Finn: Welcome to On the Town from BBC Learning
English. My name's Finn.
Zo : 大家好，我是劉佳,
歡迎收聽今天的都市掠影，今天我們來到了泰晤士河島上，周圍都是一些摩天高樓。
Finn: Yes today we've just arrived in a part of London
which is called Canary Wharf. It's on the river Thames.
Zo : Canary 金絲雀, wharf 碼頭.
That's a cute name!
Finn: Yes but Zo , 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.
Zo : Dock 就是碼頭的另一種說法，就是裝卸碼頭。
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.
Zo : It has been transformed 就是被改造了，改造成 a modern
financial centre 非常現代的金融中心.
Finn: Yes and Canary Wharf is now home to the UK's
three tallest buildings which are owned by banks, like HSBC and Citibank.
Zo : 匯豐銀行和城市銀行. 是啊，我能看見他們在樓頂的標志。
Finn: You can see these buildings from miles away at
the other side of London.
Zo : 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.
Zo : Brian 說這個碼頭叫西印度碼頭 West India Dock,
這里接受從西印度運來的貨物 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
Zo : 雷姆酒
Finn: and molasses
Zo : 糖漿
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.
Zo : Regenerate 重建. So now we have all these
skyscrapers. It all looks very modern, very different to other parts of London.
我還真想知道在這里工作的感覺是怎么樣的。
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.
Zo : 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.
Zo : 她說這里的設施 facilities 是非常好。她用的形容詞就是
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.
Zo : 極其拼命的工作，也能使自己的胃口大開。
這兒坐著另外一個人，讓我們來問問他在這里工作的感受。
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.
Zo : 他可真有意思，他說她雖然在最高的樓里工作，可是他辦公的地方卻是在樓層的中段兒。
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.
Zo : 你玩兒過嗎？是個非常流行的電腦游戲，可以隨便設計自己喜歡的城市的樣子。
Finn: He thinks it's like Sim City because everything
here is so ordered and so planned.
Zo : 周圍的一切都設計的井井有條。
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.
Zo : 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.
Zo : Ok then. 咱們來坐船回市中心吧。
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: 咱們下次節目再見！
