聊假期
大多數人在聖誕節期間休息一下，與家人共度時光。 在英語國家，假期是很好的聊天主題。
詢問對方
假期前 Before the holidays
If I don’t see you before, have a lovely Christmas!
Have a great Christmas, won’t you!
Have a good one!
Happy Christmas to you!
詢問人們他們的計劃 Asking people about their plans
What are you up to over Christmas?
Got any plans for Christmas and New Year?
Are you at home over Christmas, or are you going away?
假期後 After the holidays
What did you do over Christmas?
What did you get up to?
Do anything exciting / special over the holidays?
Have you made any resolutions?
You could also ask about Christmas gifts (especially to children).
What did you get for Christmas?
Did Father Christmas bring you what you wanted for Christmas?
回應對方
模稜兩可地回應 Giving a vague reply
Nothing much.
Nothing special.
Oh, the usual…
Same old (= nothing new)
回應 Giving more information
(Did you have a good Christmas?)
It was great / fantastic / wonderful / lovely / thanks.
Really relaxing / Just what I needed.
We saw the in-laws / some of the family.
We got away for a couple of days.
We had a quiet one at home.
繼續話題 詢問其他問題 Asking the other person
To keep the conversation going, try returning the question.
What about you?
(Did you have a) good Christmas?
And you?
聊新聞
問對方是否看過某篇文章
Have you seen the story about…?
Have you heard about the guy who…?
Did you read the story of…?
I’ve just read about…
The paper’s reporting a story about…
評論您正在閱讀的新聞
Wait til you hear this!
I can’t believe this…
You’ll never believe it, but…
新聞內容
在報紙和電視新聞中，英文標題經常使用現在式。 這是因為我們認為新聞幾乎現在正在發生。
“Man dies in fire.” (Newspaper heading.)
“人死在火中。” （報紙標題。）
“A man has died in a house fire caused by a faulty gas oven.” (Announcement on TV news.)
“一名男子在因燃氣烤箱故障引起的房屋火災中喪生。” （電視新聞公告。）
描述新聞內容
They’ve just said on the news that…
他們剛剛在新聞中說……
They’ve just announced…
他們剛剛宣布……
給予負面評論
That’s just sensationalist!
They should check their facts!
I think they’re completely biased.
They shouldn’t be allowed to say / write things like this!
You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the paper!
給予正面評論
“The World Today” usually has well-balanced coverage of the news.
There’s some very fair reporting about the protests.
“News at Nine” is usually objective / impartial.
This is a really in-depth article about the economy.
關於新聞報導的動詞
to report (to report a story, to report that…)
to announce (announce a result, announce a decision)
to state (= more formal equivalent of “say)
to go on the record as saying (to say something publicly)
to be off the record (to not be “official”)
to leak (to make public certain information which should be confidential – especially political strategy)
to publish (publish findings, publish the results of a survey, publish financial results)
to publicise (make something public, often to increase awareness – publicise the risks, publicise a new film)
to broadcast (a TV channel broadcasts programmes)