一篇精致的魔幻小文，

轻巧俏皮的文风，

跳跃别致的故事语汇，

像一个睁大双眼聆听的睡前故事。

一群孩童和一只爱听小道消息的小魔怪，

生病奄奄一息的小精灵

在女孩们叽叽喳喳的嚼舌根中

竟迅速长成了巨怪，

校长想出了聪明的办法化解危机，

小魔怪化成一滩绿色的精灵眼泪后

消失了……

周一美文

主持：京晶 外籍嘉宾：judy

美文朗读

(nick | canada)

the gossip gremlin

嘘，你嚼舌根时有小魔怪在听哦！

introduction

gossiping is something we all like don’t we? i mean, what is more fun than making fun of a person even though he or she did nothing wrong? precisely! gossiping is mean, and very foolish if you think that gossiping makes you look better. usually, people gossip to make them feel good, but in fact they just lie, not only about someone else, but mainly to their selves. gossiping is only feeding our inner monsters, or inner ‘gremlins’ as this fairy-tale like story metaphorically describes. it is about a girl who got a peculiar present for her birthday; a little gremlin, that grew bigger and bigger each time someone around him gossiped. the gremlin, in the end, is so large he scares everyone away and is even dangerous! luckily, the truth is strong enough to defeat the gremlin for once and for all. one truth, after all, is worth more than a million lies.

“happy birthday, princess!!!!” mom and dad presented the large box to 12-year-old amy with great pride. “what is it, what is it, daddy?” amy squealed with excitement. she tore the wrapping paper. “it is a pet, is it?” she squealed and then she stopped and just stared down in wonder.

“生日快乐，我们的小公主!!!!”爸爸、妈妈十分自豪地将一个大盒子送给了12岁的艾米。“这是什么，爸爸，这是什么啊？”艾米兴奋地尖叫起来。然后，她撕开了包装纸。“是一只宠物，没错吧？”她再次尖叫起来，然后停了下来，惊讶地凝视着盒子里的东西。

standing in the middle of the box, just barely 3 inches tall, was a tiny human-like figure. it had arms and legs, a head and a face, but it was so oddly shaped. its legs were furry and the fur was a flow of purples, greens and pinks. the feet were not feet at all but tiny hooves. the hooves had toes with sharp, tiny toenails for gripping. the torso, arms, neck and face were similarly wildly coloured, so bright it hurt their eyes, and its head was pointy so it always looked surprised and fascinated.

盒子里站着一个只有3英寸高的小人儿一样的东西。它有两只胳膊、两条腿、一个头和一张脸，但外形却很奇怪。它的腿毛茸茸的，皮毛夹杂着紫色、绿色和粉红色。它的双脚根本算不上脚，而是两只小蹄子。蹄子上长着用于抓握东西的尖尖的小指甲。它的躯干、手臂、脖子和脸上同样夹杂着各种颜色，颜色鲜艳到简直能够亮瞎观看者的双眼。它的头部尖尖的，总是给人一种惊讶和着迷的感觉。

presented

(verb, from: to present something)

英/pr??zentid/ 美/pr??z?ntid/

提出；呈递，提供

squealed

(verb, from: to squeal)

英/skwi?l/ 美/skwil/

告密；长声尖叫

in wonder(expression)

在惊奇中，惊讶地

inches(noun)

英/’int??/ 英寸（inch的复数）

furry(adj.) 英/’f??r?/ 美/?f?ri/

毛皮的；盖着毛皮的；

flow(noun)

英/fl??/ 美/flo/ 流动；流量；

hooves (noun) 英/hu?vz/ 美/huvz/

蹄（hoof的复数）；蹄脚

gripping (verb, from: to grip) /’ɡr?p??/

抓，抓住

torso(noun) 英/’t??s??/ 美/’t?rso/

躯干；

fascinated (adj.)

英/’f?s?ne?t?d/ 美/’f?s?net?d/

着迷的；被深深吸引的

amy named the gremlin stanley. every time she called its name, it squeaked and did a dance. stanley stayed in his box, very happy at first, but then he slowly got sick. one night, amy was watching stanley and talking to courtney, her friend, on the phone.

艾米给这个小精灵起了个名字叫“斯坦利”。每次艾米叫他的名字时，他都会发出吱吱的叫声，并跳起舞来。斯坦利每天呆在他的盒子里，起初非常开心，但不久后便慢慢生病了。一天晚上，艾米一边守护着患病的斯坦利，一边与她的朋友考特尼通电话。

“courtney, did you see what janie was wearing? wow, it was so stupid! she has such ugly clothes!” just then a big squeak erupted from the little box. stanley jumped to his feet and did a dance. “courtney, it’s stanley. he got better. we were gossiping and he suddenly got well. he eats gossip, courtney, he eats gossip!” and it was true. each time amy gossiped, stanley grew larger.

“考特尼，你看见詹妮穿成什么样子了吗？哇，真是蠢透了！她怎么能穿这么丑的衣服！”就在这时，小盒子里迸发出一阵巨大的吱吱声。斯坦利一跃而起，跳起舞来。“考特尼，是斯坦利。他病情好转了。我们闲聊时，他突然就好起来了。他爱听嚼舌根，考特尼，他原来爱听嚼舌根啊！”事实也的确如此。每当艾米嚼舌根时，斯坦利都会变得更大。

gremlin

(noun)

英/’greml?n/ 美/’ɡr?ml?n/

小精灵，小鬼；麻烦

squeaked

(verb, from: to squeak)

英/skwi?k/ 美/skwik/

吱吱叫

erupted

(verb, from: to erupt)

英/?’r?pt/ 美/?’r?pt/ 爆发；长出

then came the thursday when amy broke the rules, and she sneaked stanley into her backpack and took him to school. all of the 6th grade girls gathered to hold stanley and pet him and tell him how cute he was. and then they started.

时间来到了周四，艾米打破了规矩，偷偷把斯坦利装进背包带到了学校。所有六年级的女孩全都聚集在一起，手里捧着斯坦利，爱抚他，并诉说着他有多可爱。然后，她们的“嚼舌根大会”开始了。

“nikki called cassie a dumb girl………….” “sandra has ugly hair” “linda was mean to susan” …and with each tiny piece of gossip, stanley did a little yip, a back flip, danced and grew bigger and fatter. the girls didn’t notice it happening, but as the gremlin was handed from girl to girl, he slipped through their hands to the floor, and ran off.

“尼基给凯西起了个外号叫‘傻女’……”“桑德拉的发型真难看”“琳达对苏珊真刻薄……”每当有人嚼舌根时，斯坦利都会尖叫一声，然后做一个后空翻，跳起舞来，同时变得更大、更胖。女孩们并没有注意到斯坦利发生的变化。不过，在女孩们的手间传递时，斯坦利被不小心滑落到了地板上，于是逃跑了。

did a little yip(expression)

发出一声尖叫

back flip (noun) /’b?k,flip/

后空翻

the students began to panic at the appearance of the large, fat gremlin. it gave a low yelp, then danced and flipped, but he was so large by now that he broke the table and escaped into the hallway. the frightened students rushed into the halls, seeing tufts of multi-coloured fur flying everywhere.

见到这个庞然大物，学生们开始出现恐慌。他低吟了一声，然后开始跳起舞来，并做空翻动作，但现在他的体型太庞大了，以至于砸坏了课桌，随即他逃进了走廊。受到惊吓的学生们冲进了走廊，见到的是四处飞扬的多色软毛。

suddenly, mr bixley, the school principal, came marching down the hall and shouted orders. “students, to the gym. we are going to put a stop to this!” in the gym, mr. bixley and stanley faced each other like cowboys in a western duel. the principal spoke.

突然，学校校长比克斯利先生出现在走廊中，大声命令着：“同学们，到体育馆集合。我们将结束这荒唐的一幕！”在体育馆里，比克斯利先生和斯坦利面面相觑，就如同西部片里两个决斗的牛仔。校长开始发言了。

lost her mind

(expression, from: to lose your mind)

失去理智

low-pitched (adj.)

英/’l?u’pit?t/

低沉的；

feet (noun)

英/fi?t/ 美/fit/ 脚（foot的复数形式）

尺；

yelp

(noun) 英/jelp/ 美/j?lp/

尖叫，大叫；吠声

hallway (noun)

英/’h??lwe?/ 美/’h?lwe/

走廊；门厅；玄关

tufts(noun) /t?fts/

簇毛

multi-coloured(adj.) /’m?lti,k?l?d/

多色彩的

“heather, come here, tell the truth.” heather moved to the front, to a microphone the av-guy had quickly brought up. “leslie didn’t cheat on the test. i lied. leslie is a good person.” “phillip, jessica, sarah…tell the truth,” the principal commanded. one by one the students stepped forward and spoke the truth into the microphone, correcting their gossiping lies. each time, stanley moaned, grabbed his ears and cried big green gremlin tears.

“希瑟，来这里，说出真相。”希瑟走到音频师刚刚快速架好的麦克风前，说道：“莱斯利并没有在考试中作弊。我撒了谎。莱斯利是个好学生。”“菲利普、杰西卡、莎拉……说出真相”校长命令道。学生们一个接一个地走到麦克风前讲出了真相，并纠正她们嚼舌根时说的谎言。每当有人说出真相，斯坦利都会发出呻吟声，并抓住自己的耳朵，哭泣着，同时流下大大的绿色精灵眼泪。

“now, amy – come here – tell the truth,” mr. bixley ordered. amy stepped up, looked nervous and then said loudly into the microphone, “janie has pretty clothes!”

“轮到你了，艾米，到这里来，说出真相。”比克斯利先生命令道。艾米走了上来，露出紧张的神情，然后对着麦克风大声说：“詹妮穿的衣服其实非常漂亮！”

school principal(noun)

校长

western duel (noun)

一对一决斗

av-guy(noun)

声音制作和视频筛选材料的人

cheat on the test

(expression)

考试作弊

moaned (verb, from: to moan)

英/m??n/ 美/mon/

抱怨，悲叹；呻吟

that was all it took. stanley fell back into the bleachers and moaned so loudly the students held their ears. he did a forward flip and then just like that with a loud blip, he vanished, leaving just a puddle of green gossip goo on the gym floor. “everybody back to class!” commanded the good principal and with that, there was never again another gossip gremlin in amy’s town.

问题就此解决。此时，斯坦利后退着跌倒在露台上，发出一阵大大的呻吟声，学生们都捂住耳朵。他做了一个前空翻，然后伴随着一阵短促而尖锐的声音就消失了，只在体育馆的地板上留下了一滩绿色的精灵眼泪。“大家各回各班！”校长满意地下令说。从此以后，艾米居住的小镇里再也没出现过其他爱听嚼舌根的小精灵。

bleachers (noun)

美/’blit??z/ （美）

露天看台；

vanished

(verb, from: to vanish) /’v?ni?d/

销声匿迹，无影无踪

goo(noun) 英/gu?/ 美/ɡu/

粘性物

the end

静思语

gossiping is only feeding our inner monsters,

or inner ‘gremlins’

don’t feed the gremlin in you.

不要喂养内心的小魔怪

the truth is strong enough to defeat

the gremlin for once and for all.

谣言在真相前总是无力。

one truth, after all, is worth more than a million lies.

真理胜过一百万个谎言。

过好自己日子，

不将别人的私事当做谈资。

不仅是做人基本的修养，

更是与人相处最基本的尊重。

“静坐常思己过，闲谈莫论人非”，

课后留言版

今天的小故事让我想到了古人的两句话：“谁人背后无人说？哪个人前不说人？”。当然，故事的结尾挺美好的，面对那个看似可爱，但以食用“gossip”为乐，逐渐变得面目可憎的精灵，校长启发孩子们勇敢的站出来讲真话，回归了他们善良的天性。但在现实生活中，人是社会的，必然相互之间要发生各种各样的联系。且从莫种意义上讲，嫉妒心理有其与生俱来的天性。所以，就有了上面提到两句流传至今的老话。在自己的人生中，明晰什么是善，什么是恶。通过不断的努力，让“人之初，性本善”的基因常驻，在与人交往中中，尽可能做到 “张口只言正事，闲谈莫论人非”。当然，人非圣贤孰能无过，面对别人或善意，或恶意的“gossip”，我们也要保持一颗有定力的心，但求无愧就好。

–dreamer

美文感想: 谁人背后无人说，谁人背后不说人。

三人成虎，伤人伤己。

做人还是要群处守口，独处守心。

–gp

free chat

周一听力写作专区

热招听译字幕君

” monday with nick“

和外教尼克聊天

——

跨越大洲的中西文化互动

你留言，他回复

——

“每周一段互动脱口秀”

你能听懂多少？

听写强化训练全面提升听力口语

june 6.11 点击下图收听今日音频

第二期听写小能手上线

你来练听译，写出中英对照字幕，

再也不用担心听不懂外国人的实景口语啦！

每周一练，进步多多！

现在就把听力练起来！

报名参与听写训练，

微博私信@京晶am774

同时欢迎将自练片段发在留言区

记录自己的练习和进步。

听写 英文版+中译

今日主题：父亲的责任

英文听写| 小毛毛、della，嘟嘟、林杰生

校对| lily王莉

lily王莉

暗涌

林杰生

karen

中文第一版|暗涌、珍惜、

julia（芝华塔尼欧）

校对| karen

中文第二版| karen

della

珍惜

julia

父亲的责任

为了带孩子看病，我放弃了最爱的f1

happy monday, everybody. for this monday, june 11th, 2018, nick back with you for another free talk. on this special week, for myself, it was the montreal grand prix this weekend. it’s the busiest weekend. i think probably in north america, it’s gotta be one of them. do you guys remember earlier when i was talking about a car racing and how china has this special formula 1, or f1 car race in shanghai? well, this weekend the circuit stops in montreal, my hometown. so the formula 1 race was this weekend in montreal. it’s this weekend. and i was looking forward to it too. you guys all know that i’m a big race fan. and we’ll get to that in a second.

周一快乐！nick又给大家带来了新一期的free talk~这一周对我来说，甚至对整个北美来说都是既特别又忙碌的一周。不知道大家还记不记得我曾经在节目里提到过在中国上海举办的一级方程式赛车（formula 1 or f1），而这次比赛地点在蒙特利尔！

but first, i wanna talk about the misconception. misconception, that a new word. it means something that you normally believe in, but in fact it’s not totally true. so there is a misconception for, uh, when you have your first child, when you become a mother, or when you become a father. people always say ‘oh, everything’s gonna change. you’re going to change. you life’s going to change.’ well, you know what, my life didn’t change that much. you know, my personality certainly didn’t change that much. but you know what did change? my priorities changed. my responsibilities changed. and a clear example of this happened this weekend. you see i was set to go to the formula 1 event all weekend. i had my tickets. i was going to the friday free practice where the cars just race around and see if everything is okay. and then the qualifying event, which is on saturday, which is where the drivers will race to see who will start first and who will start last. and then sunday, well, sunday is the big race. yesterday was the big race and the day i was looking forward to the most. i couldn’t wait to see this race live. right here in home city of montreal it was a beautiful day. but that didn’t matter. you see, my son, michael, who is about a year and a half now, he fell sick this weekend. yes, in fact he’s been nursing this sore ear, i believe he’s got some sort of ear infection. it’s been bothering him a lot. and finally after numerous attempts to go to a nurse, go to a clinic, and try this antibiotic and try this medicine, nothing has worked. so i decided to give up, i decided to give up my sunday to take our son to the hospital. yes, we went to the montreal’s children’s hospital. you see, that’s where the responsibilities and priorities changed. before, i would like to say no way, nothing is going to stop me from going to this race. however, now i’m a father and the responsibilities and the priorities have changed. i’m still a huge race fan. and i will tell you what, i still watch the race. however, i watched it from a doctor’s room with my son michael. we streamed it on my phone. i’ll post a picture in the wechat post that jingjing is doing.

首先我想先谈一下“误解”（misconception）。比如说，当你成为一个新手妈妈或爸爸的时候，身边的人都会告诉你，你生活的一切都会发生变化。然而对我来说，生活并没有许多改变，像性格方面。但我最看重的东西改变了，责任感也改变了。给大家举一个例子吧，这周末我本来可以去现场看f1的自由练习和比赛，但我五岁的儿子麦克病了，吃了药也不管用，我只能放弃看比赛，带他去蒙特利尔的儿童医院。因为我现在已为人父，对孩子的责任感是最重要的。不过，我仍是f1的超级粉丝，所以这次我和麦克在医院里看完了比赛。

but yes, we spent the day in the hospital. i’ll tell you what, the canadian hospital system is a little different than the chinese hospital system. there are different hospitals for adults and children. we brought our son to the montreal’s children’s hospital. and there weren’t that many people. in fact, there were about 20 or 25 people waiting with their kids and we got in and out there about 2, 3 hours. there was about an hour and a half of wait time because michael’s ear infection or discomfort is certainly not an emergency. i saw a few other kids there who certainly needed to be, uh, seen before michael. but that, that’s ok. we waited in the waiting room for about half an hour to 40 minutes. and then we were called into the doctor’s room, where we waited for about, let’s say about another hour. well, michael and i sat in the patients’ chair and watched the race together. so lo and behold , long story short, i still love car racing, however, my priorities have changed. my family comes before anything now. whereas before, when my wife and i were just boyfriend and girlfriend, i would have, maybe missed an important dinner or important meeting with her to go watch the race even when we were married, i would have been that ‘you know, honey, i’m just gonna go watch the race with some of my friends. but now, now the priority’s changed. it’s family first before anything. if you guys have any questions about the canadian medical system or the health care system, feel free to leave a comment or a question below. i’ll be true to answer all of your questions. it’s quite an interesting experience. it was kind of like half the day on sunday, we left with a preion for a new medicine that michael needs to take. but you know, in china, you would get your medicine at the hospital. but we didn’t, we didn’t do that. we actually took our paper with the medicine on it, the deion of the medicine and drove home and stopped at a pharmacy on the way home. in fact, i don’t know if there was a pharmacy in the hospital. i didn’t really see one. but anyways, there were a few differences between a chinese hospital and a canadian hospital. so if you guys are curious, you guys have questions for me about this topic, let me know in the comment section below on this wechat comment section. and i will be sure to answer all of your questions next monday.

加拿大的医院和中国的有一些区别。加拿大的医院有专门接收成人和专门接收儿童的。mike这次去的儿童医院病人不是很多，大约有二十多人。我觉得有些孩子比mike的情况更严重，所以就和mike在外边等了一会，边等边一起看比赛。

总之，长话短说，我还是喜欢观看赛车，但这已不是我生活中的头等大事了，家庭才是重中之重。当妻子还是我的女朋友时，我也许会因为和其他朋友一起观看车赛而爽约跟她的一些重要的晚饭或约会。比如我会说，亲爱的，我想去看比赛。但是现在呢成家立业了，家庭至上。

好啦，如果听众朋友们有任何关于加拿大医疗系统或是卫生保健服务体系的问题，尽管发问吧，在微信评论区写下评论，我会全部回答的。

给大家讲一个我亲身经历的比较有趣的体验吧。周日下午我们花了半天时间在蒙特利尔儿童医院，医生给开了一个处方。在中国，你可以直接在医院药房取处方药。但在加拿大，拿到厨房后得在回家的路上找个药房抓药。我不确定加拿大的医院是否有药房。中国的医院和加拿大的医院比较不同！如果听众朋友们对这个话题感兴趣或是有什么问题，尽管在微信评论区留言好啦。我会在下周一全部为您解答的。

（和孩子在医院一起看f1转播)

and speaking of questions, i’ve got three of them. this week starting with syche. syche says ‘i want to know what canadians usually have in their meals during the wedding time?’

ah, yes, i spoke about the wedding last week. i went to one of my friends’ weddings and that was a funny experience. but that’s a good question, syche.

now usually you would hire a catering service. and if you guys don’t know what a catering service, it’s not a restaurant. maybe it could be a restaurant but it’s a kitchen. it’s a group of people that cook meals in bulk, so they specialize in cooking meals for 30, 40, 50, 100 people. you see, there is always this process in a canadian wedding.

first, they send out the first invitation, ‘you’re invited to this wedding. can you make it or not? please let us know.’ so i sent an email back, saying ‘yes, my wife and i will both be making it.’ and then, a month later, the bride and groom, so my friend and his wife, sent us back an email, saying ‘ok, thank you guys for accepting our invitation. we can’t wait you to be here. we need to know what meal you want.’ so there was a, there were three options. there was a vegetarian option, there was a steak option or there was a chicken option. and my wife and i both opted for the steak option. so you have your choices and then the catering company will take everybody’s choice. and it’s important that you get back to them. i didn’t get it back to them right away and my friend was like ‘hey, i need to know what you guys want to eat.’ so we sent them an email back, saying ‘it’s the steak. we want the steak.’ so they take every guests’ choice of meal and send it to the catering service. and the catering service will exactly make enough food for everybody according to what they choose. so that’s kind of the format. you see, we don’t do our wedding receptions at restaurants. we have them in open halls or hotel banquet halls. you know hotels have this place, where they usually have some sort of conference. that’s usually where we get married. and while they do have a hotel restaurant, we usually hire our own catering service because the hotel restaurant just cannot cook that many meals for that many people. so that’s a good question, syche.

接下来回答上周的问题。

第一个问题来自赛奇，他很想知道，在加拿大参加婚礼，大家都吃什么呀？

是啊，上周我谈到我参加了我朋友的婚礼，很美妙的经历啦。

赛琪，你的问题很好。一般，人们会聘请宴会承办商来负责。若是，听众朋友们对宴会承办商这个概念不甚了解的话，我来解释一下。宴席承办并不是饭店，当然，那也有可能，它是一个厨师团队，他们负责承接做大型宴席，服务30，40，50,或上百的宾客。在加拿大的婚礼流程如下，首先呢，你要给会参加婚礼的人，发请帖，“您能赏光鄙人的婚礼吗？请告知。”我的朋友就给我发了请帖。我和我的妻子回复，我们一定会出席的。一个月后，新娘回复了邮件，首先表达谢意，表示迫切期待我们出席婚礼。随后询问我们关于宴席的事宜。选项如下，有素餐，牛排，鸡肉，你们喜欢哪一样？我和妻子选择了牛排。宴会承包商会按照您的选择为您准备宴席的。当时我并没有立即给朋友回复，然后朋友就又问我，你们到底想吃什么呀？我就回复说想要吃牛排。新人收集来宾的反馈，把需求告知宴会承包商，他们按需为大家准备餐点。一般婚宴在露天场地或宾馆宴会厅里举行，但是并不依靠他们的厨房提供食物，因为有时候他们并不能提供足量的食物，我们有自己聘用的宴会承办商。好啦，赛奇，这是你的问题不错。

i’m gonna go on to the next question. it’s from 咩咩. and i got my wife to help me with the names this week. so i believe this one says ‘mie mie’. and 咩咩 says, ‘hello, nick. i’m here again. thank you for answering my last question. it is june and the dragon boat festival is coming. we’re gonna have a three-day vacation. i heard about that there is also the dragon boat festival in ottawa, which is the capital of canada. and it is one of the biggest dragon boat festivals in north america. is this true? you know what, i do believe this is true because the ottawa river is quite famous. so if you don’t, if you’ve ever seen the ottawa river great, but you haven’t, do a quick baidu search on the ottawa river, it’s beautiful. it goes right through the city. and i think that’s where they have a lot of their dragon boat festivals. in the winter time, this river freezes. it turns into ice. so a lot of people skate on it. that’s called the ottawa canal, c-a-n-a-l. if you’re on baidu and wanna do another search, check out the ottawa canal in the winter time. also very beautiful. ‘so do you hold this kind of activities this year? have you ever been to the dragon boat festival, nick? could you give us a brief introduction? looking forward to your reply and have a nice week!’

well, you know, 咩咩, the dragon boat festival in canada is more of like a work team building activity. yeah, a lot of offices will gather a team together and they will go do the dragon boat race. i know my mom’s company. they used to do it, so they used to have an equal amount of boys and girls sign up and they would go and enjoy the dragon boat festival. they have like a friendly competition against other offices. it’s really a team building thing. and yeah, yeah, it’s great. it’s a lot of fun. it was awesome to watch it. it’s very different culture for us. so anytime, we get to participate in something that’s a different culture, it’s super special. so great question, 咩咩. i wish you a happy dragon boat festival. that goes with everybody. happy dragon boat festival everybody!

第二个问题来自咩咩（我的妻子教我发这个音。）

你好尼克，谢谢你回答我的上一个问题。现在是6月，端午节就要到啦，我们会有三天的假期。我听说在渥太华（加拿大首都）也有龙舟节，而且这是北美洲最隆重的龙舟节之一。这是真的么？

你知道么，我确信这是真的。因为渥太华河相当有名气，如果你还没有亲眼见识过这条河的壮观，那不妨百度一下“渥太华河”，它非常美丽，流经渥太华，穿城而过。我猜这应该是龙舟节在此处盛行的原因。冬天的时候，河面结冰，许多人在上面溜冰，被称之为 ottawa canal，c-a-n-a-l，ottawa canal（见注释1）。如果刚刚的页面还没关掉，你可以再百度一下，查查看“冬季渥太华运河”，也是非常美丽。

那你们今年也会举办这类活动么？尼克，你曾经去参加过龙舟节么？

能给我们做个简单的介绍么？期待你的回复，愿你度过愉快的一周。

咩咩，你知道么，加拿大的龙舟节更像是一种团队建设活动。很多办公室职员组建成一个队伍，去参与龙舟大赛。据我所知，我母亲的公司过去常常参赛。他们会有人数相当的男生女生报名参赛，享受龙舟比赛的乐趣，同其他部门进行一场友谊赛。这真真的是项团队建设活动。没错，这很棒，很有趣，看起来也很带劲。对我们来说是一种不同的文化。所以每当我们参与体验一些不同文化的活动时，那感觉不同凡响。咩咩，你这个问题不错哦。 祝你龙舟节（端午节）快乐，也希望大家都度过一个快乐的龙舟节（端午节）。

so the last question of today comes from 神起蛛蛛.she says ‘hi, nick. here’s the question for you. i have a little boy, who’s 5 years old and who was learning skiing for almost 1 year. he has gotten to level 3 grade and seems to be difficult to step up to next level, although he took more practices after class. the question that i have is whether we should still continue to try hard to learn even if he told me he doesn’t like it or we could give it up and not force him. it always confuses me. if you were me, what would you do? looking forward to your reply and thank you very very much.’

you know, 蛛蛛, that’s a great question. i remember when i was a kid, my parents spent so much time and so much money developing my hockey, ice hockey skills. i was in a very competitive hokey team. and i was doing practices before and after school, and then my team practices, and then my weight training. and all this training because my parents wanted me to be a professional hockey player. so it’s just like the skiing for your son. unfortunately, i grew out of it. i grew out of it in the sense that i just didn’t like it any more. i don’t know if it’s because i did too much of it or i found other interests. i think it’s more of the latter. i started liking basketball more. and then i started liking football more. i think that’s just how boys are, how some boys are certainly. i mean everybody’s different. but i just liked sports and i didn’t wanna be stuck on one. i love to do activities and i thought hockey was just taking too much of my time. once i got into high school, i had the chance to play basketball, soccer, football and all of these other sports that i wouldn’t be able to do if hokey was still my main focus. so let your son live a little. try different things. he doesn’t like skiing any more. maybe he’ll like something else. let him explore. he’s only 5 years old. he’s got the whole world ahead of him. i think it’s important that you let him choose what he wants to do and you give him that freedom. because at the end of the day, what i learned about this, this hockey experience that my parents put me through is hard work. it was hard work. these practices were tough and challenging. but it gave me that skill for other sports. those hockey practices were just as hard as those basketball practices. but that hard work kind of followed me through every single sport. then it followed me through every single career i’ve had. you know, the working hard was, it’ started at this small level. i was only 5 years old when i started playing hockey. but as long as he’s doing something, and he’s in something, and he’s working hard, you can see he’s having fun. let him do it. let him try different things. the hard work will follow him everywhere. that’s the key. so i hope that helps you 神奇猪猪. and that’s a great question. i’m certainly gonna do that for my son. you gotta put him in different things and if he likes it great, he will probably grow out of stuff. but you’ll never know what he really likes unless you let him try different things. but one thing is for certain, if he’s gonna do it, he’s gonna work hard.

hey guys, that’s it for this week. i know i went a little long this week. i’m so sorry. but i’ll be back next week. next monday for a brand new episode of this free talk that i do every monday. and if you like this episode, please share it with your friends, your family and leave a comment or a question below. we’ll get back to you next monday. from jingjing and myself, we wish you both a happy happy week and we’ll see you next monday. so long everybody!

第三个问题来自神起蛛蛛。她说：“你好，nick。我想请教你一个问题。我儿子今年5岁了，学习滑雪快1年了。他学到了滑雪等级标准的3级（见注释2），但是看起来想再晋升1级很困难，虽然他课后进行了更多练习。我的问题是，他告诉我他不喜欢这项运动，这种情况下，我们是否应该付出更多努力继续学习？还是应该放弃，不强迫他继续学习。这个问题一直困扰着我。如果你是我，你会怎么做？期待你回复，万分感谢。”

神起蛛蛛，你这个问题很好。我记得在我小时候，我父母投入很多时间和金钱让我学习冰球。当时我是一个非常有竞争力的冰球队中的一员，上学前、放学后都要练习，我们队也组织练习，还要进行力量训练， 所有这些练习是因为我父母希望我能成为一名职业冰球运动员。这跟你儿子学习滑雪差不多。不幸的是，我放弃了，在某个黄昏的时候放弃了这项运动，我就是不再喜欢它。我不知道是因为练习太多了产生了厌烦，还是因为我有了其他兴趣爱好。我想更有可能是后者，因为我开始更喜欢篮球了，后来我又开始橄榄球更感兴趣。可能男孩子就是这样。或者说部分男孩子是这样。当然了，我的意思是，每个人可能不太一样。我就是喜欢运动，不想局限于某一种。我想参加很多活动，但是冰球占用了我太多时间。一旦我进入高中，我就有很多机会打篮球、踢足球、打橄榄球等很多种运动。如果我把精力都放在冰球上，那这些我就参与不了了。所以，让你儿子活在当下吧，尽情体验不同的事物。他不再喜欢滑雪的话，可能他会喜欢别的运动。让他自己去探索尝试吧，毕竟他才只有5岁，世界在他脚下。重要的是，让他自己选择他想做什么，给他自由。因为在那天傍晚时，从我父母强迫我学习冰球的经历中我学到了， 虽然这些练习是很艰难的挑战，但是正是坚持不懈的努力为我从事其他运动打下了很好的基础。冰球练习跟橄榄球练习一样困难，坚持不懈努力的习惯在我从事每项运动时都一直伴随着我，甚至贯穿于后来我从事每项事业的过程中。你知道么，当我开始学冰球时，我才5岁左右，也是那个时候我开始养成坚持不懈努力的习惯。所以，只要你儿子对某些事物感兴趣，尝试去做，并且不懈的努力，你会发现这个过程中他很快乐。尽管放手让他做，让他做各种尝试吧， 坚持不懈努力的习惯会一直伴随他，无论在哪里，无论做什么。这才是关键。希望我说的这些对能帮到你，神起蛛蛛。这真的是一个很好的问题，我也会这样教导我儿子。我会让他尝试不同的事物，看他是否喜欢、接受。有一些他可能选择中途放弃，但是只有让他进行不同的尝试，你才能知道他真正喜欢什么。但是，唯一可以确定的是，如果他想做，他就会坚持不懈的努力。

嘿，朋友们，以上就是这周的内容。很抱歉这周内容有点多，那么下周一再见啦。全新改版的free talk环节，如果你觉得不错，请推荐给你的家人、朋友，也可以去留言区发表评论、提出问题吧，我们会在下下周一回复你。我和京晶在此祝你度过愉快的一周。

咱们不见不散。

注释1：渥太华运河，百度里称之为里多运河——世界最长的溜冰场，全长7.8千米，沿途经过加拿大过会大厦。每年深冬，著名的冬季狂欢节（winter carnival）就在结冰的里多河上举行。

注释2：北京市冬季运动管理中心主任颜纳新介绍，这个等级标准分成人、儿童和单板、双板不同项目，每个项目均细分为9个级别，每个级别均描述了该级别滑雪者适合滑行的雪道类别及需要达到的滑行技术水平。其中1-4级属于初级滑雪者级别，5-7级属于中级滑雪者级别，8-9级属于高级滑雪者级别，通过考级后会颁发徽章和证书，其中初级标识为绿色，中级标识为蓝色，高级标识为黑色，这是国际通用的初中高级颜色标识。雪友可通过“考级”明确自己定位，选择适合自己的雪道，更方便滑雪指导员根据滑雪者的等级为其量身订制。

好大的医院啊！

中译文第二版：听译karen

同学们好呀，周一（2018-6-11）愉快!我和我的free talk又来和大伙儿见面啦！刚刚过去的周末，我的家乡蒙特利尔举办了2018赛季f1大奖赛第七站加拿大大奖赛，哇，那简直是车水马龙、摩肩接踵，这也是北美地区最high的一个周末！小伙伴们还记得我之前提过上海的一级方程式赛车吧？这次我的家乡蒙特利尔是加拿大大奖赛的终点，所以这是我相当期待的一个周末（你们都知道偶是个赛车迷）。不过，这个咱们稍后再说。

先来讨论一个错误的观念—-咱们初为人母、人父时，别人总说：一切都会改变，你会改变，你的生活也会彻底不同。坦白说，我还真不这么觉得，我的生活、我的个性其实没什么太大变化。不过，生活的重心和责任的确是改变了。就比如上个周末吧，我本来计划一整个周末都去看赛车-周五车手们的自由练习，周六的排位赛和周日的正赛。f1难得在我的家乡举办，作为铁粉，我无敌期待去现场观赛。但我家1岁半的小王子麦克周末病了，他耳朵疼，有点感染了。小家伙耳朵不适有段时间了，期间我们去护士所和诊所看过，也用了抗生素和服用了一些药，但疗效甚微。于是，为父不得不忍痛放弃周日的f1现场秀，带着小王子去了蒙特利尔儿童医院。这就是生活重心和责任的改变，在有娃之前，没有任何事能阻挡我去看现场比赛，但是现在我是一个萌娃的爸比，我的重心是家庭，即便我依然是f1铁粉。（附：我和michael在医院候诊时在手机上看了比赛）。

加拿大的医疗系统和中国的不尽相同。加拿大有针对大人和儿童的医院，我带儿子去的是蒙特利尔儿童医院。人并不多，大约20-25个病人在候诊，我们在那里里外外花了两三小时，等了约一个半小时，因为小王子的耳朵不适不属于急诊，有好几个孩子的情况的确还蛮严重的。在候诊室大约等了30-40分钟，等到医生办公室又等了一个小时，我和小王子百无聊赖，就在手机上看比赛。（听出了nick老师的无可奈何）。太太还是女友时，甚至是婚后，我都是不管不顾要去看赛车的人。（太太要桑心了，还是萌版nick最重要），如今我依然热衷赛车，但家庭高于一切，这就是有娃后生活重心的转移。周日耗了半天最后得到一张处方(麦克需要服用的一种新药)，在回家路上我们又得带着处方去找药店开药。这和中国的医院很不一样，在中国拿着处方条直接到药房拿药，加拿大的医院我不确定是否有药房。如果同学们有任何关于加拿大医疗保健制度的问题，请留言，我会一一作答。

上周的问题我选择3个进行回答：

（·1）赛克同学问：加拿大的婚宴膳食是如何安排的？通常，我们会请婚宴承办商来负责餐饮部分。婚宴承办商可以是一个饭店，也可以是一群专注做宴会餐的人，一般可以服务30-40，甚至上百人的餐饮。基本流程是：新人送第一封请柬，问询家人、友人是能参加婚礼，我回邮件答复说我和太太届时都会去观礼。一个月后，新人发邮件给我们表达谢意，并告知婚宴提供三种餐可供选择，分别是：1)素餐2）牛排套餐3）鸡肉套餐。我和太太都选了牛排套餐。新人会陆续统计大家的选择，然后把列表交给婚宴承办商，承办商会完全根据宾客的选择来定制食物。婚宴通常选择在开放式的大厅或者酒店的宴会厅举行，但通常我们另外请宴会承办商而不用酒店的餐厅（酒店餐厅一般提供不了这么多宾客的饭菜）。

（2）咩咩同学说:nick,谢谢你回答我上次的问题。端午节马上到了，我们有3天小长假，听闻渥太华（加拿大首都）龙舟节是北美最大的龙舟节，是这样么？

nick答：我觉着是。渥太华河畔以其秀美的风光闻名于世，如果你已领略过她的美，甚好；如果没有，建议大家百度一下，欣赏一下她的典雅与秀丽，龙舟节大多在此举行。冬日的渥太华运河（又名里多运河）静谧美好，河水冻结成冰，许多人在上面滑冰嬉戏。

（备注：渥太华河与渥太华运河不同但有交汇之处）

咩咩问：今年依然会有龙舟节么？nick你去过渥太华龙舟节么？能给我们简单介绍一下么？

nick答:加拿大的龙舟节更像是团队建设活动，通常是许多办公室组成一个队伍去比赛，我妈妈以前的公司也组队参赛过。参赛队伍的男女选手配比是一样的，这样友好的比赛很值得一看，但显然，龙舟节之于加拿大人的意义和中国端午节的意义大相径庭。在此也提前祝广大听友们端午安康！

（3）神起蛛蛛问：nick你好！家有5岁男宝，学滑雪1年，目前是3级，但现在看来往上升级难度较大，即便放学后孩子已经进行很刻苦的训练。孩子表示不是很愿意再学了，我很迷茫，不知道该督促孩子再勤加练习呢还是让他就此放弃？如果你是我，你会如何处理呢？

nick答：小时候，父母在我身上花了许多精力和财力让我学冰上曲棍球。当时，我在一个很有名的球队，竞争颇激烈，我每天课前课后都很拼地练习，周末也不例外，我父母希望我成为一个职业曲棍球员。这和你孩子学溜冰是一样的。庆幸的是我没被他们的期望禁锢，直言我并不喜欢曲棍球。我不知道是因为练习太多让我心生厌倦还是我找到了新的兴趣点，后来我喜欢篮球，再后来我喜欢足球。兴许男孩子生性如此，后者说某些男孩是这样，每个人都是不用的。我爱运动，但不想拘泥于某一种运动。中学后我很喜欢篮球、橄榄球、足球，如果曲棍球占据我太多时间，我就无暇兼顾其他运动了。所以我的建议是让你儿子多尝试，也许不喜欢曲棍球，会喜欢其他运动。给他自由度，让他选择自己喜欢的运动。与我而言，学习曲棍球的这些刻苦经历对我后来的各种运动、乃至工作都大有裨益。孩子如果找到兴趣点，并专注于此，为此努力，并享受这个过程，这个经历是最重要，并会让孩子受益终身。

小伙伴们下周见咯，期待你们的精彩留言！

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