The Worst Christmas Jobs 圣诞特辑 6

Here is a Christmas riddle¹ for you: what's the connection between Jane Austen, Christmas dinner and Northern Ireland? Well by the 18th century, the Georgians had developed their own refined and tasteful Christmas celebrations. The plate settings were very much like what we have today, there they‘ve had knives and spoons and this is a new innovation: the fork. The whole thing would have been on a crisp linen² tablecloth³, and the Porto would have been poured into elegant glasses. But all this elegance⁴ was bought at a price.

And the price was paid by workers here on the shores of Ireland.

Well, it's slippy.
Yeah.

The production of both the linen and the glassware that graced the Georgian Christmas table needed vast quantities of the chemical soda⁵. It was obtained from seaweed which was harvested and burnt to make blocks of soda known as kelp. Whole families used to be employed as kelp collectors rushing out barefoot at low tide to harvest this slimy stinking⁶ resource. You only had a few hours to gather the seaweed and the bad news is that it took 20 tons to make one ton of kelp.

Do you note it’s full?
Yeah! It‘s quite heavy.
Forty kilogram!
Well you…you are propelled along really by the weight of the stuff.
I prefer the harvesting to the carrying.
Yeah.
Here Thomas. There's some more.
Great, great.
Is the worst bit over?
No, no, you have another two days.
I guess it's over.
Ah…
Hey, give me a hand, I'll be stuck here forever.
So there is another whole part of the process.
Well, the next stage is to burn it up. We'll have to readjust it to the kelp, the ashes of the seaweed and that takes two days. So you'll have to be in attendance all day today, tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night. Because that needs constant recks(照看，注意), the fire needs spread evenly around

Ok, so what exactly happens in there then...
Well that slowly burns, um... down to a sort of point like mass at the bottom (Yeah). Then you have to cool it off and it's …it’s very, very heavy. It's heavier than lead, becomes a solid mass. And then you break it up, you have to break it up with sledge⁷ hammers, and it's then carried to a store house, they have to get it in, out of the rain, ‘cause it's very soluble⁸, as fast as possible.
Then it's brought to market.
That must be quite a big industry.
Massive coastal⁹ industry, we have these amazing descriptions on some paintings of, say, this part of the coast in every few hundred yards is a smoking kiln¹⁰ like this.
It's very greasy¹¹, isn't it? These guys and women must have got filthy¹³.

Yes the smoke went into their pores and their faces were totally black, but after they finished the two days' burning, they went off to their sweat house. (like a sauna or something.) It's an Irish version of the sauna. But the girls who were working here were granted to sit in a seatless sweat house for three or four hours until they got all the soot¹⁴ and oil out of the pores.
They don't do this kind of process now presumably.
No, no, it's a long dead industry and...

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soluble adj. 1. That can be dissolved, especially easily dissolved: soluble fats. 可溶解的
2. Possible to solve or explain可解决的: soluble mysteries.

kiln n. Any of various ovens for hardening, burning, or drying substances such as grain, meal, or clay, especially a brick-lined oven used to bake or fire ceramics¹⁵. 窑,炉

filthy adj. Covered or smeared¹⁶ with filth¹²; disgustingly dirty. See synonyms at dirty 污秽的

1 riddle   

n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜

参考例句：

• The riddle couldn't be solved by the child.这个谜语孩子猜不出来。
• Her disappearance is a complete riddle.她的失踪完全是一个谜。

2 linen   

n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的

参考例句：

• The worker is starching the linen.这名工人正在给亚麻布上浆。
• Fine linen and cotton fabrics were known as well as wool.精细的亚麻织品和棉织品像羊毛一样闻名遐迩。

3 tablecloth   

n.桌布，台布

参考例句：

• He sat there ruminating and picking at the tablecloth.他坐在那儿沉思，轻轻地抚弄着桌布。
• She smoothed down a wrinkled tablecloth.她把起皱的桌布熨平了。

4 elegance   

n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙

参考例句：

• The furnishings in the room imparted an air of elegance.这个房间的家具带给这房间一种优雅的气氛。
• John has been known for his sartorial elegance.约翰因为衣着讲究而出名。

5 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。

6 stinking   

adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透

参考例句：

• I was pushed into a filthy, stinking room. 我被推进一间又脏又臭的屋子里。
• Those lousy, stinking ships. It was them that destroyed us. 是的！就是那些该死的蠢猪似的臭飞船！是它们毁了我们。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

7 sledge   

n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往

参考例句：

• The sledge gained momentum as it ran down the hill.雪橇从山上下冲时的动力越来越大。
• The sledge slid across the snow as lightly as a boat on the water.雪橇在雪原上轻巧地滑行，就象船在水上行驶一样。

8 soluble   

adj.可溶的；可以解决的

参考例句：

• These tablets are soluble in water.这些药片可在水中溶解。
• Camphor is soluble in alcohol.樟脑在酒精中可以溶化。

9 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

10 kiln   

n.（砖、石灰等）窑，炉；v.烧窑

参考例句：

• That morning we fired our first kiln of charcoal.那天上午，我们烧了我们的第一窑木炭。
• Bricks are baked in a kiln.砖是在窑里烧成的。

11 greasy   

adj. 多脂的，油脂的

参考例句：

• He bought a heavy-duty cleanser to clean his greasy oven.昨天他买了强力清洁剂来清洗油污的炉子。
• You loathe the smell of greasy food when you are seasick.当你晕船时，你会厌恶油腻的气味。

12 filth   

n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥

参考例句：

• I don't know how you can read such filth.我不明白你怎么会去读这种淫秽下流的东西。
• The dialogue was all filth and innuendo.这段对话全是下流的言辞和影射。

13 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

14 soot   

n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟

参考例句：

• Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
• The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。

15 ceramics   

n.制陶业；陶器

参考例句：

• an exhibition of ceramics by Picasso 毕加索陶瓷作品展
• The ceramics bore the imprint of Luca della Robbia. 陶器上印有卢卡·德拉·罗比亚的字样。

16 smeared   

弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上

参考例句：

• The children had smeared mud on the walls. 那几个孩子往墙上抹了泥巴。
• A few words were smeared. 有写字被涂模糊了。