Prison restaurants(监狱餐厅)
NB: This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript
Dan: Hello and welcome to this week’s 6 Minute English. I’m Dan Walker Smith
and today I’m joined by Callum.
Callum: Hi Dan.
Dan: Now today we’re talking about a new restaurant in Britain. So I want to ask
you Callum, where’s the strangest place you’ve ever eaten a meal?
Callum: Well I don’t think I’ve eaten in any particularly（独特地，特别的） strange places. I’ve eaten in a
restaurant on top of a mountain; I’ve eaten in a restaurant on a beach. It’s not
particularly strange, but I suppose that’s the most unusual, not-everyday kind
of place I’ve eaten.
Dan: OK, well you might be interested in a new restaurant, which has just opened in
a prison just outside London. The restaurant, Clink, is both a canteen – or
dining hall – for prison staff and a four-star restaurant for the public.
According to the founder, the quality of food is as good as some of the best
restaurants in London.
Callum: Well that’s interesting. I like the name – Clink – because ‘clink’ is a slang
name in English for a prison. But it also has that kind of a posh（奢华的漂亮的） name that you
might get for a restaurant in London – ‘Clink’.
Dan: Exactly, exactly. So you might be tempted to go there?
Callum: Well I don’t know about that.
Dan: Well, let me tell you about it. But first, we’ve got this week’s question for you.
According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, how many people
worldwide are currently serving prison sentences? A sentence is the word for
a punishment（惩罚） given out by the courts for a crime. So a prison sentence is, of
course, a punishment spent inside prison. So is it:
a) 9 million
b) 15 million
c) 22 million
…people serving prison sentences?
Callum: Well this is just going to have to be a guess, Dan. I think 9 million sounds a
little bit low. Fifteen or 22? I don’t know. I’m going to go for 22 million. I’m
going to go for the high number, ‘cos in many countries I think there are lots of
people in prison.
Dan: And we’ll see if you’re right at the end of the programme. Now let’s hear from
the British journalist Sheila Dillon, telling us about the decision to open a
restaurant in the prison. She describes the present economic situation as
‘gloomy’. What does she mean by that Callum?
Callum: If something is described as being gloomy（黑暗的，沮丧的） it means it’s dark, depressing or
unhappy. So when she says that we’re in ‘gloomy economic times’, she means
that the financial situation is not very good. So have a listen to the extract;
what term does she use to describe the restaurant?
Extract 1
In these gloomy economic times, it takes a brave man to open a restaurant. But it takes
more than bravery to open one behind prison walls. Yet two weeks ago, the most
exclusive restaurant in Britain opened for business.
Dan: OK, so she describes the restaurant as exclusive. What does she mean by that
Callum?
Callum: Well, exclusive in this context means it’s only for a particular select group of
people. An exclusive restaurant is usually one that’s only for very rich people
or for private members, for example. But here the restaurant is exclusive
because it’s in a prison; and you can’t really get much more exclusive than
that.
Dan: The food is prepared and served by the prisoners or inmates. These are the
people who are serving a sentence in the prison.
Callum: The prisoners receive training in cooking and hospitality, and cook meals
using local ingredients and vegetables grown inside the jail.
Dan: The idea is that they can use these skills to help them get jobs after they leave
prison.
Callum: The restaurant, Clink, isn’t open to the public; you have to be invited. But it is
designed to look and feel like top-class restaurant. The quality of the food has
a very good reputation apparently, and a number of people from the food
industry have now visited Clink to see if they want to hire ex-prisoners.
Dan: Now let’s hear the prison’s governor, Peter Dawson, talking about how this
project could reduce crime. He argues that by providing skills for employment（雇用，职业）,
you can lower the risk people committing crimes after they’re released from
prison.
Callum: Listen out for the word resettlement. To resettle means to move to another
place or relocate. So in this case, resettlement means preparing the inmates
for life after prison. What does he say the project allows the prisoners to do?
Extract 3
This is about resettlement; this is not about being nice to people for its own sake. This is
about reducing the risk of crime when people are released and allowing people who have
made a personal commitment to do it, to change their lives.
Callum: He says the restaurant scheme can reduce crime as it allows ex-prisoners to
change their lives, rather than return to crime.
Dan: Well it sounds like an interesting approach to me. But we’re almost out of
time, unfortunately, so let’s go over some of the vocabulary we’ve come across
today:
sentence gloomy exclusive prisoner inmate resettlement
Dan: And let's go back to today's question. I asked you Callum how many people in
the world are officially serving a prison sentence at the moment?
Callum: Well I took a guess at 22 million.
Dan: And you’re way about the mark there Callum. Actually it’s 9 million people in
the world serving a prison sentence.
Callum: Really?
Dan: Which I still think is quite high. I still think that’s a big number.
Callum: Well it’s a big world!
Dan: It’s a big world, this is true! But there are some interesting figures in this. Half
of the world’s prisoners, half of that 9 million, are in the US, in Russia, or in
China.
And across the world, men are apparently eight times as likely to spend time in
prison then women.
So from all of us here at BBC Learning English, thanks for listening, and
goodbye!
Callum: Goodbye!（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）
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