ESL Podcast 570 – Guessing a Number

Angela: Hey, look at this. This restaurant is holding a contest. If you can guess the number of marbles in this bowl, you’ll get a free meal every day for one year!

Dwight: I’ll take a stab at it.

Angela: So will I. Let’s see, I think there must be close to 1000 or 1200 marbles in there. What are you doing?

Dwight: I’m doing some calculations in my head. The bowl is about 75 percent full, and it’s 15 inches by 12 inches by 6 inches (15”x12”x6”). The marbles are about ¾ of an inch in diameter....

Angela: Are you actually trying to figure out the capacity by crunching¹ the numbers? This is a game. You’re supposed to guess.

Dwight: I know it’s a game, but I want to increase my chances by making an educated guess. Hold on, I just need to do one more calculation and I’ll have the magic number.

Angela: That’s cheating.

Dwight: No way! I’m just using what God gave me to beat you out of a year’s worth of meals.

Angela: Bring it on. I’ll pit my random² guess against your educated guess any day!


Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

1 crunching   

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• The horses were crunching their straw at their manger. 这些马在嘎吱嘎吱地吃槽里的草。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog was crunching a bone. 狗正嘎吱嘎吱地嚼骨头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。