A day t remember

原文

Lesson 33

A day to remember

What incident began the series of traffic accidents?

We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong.

A day may begin well enough, but suddenly everything seems to get out of control.

What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment.

It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions.

Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and keeping an eye on the baby at the same time.

The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to an unforeseen series of catastrophes.

While you are on the phone, the baby pulls the tablecloth off the table,

smashing half your best crockery and cutting himself in the process.

You hang up hurriedly and attend to baby, crockery, etc.

Meanwhile, the meal gets burnt.

As if this were not enough to reduce you to tears, your husband arrives, unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.

Things can go wrong on a big scale as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney.

During the rush hour one evening two cars collided and both drivers began to argue.

The woman immediately behind the two cars happened to be a learner.

She suddenly got into a panic and stopped her car.

This made the driver following her brake hard.

His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake.

As she was thrown forward,

the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road.

Seeing a cake flying through the air,

a lorry driver who was drawing up alongside the car, pulled up all of a sudden.

The lorry was loaded with empty beer bottles and hundreds of them slid off the back of the vehicle and on to the road.

This led to yet another angry argument. Meanwhile, the traffic piled up behind.

It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move again.

In the meantime, the lorry driver had to sweep up hundreds of broken bottles.

Only two stray dogs benefited from all this confusion, for they greedily devoured what was left of the cake.

It was just one of those days!

译文

第33课

一个值得铭记的日子

是什么事件引发了这一连串的交通事故？

我们都经历过那些一切都出错的日子。

一天可能开始得很顺利，但突然间，一切似乎都失控了。

不可避免的是，许多事情会在同一时刻同时出错。

就好像某个看似微不足道的事件引发了一连串的连锁反应。

假设你一边准备饭菜，一边还要照看婴儿。

电话突然响了，而这成了随后一系列意外事件的导火线。

你在打电话时，婴儿把桌布从桌子上扯了下来，

打碎了你一半最好的餐具，还把自己划伤了。

你匆忙挂断电话，然后开始处理婴儿和餐具的问题……

与此同时，饭菜被烧焦了。

仿佛这些还不够让你心烦意乱似的，你的丈夫突然回来了，还带着三位客人一起来吃晚饭。

最近，在悉尼的郊区帕拉马塔，许多人发现事情也可能在大范围内出错。

一天晚上的高峰时段，两辆车发生了碰撞，两名司机随即开始争吵。

就坐在那两辆车后面的那位女士，恰好是一名正在学习驾驶的新手。

她突然陷入了恐慌，立刻停下了车子。

这导致跟在她后面的司机也紧急踩下了刹车。

他的妻子坐在他旁边，手里拿着一个大蛋糕。

当她被向前抛出时……

蛋糕直接穿过了挡风玻璃，落在了路上。

看到一个蛋糕在空中飞过……

一名正在靠近那辆汽车的卡车司机突然停了下来。

卡车上装满了空啤酒瓶，结果有数百个瓶子从卡车后部滑落到了路上。

这又引发了一场激烈的争吵。与此同时，后面的交通也陷入了堵塞。

警察花了将近一个小时才让交通恢复正常。

在此期间，卡车司机不得不把那些破碎的瓶子全部清理干净。

只有两只流浪狗从这场混乱中得到了好处——它们贪婪地吃掉了剩下的蛋糕。

唉，这不过是又平常的一天罢了！

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词汇表

experience

动词, 名词

英:/ɪkˈspɪəriəns/

美:/ɪkˈspɪriəns/

定义

1. 经历 - To undergo or encounter something, often personally.

例子: We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong.

例子: She experienced a lot of challenges during her travels.

2. 体验 - A particular event or activity that someone has lived through.

例子: Traveling broadens your experiences.

例子: His work experience includes managing teams.

近义词

encounter: 强调意外或直接面对某事，与 'experience' 相比更侧重于突发事件。

undergo: 更正式，常用于描述被动经历过程，如医疗或变化，而 'experience' 更主观。

face: 侧重于直接应对挑战，'experience' 则更广泛包括正面或负面事件。

反义词:

avoid, miss, escape

用法

常用于描述个人经历或事件，常搭配如 'experience something new'（体验新事物），在口语和书面语中均常见，无特定文化限制。

形式:

过去式: experienced, 现在分词: experiencing, 名词复数: experiences

关键句型 "It is as if [clause]."

定义

这个句型用于表达一种比喻或假设情景，意思是“好像”或“仿佛”，用来描述某事像是另一件事发生一样。结构包括：It is as if（好像）+ [clause]（一个从句，通常用虚拟语气）。根据《剑桥英语语法》教材，这种句型常用于文学或叙述性语言中，表示不真实或想象中的情况，帮助创建生动描述。

例如，在文章中：“It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions.” 这里，as if 引导一个从句，强调事件的连锁反应像是一种假设。

它是一种灵活的表达方式，适合描述意外或情感，帮助学生在故事中添加戏剧性。

用法

此句型主要用于叙述故事、表达情感或解释复杂情况，比如描述日常生活中的巧合或想象场景。规则是：It is as if 后跟一个从句，该从句通常使用虚拟语气（动词用过去式或过去完成式），以表示不真实性。

在语法体系中，它属于条件或假设句型，与其他比较句型如 "It seems that" 或 "As though" 相关。横向比较：与 "It seems that [clause]" 相比，It is as if 更强调虚构或比喻（例如，"It seems that everything is wrong" 更直接，而 "It is as if everything is conspiring against you" 更生动）；与条件句如 "If [clause], then [clause]" 相比，它不需真实条件，而是创造一种诗意联想。

跨语法联系：它常与虚拟语气结合，学生可以联系到其他假设句型，如 "I wish [clause]"，以强化对非真实情况的表达。同时，它在叙述文（如文章中的坏日子描述）中很常见，帮助连接事件链。

这个句型在口语和写作中都很实用，尤其在描述情绪或意外时，能让语言更富有表现力。

注意事项

学生容易犯的错误包括：忽略虚拟语气的使用，导致句子变得不自然，例如说 "It is as if everything goes wrong"（错误，因为应为过去式 goes → went）；或将它与真实描述混淆，造成逻辑混乱。纠正建议：总是记住从句中用虚拟语气（如动词的过去式），并通过练习区分真实和假设场景。

另一个常见问题是用错连接词，如误用 "like" 代替 "as if"，例如 "It is like a chain of reactions"，这会使句子失去比喻的精确性。提供具体例句：

错误示例：It is as if the day is perfect.  (这应为 It is as if the day were perfect.，因为表示假设)
正确示例：It is as if a small mistake set off a disaster, just like in the story.

练习时，注意语调要柔和，以突出想象成分。

练习

一个原创例子：假设你在描述一个忙碌的早晨，你可以说：“It is as if the alarm clock knew I was tired and decided to fail on purpose.” 这贴近实际生活，帮助学生理解连锁反应的概念。学生可以替换 [clause] 部分，比如改成 “It is as if my phone battery died just to ruin my plans.”，或应用到其他场景，如朋友聚会时说：“It is as if the rain came just to spoil our picnic.”

通过这种替换，学生能加深对句型的掌握，并学会在日常对话或写作中使用它来表达幽默或 frustration。

额外内容

背景知识：这个句型起源于英语文学传统，如莎士比亚的作品中常用于戏剧效果，强调心理或情感层面。对比分析：与中文的 "好像" 或 "仿佛" 类似，但英语版更依赖语法结构（如虚拟语气），而法语中的 "comme si" 结构相似，却需要动词变位，英语则更简单易学。

了解此句型能丰富学生的表达力，尤其在讲故事时，让语言更生动，并为学习更高级的假设句型（如条件句第三类）铺路。