英文原版对话1000个:1000 The idea of elllo

Kevin: Alright, Todd. Thought that I would ask you some questions about elllo. How long have you been running elllo?
Todd: Actually, it started in 2003. So, it actually began as a graduate school project, and I never ended up finishing graduate school, but it started as a grad school project in January I guess, and I was able to get the first bits of the web site up around June 2003, and naturally the site looks a lot different than it did then, but yeah, that was the first time.

Kevin: Did you do like needs analysis, or did you try and research what people wanted? Were you getting input¹ from anywhere?

Todd: No, it was actually pretty organic, really. In Japan my students were always trying to practice English, but at that time, this was before youtube or anything. There wasn't really that much for them to listen to.

So looking at the textbooks, I noticed that everything was scripted, and I thought, "Oh, you know, they would probably just like to hear people speak naturally".

So as a grad school assignment, I just did some recordings², and then I transcribed³ them for my students, and then I showed them to the students, and they loved them, and they thought they were the greatest thing, and they asked me to do more.

And so originally, the idea was not to even to put the site online. I was making the recordings on these little MD's. MD players were really popular in Japan at the turn of the century, and I had all these boxes of little MD's and I would loan them out to students.

So, at that point, you know, I heard of this thing called MP3. You know, that means that it can play on a computer, so I decided⁴ to take a computer course, and learn how to do the online stuff, but actually it was always just basically the students requesting to have naturally spoken English.
 

1 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

2 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

3 transcribed   

（用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的过去式和过去分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音）

参考例句：

• He transcribed two paragraphs from the book into his notebook. 他把书中的两段抄在笔记本上。
• Every telephone conversation will be recorded and transcribed. 所有电话交谈都将被录音并作全文转写。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。