地道英语口语:Canary Wharf 金丝雀码头

Finn: Welcome to On the Town from BBC Learning English. My name's Finn.

Zoë: 大家好，我是刘佳, 欢迎收听今天的都市掠影，今天我们来到了泰晤士河岛上，周围都是一些摩天高楼。

Finn: Yes today we've just arrived in a part of London which is called Canary Wharf. It's on the river Thames.

Zoë: Canary 金丝雀, wharf 码头. That's a cute name!

Finn: Yes but Zoë, you won't find many canaries here unfortunately! This area originally used to be one of the busiest docks in the world, with all the main docks for London.

Zoë: Dock 就是码头的另一种说法，就是装卸码头。

Finn: You won't find many boats here either. It's now been transformed into an important financial centre for London, with modern buildings built on top of these old docks.

Zoë: It has been transformed 就是被改造了，改造成 a modern financial centre 非常现代的金融中心.

Finn: Yes and Canary Wharf is now home to the UK's three tallest buildings which are owned by banks, like HSBC and Citibank.

Zoë: 汇丰银行和城市银行. 是啊，我能看见他们在楼顶的标志。

Finn: You can see these buildings from miles away at the other side of London.

Zoë: Finn, there's a museum over there.

Finn: Yes, let's find out a little bit more about the history. This is Brian and he works in the Museum of Docklands.

Insert 1

Yes in the early days this West India Dock where we are today was for the goods coming in from the West Indies: rum, molasses, sugar and bananas. This dock actually opened in 1802.

Zoë: Brian 说这个码头叫西印度码头 West India Dock, 这里接受从西印度运来的货物 goods。

Finn: Yes that's right, the goods. Did you hear which goods he mentioned? Let's listen again, Brian speaks quite fast.

Insert 2

Rum, molasses, sugar and bananas.

Finn: That's rum

Zoë: 雷姆酒

Finn: and molasses

Zoë: 糖浆

Finn: and sugar and bananas. So this dock, it opened in the year 1802 but it is now no longer used as a dock and in the 1980s all the docks were already closed and they lay empty. So a new project was started by the government to regenerate the area.

Zoë: Regenerate 重建. So now we have all these skyscrapers. It all looks very modern, very different to other parts of London. 我还真想知道在这里工作的感觉是怎么样的。

Finn: Well let's find out. In between all these skyscrapers there's a few small parks and a few green spaces, and I can see some people taking their lunch break. Let's ask this lady what she thinks.

Insert 3

Well I think there's a very strong sense of community here. These are people who like to try new things. There's a very strong sense of it all being new. It is basically a pleasant place to work, and the facilities are superb, I mean, everybody eats very well here, for example. It's like that because people can work very long hours. People have been known to work day and night here for, sort of, 3 or 4 days at a time.

Zoë: People work so hard around here – that's crazy!

Finn: Yes, she said some people have been known to work 3 or 4 days and nights at a time. It has to be a pleasant environment because people work such long hours.

Zoë: 她说这里的设施 facilities 是非常好。她用的形容词就是 superb，就是很好的意思。

Finn: And she said the food is good. She said that people eat very well around here.

Zoë: 极其拼命的工作，也能使自己的胃口大开。 这儿坐着另外一个人，让我们来问问他在这里工作的感受。

Insert 4

I'm Brian and I work in corporate banking in Canary Wharf. Yeah, I work in one of the tallest towers in the UK but I'm only halfway up the tower on level 23. It's a bit like Sim City really, it's all ordered and planned and everything has its place.

Zoë: 他可真有意思，他说她虽然在最高的楼里工作，可是他办公的地方却是在楼层的中段儿。

Finn: Yes, he said he's only halfway up. He describes the Canary Wharf area as being like Sim City which is the computer game.

Zoë: 你玩儿过吗？是个非常流行的电脑游戏，可以随便设计自己喜欢的城市的样子。

Finn: He thinks it's like Sim City because everything here is so ordered and so planned.

Zoë: 周围的一切都设计的井井有条。

Finn: Yes, but I really like the way that some of these old docks have been developed. They've got cafes, art galleries and museums.

Zoë: Such a nice atmosphere. Fancy a bite to eat?

Finn: Well, I'd love a bite to eat but I think we really have to get back to the office.

Zoë: Ok then. 咱们来坐船回市中心吧。

Finn: And that's all for this week's programme. Don't forget you can log on to our website to practise your English and to hear the programme again. The address is:

Jean: bbc.co.uk/china.

Finn: Bye for now.

Jean: 咱们下次节目再见！