people are waiting.
Y: 哎呀，你等一等。我正在豎著耳朵聽呢，還得使勁聞一聞。你不是說要我閉著眼睛尋找感覺嗎？呣,我找到了。 在一個美麗的夜晚，星星在閃耀，我站在雪地裏，聽到了雪橇那悅耳的聲音。對，就是這種感覺，你覺得怎麼樣？
J: That's okay. But I was thinking more like ... chainsaws.
Y: Chainsaws? 啊呀，你真是掃我的興啊。原來你說的聲音是電動鋸的聲音。太不浪漫了。
J: Well, I know it's not romantic, but I love the sound of a chainsaw and the smell of a pine tree being cut. The Christmas tree tradition is one of the best things about Christmas.
Y: 對。真正的聖誕樹用的是松樹？
J: Right, pine tree.
Y: 那人們是不是要到森林裏去砍樹呢？
J: Oh, no no-no. You don't go to a forest to cut down your Christmas tree. There are Christmas tree farms.
Y: 哦, 原來有Christmas tree farms。這還不錯，用不著去破壞森林。說道這裡，我倒是好象真的聞到了松樹的味道了。
J: Oh, that's me.
Y: 你用了什麼香水？
J: Not perfume! I have just come from a Christmas tree sale in my neighborhood.
Y: 有意思嗎？
J: I did. And it was wonderfully entertaining. The elementary school held a Christmas tree sale to raise money. And there I met a woman named Ann, who is not only the organizer of the sale but she is also very active in the elementary school with the Parent Teacher Association, also known as the PTA.
Y: 好啊，那我們就聽聽組織者Ann都說了些什麼。
實錄1: Ann: We have from Charlie Brown trees to big beautiful balsam firs And we have a range of prices. And we do this to support the school PTA and it pays for supplies and trips and things like that for the children. And, um, so we do it two days over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, and hopefully raise some money. And also just build a lot of good feelings about the school inside the community.
Y: Ann剛才說的 PTA 就是老師和家長聯合組成的協會。原來他們舉辦聖誕樹銷售活動是為了協會籌款，另外還可以增強學校和社區的感情。
J: Right. And it really does spread community feelings in the neighborhood. That's what Christmas is all about!
(Enter Music "O Tannenbaum" from Cyrus Chestnut's A Charlie Brown Christmas)
Y: Ann 剛才提到Charlie Brown。 我們都知道Charlie Brown是著名的花生漫畫系列裏的人物。
J: Again, here's Ann.
實錄2: Ann: Well, Charlie Brown, the cartoon character, always had a very small little sad-looking tree that nobody wanted, but he took it home and was very happy with it. So we always have some people that come and look for a Charlie Brown tree.
Y: Ann 剛才說的多好啊，一棵瘦小的聖誕樹在可憐巴巴地等待著有人把它帶回家。
J: The holiday cartoons with Charlie Brown and Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang are really an important part of Christmas for almost all children in the United States. Well, not just children. because every year I watch the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.
Y: 你要借給我看一看。
J: I will, I will give it you. You and your family will love it. And truly Charlie Brown fell in love with a small, scrawny, little lonely Christmas tree that nobody wanted. And took it home and he gave it love. And it turned out to be a perfect Christmas tree.
Y: 沒錯。Charlie Brown過聖誕是一個非常經典的故事，大人小孩都喜歡。Jody，你知道嗎，我們家那棵聖誕樹又小有不太好看，而且是塑膠的，用了好幾年。我今年本來打算把它扔了，可是我女兒不讓我扔。我想她可能對這棵樹非常有感情。不過今天聽你解釋了Charlie Brown Christmas tree，我想要是下次有人再笑話我們家的樹太小太難看的話，我就可以告訴他這棵樹可是典型的Charlie Brown Christmas tree。
J: Of course, you tell them you have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, Yang Chen!
Y: 沒錯。我可以向別人炫耀我有棵Charlie Brown Christmas tree。
J: Thanks for tuning into American Cafe. Okay, see you again!
Y: 謝謝大家到我們的美語咖啡屋。好，我們下次再見。
