【英语趣味课堂】阳台上的小花园-Balcony Garden

 Mike: So Dusty, you told me that you tend to grow your own kind of plants and things, and you're into kind of greenery and into kind of like ecology.

Dusty: Yeah.

 

Mike: You grow your own plants on your balcony, is that right?

 

Dusty: Right, yeah. Well, you know, I live in Tokyo, and the balcony gets a lot of sunlight. It was actually a pretty good growing season, so we grow a lot of herbs on our balcony, like basil, thyme, mint¹, or lemongrass. They grow quite well. Even coriander, we have growing right now.

 

Mike: Wow.

 

Dusty: It's just going well.

 

Mike: So you use that stuff² for your own cooking and everything, right?

 

Dusty: Yeah. You can really see the difference, especially when you're making sauces and things. It just has a lot more flavor³ to it. We've also started growing some vegetables, so we've got carrots going, and we've got lettuce⁴. We're going to start doing grapes in about a month or so.

 

Mike: Wow! You must have a huge balcony.

 

Dusty: We are lucky. We got a pretty big balcony, but it doesn't take much room. And even some things you would never expect, like goya or grapes grow well on the balcony.

 

Mike: Really?

 

Dusty: Yeah.

 

Mike: Wow!

 

Dusty: And it's like good-

 

Mike: I always thought goya was like a tropical⁵ kind of vegetable.

 

Dusty: It will do okay in Tokyo.

 

Mike: Really?

 

Dusty: Yeah. And then the grapes, you know, the grape quality isn't very good.

 

Mike: Okay.

 

Dusty: But during the summer, they have leaves, and so it kind of cools down your balcony. In then in the winter, the leaves drop away, so you still get a lot of sunlight. It's kind of a very eco-friendly way of cooling your house.

 

Mike: So what advice would you give to somebody if they wanted to, let's say, grow their own vegetables or herbs, or whatever, on their balcony?

 

Dusty: Well for one thing, don't be scared to stack⁶ things.

 

Mike: Okay.

 

Dusty: Yeah. If you don't have much room, it's okay to kind of build a little shelf above one. Herbs don't need a ton of sunlight.

 

Mike: Oh, really? Okay. Wow, I didn't know that.

 

Dusty: So you'll be fine with that. And then also, grow things you're actually going to use. Like last year, we grew jalapeno peppers, and we grew habaneros.

 

Mike: Wow!

 

Dusty: Yeah. Habaneros are great. We've got tons of them, but we just couldn't eat them. It was so spicy⁷.

 

Mike: Oh, really?

 

Dusty: Yeah. In the end, we eventually deep fried⁸ some of them and had like cheese poppers.

 

Mike: You mean, you eat them like deep-fried, all straight habanero peppers?

 

Dusty: Deep fried with cheese inside. But yeah, that was about the only way we could do it. And even just handling them, like your eyes would hurt afterwards.

 

The other thing is be ready for bugs⁹. Even if you're up like eight storeys or nine storeys, you'll be amazed¹⁰ how many - you'll wake up one morning and just find your plants covered in caterpillars¹¹.

 

Mike: Really?

 

Dusty: Yeah.

 

Mike: Wow! I guess so. I mean, in fact, that makes sense. Insects fly, so they would eventually get themselves up there.

 

Dusty: Yeah.

 

Mike: Thanks a lot, Dusty. That's really interesting - fascinating stuff.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

greenery

 

I heard you're into greenery.

 

We use the word greenery to talk about grass, plants, trees, etc. Notice the following:

 

There's not much greenery in the city.

The greenery of New Zealand is amazing.

grow your own plants

 

And you grow your own plants too.

 

We sometimes grow our own plants in a garden, but most often in and around our house. Notice the following:

 

When I try to grow my own plants, they always die.

Do you grow your own plants?

take much room

 

Pants don't take much room.

 

The term 'take much room' is used to describe how much space we use for something. Notice the following:

 

My new king size bed takes too much room.

His guitar collection doesn't take much room.

eco-friendly

 

It's an eco-friendly way.

 

Something that is eco-friendly is kind to the environment. Notice the following:

 

Cotton shopping bags are much more eco-friendly than plastic.

The city is starting to invest¹² in more eco-friendly technology.

handling

 

Handling peppers can make your eyes hurt.

 

When we handle something that means we touch it or hold it in our hands. Notice the following:

 

Handling Chemicals can be dangerous.

All restaurant employees are trained in food handling.

1 mint   

n.薄荷，铸币厂；vt.铸造（硬币），创造（词）等

参考例句：

• The mint makes coins.铸币厂制造硬币。
• This candy tastes of mint.这糖果有薄荷味。

2 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

3 flavor   

n.味，滋味，味道；风味；vt.调味，加味于

参考例句：

• I like the flavor of chocolate.我喜欢巧克力的味道。
• Each flavor was totally unique.每一种味道都是独一无二的。

4 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

5 tropical   

adj.热带的，热带的，炎热的

参考例句：

• You must grow these tropical flowers in a glasshouse.你必须把这些热带花卉种在温室里。
• This disease is widespread in tropical areas.这种疾病在热带地区蔓延很广。

6 stack   

n.堆叠，堆；vt.堆积，成叠放在；vi.堆成一堆

参考例句：

• There's a whole stack of bills waiting to be paid.有一大堆账要付呢。
• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。

7 spicy   

adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的

参考例句：

• The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
• Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。

8 fried   

adj.油煎的；油炒的

参考例句：

• I ate everything fried.所有油炸的我都吃。
• I prefer fried peanuts.我选择炸花生。

9 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 amazed   

adj.吃惊的，惊奇的v.使大为吃惊，使惊奇( amaze的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Just the size of the place amazed her. 仅仅地方之大就使她十分惊奇。
• I was amazed at her knowledge of French literature. 她的法国文学知识之丰富使我大为惊奇。

11 caterpillars   

n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带

参考例句：

• Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
• Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句

12 invest   

v.投资；投入(时间等)；授予，赋予

参考例句：

• I have decided to invest in a new car.我已经决定买一辆新汽车。
• The best time to invest is now.现在是投资的最佳时机。