我正专心开车呢,听到Bob说:
Did you see the smoke stack? There must be a plant over there.
当时我们正开过一片山区。我脑中浮现出一棵正在冒烟的树,树根周围堆着一些柴火。
产生这种联想的理由是,stack有 “堆砌”的意思,plant的意思是植物喽。我那文科生的脑子就开始天花乱坠地编故事。
我问他:
Do you mean there’s a tree that can give out smoke?
你的意思是说有一棵会冒烟的树吗?
(言下之意,太新鲜了!一棵会自燃的树!)
Bob哭笑不得,给我做了解释,并且用手指给我看,到底什么是smoke stack.
来听听这个对话吧:
Bob: Did you see the smoke stack? There must be a plant over there.
Ping: What do you mean,“a plant”? Do you mean there’s a tree that can give out smoke?
Bob: No honey. I mean there’s“a factory”that is using a smoke stack for the exhaust of the plant.
Ping: Oh, I see. I thought you meant a stack of hays that is burning and smoking.
原来,smoke stack是工厂用来排放废气(exhaust)的烟囱!
事后我反问Bob:烟囱应该叫chimney啊~
Bob说只有自己家房子里的烟囱才叫chimney~
在这个故事里,最让我无语的是我把plant硬生生地就想成了“植物”。可是,英文中,plant还有factory的意思哟。
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