英语博客：Bingo.

　　This past Friday night, I was settling in for the evening, when my youngest son said, "Mum, can we go to the family bingo night at school?" I groaned¹ inside, not wanting to go anywhere. I had received an automated² voice message from the school a few days previously³ about the fundraising night. Bingo was on the agenda⁴, and the winners would win large baskets, or hampers⁵, filled with all kinds of goodies. These hampers had been donated from various businesses in town to help the school raise money. I had actually never been to any of the bingo nights, but I had heard that they are very popular. So, being a push-over, and wanting to please my kids, I took my two youngest. My older two wanted to stay at home and hang out with their dad; anyway, they are far too sophisticated⁷ for school bingo, now that they are eleven and twelve.....As we turned up at the school, it was starting to snow. The parking lot was full of cars, so I knew that it would be a full event. We walked in and found the whole gym full of people sitting at tables, concentrating on their bingo cards, and munching⁸ away on snacks that they had bought at the concession⁹ stand. There was a table where you could rent bingo cards for five dollars for the evening. "Which one do you want?" said the lady who was in charge. "Oh, I don't care. Just give me any of them," I replied. "You're obviously not a serious bingoer,"she said to me laughing. She's right; I'm not. I've barely¹⁰ ever played it. But we sat down and started to cover the numbers that were called out. My children really got into it. We didn't win anything at all. I was hoping that we could take home one of the Christmas hampers, but it wasn't to be. What made it worse was that a couple of people each won three hampers. Three! There should be a rule against that! But we tried our best. My kids were very disappointed that we went home empty-handed. I told them, "Most of the time, you don't win anything. Only a few people ever win in these games, but there is always a chance." That didn't cheer them up, but I suppose it was a good lesson in reality.
Grammar notes.
Related vocabulary: a hamper⁶, a push-over, to hang-out, to be in charge.
1. The first prize will be a hamper full of all kinds of coffee products.
2. She is such a push-over; you can ask her for anything and she'll give it to you.
3. How about we stay in and just hang out together?
4. When you train your dogs, you have to be in charge.

1 groaned   

v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦

参考例句：

• He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
• The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

3 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

4 agenda   

n.议事日程，记事册

参考例句：

• We now proceed to the next item on the agenda.我们现在着手讨论下一项议题。
• If there is no objection,the agenda is adopted.如果没有意见，议程就通过了。

5 hampers   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Prejudice sometimes hampers a person from doing the right thing. 有时候，偏见会妨碍人正确行事。
• This behavior is the opposite of modeless feedback, and it hampers flow. 这个行为有悖于非模态的反馈，它阻碍了流。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

6 hamper   

vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子

参考例句：

• There are some apples in a picnic hamper.在野餐用的大篮子里有许多苹果。
• The emergence of such problems seriously hamper the development of enterprises.这些问题的出现严重阻碍了企业的发展。

7 sophisticated   

adj.老练的，精密的，尖端的，高雅的

参考例句：

• She has become very sophisticated since she went to live in London.移居伦敦后她变得世故多了。
• This is a very sophisticated machine.这是一台非常精密的机器。

8 munching   

v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was munching an apple. 他在津津有味地嚼着苹果。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Munching the apple as he was, he had an eye for all her movements. 他虽然啃着苹果，但却很留神地监视着她的每一个动作。 来自辞典例句

9 concession   

n.让步，妥协；特许(权)

参考例句：

• We can not make heavy concession to the matter.我们在这个问题上不能过于让步。
• That is a great concession.这是很大的让步。

10 barely   

adv.仅仅，几乎没有，几乎不

参考例句：

• The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
• He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。