Feifei: 大家好,歡迎收聽地道英語節目,我是馮菲菲。
William: And I'm William.
Feifei: William, how much do you know about China?
William: Er... Not much. Why are you asking?
Feifei: 我今天讀報紙的時候,看到一個有關中國的小測驗。
William: Oh no, not quizzes, I'm rubbish at quizzes.
Feifei: Let's see. Here is the first one – 中國的首都是哪兒?
William: Ah, well. That's easy, Beijing.
Feifei: 回答正確!中國哪里的菜肴是以麻辣出名的?
William: Em, I think Sichuan food is quite spicy.
Feifei: See, you are doing well! How about this one – 漢字里一共有多少個字?這道題有點難度。
William: Em, 5,000?
Feifei: No. Try again.
William: 7,000?
Feifei: No. Roughly 42,000.
William: Wow, that's amazing. I didn't know it was that many. How can people possibly learn them all? I just think that's totally mind-boggling!
Feifei: Mind-boggling, 這個短語是什么意思?
William: Mind-boggling means something overwhelming and amazing, like really impressive numbers or facts.
Feifei: 知道了,mind-boggling 就是說一件令人吃驚的、非常難以置信的事情。比方說一個巨大的數字。
William: It's made up of two words: mind and to boggle. Let's hear an example.
Example
Woman 1: I took my son to the Science Museum on Sunday.
Woman 2: Did you go to the space mission area?
Woman 1: Oh yes. There were rockets, space suits, even parts from a satellite - so many mind-boggling things to see.
Milky Way galaxy
How many stars are there in the Milky Way?
Feifei: 我對宇宙一向都很感興趣,不過里面的學問真的是太深奧了。
William: Well, astronomy, the study of stars, has lots of mind-boggling theories.
Example
Man: I was at a physics workshop last month in Munich. There were seminars on black holes and antimatter. It was totally mind-boggling stuff; I think I might have understood about five percent of what was discussed.
Feifei: 我想大家現在知道 mind-boggling 這個短語的意思和用法了吧。其實就是用來形容那些令人難以置信的事實。And here is one final mind-boggling question – How many stars are in there in the Milky Way?
William: Er, is it 42,000 again?
Feifei: No, no! Some people say there are over 200 billion stars in the Milky Way but no one knows for sure.
感謝收聽今天的《地道英語》節目,下次節目再會。