英語趣味課堂：堅(jiān)果園-Nut Farm

Marion: While I traveling in Australia I went to visit my friend Nicola, um, she's teaching in a school on the East Coast of Australia, so I went to visit her about a month ago and she's staying on a farm, she lives on a macadamia farm, so my friend and I went to visit her and stay at her place, so as part of the deal we had to go out and pick macadamia nuts for two hours every day, so usually we'd get up quite early in the morning and we'd go out and pick macadamia nuts for about an hour, and then just before it got dark in the afternoon or the evening we'd go out and pick nuts again for another hour. It was a lot of fun I think mainly because, you know, it wasn't a proper job. We could take our time and we always had a laugh and a joke while we were there. Um, it was really nice to work outside, for awhile, you know, to work in the sunshine and also I'd never worked with macadamia trees before. Before I'd left Ireland I don't think I'd even heard of macadamia trees, cause I think they're a nut that's native to Australia. I know they're very popular in Hawaii as well. I think they were first cultivated for, for profit reasons in Hawaii. Yeah, so macadamia nuts are really, really tasty, so they're very popular as souvenirs from Australia, so you often get chocolate covered macadamia nuts, or macadamia cookies to bring to your friends when you come home from Australia. What else can you get with Macadamia nuts? You can just eat them on their own as well, they're very, very tasty. When we came back for breakfast, we used to bring ahandful of macadamia nuts with us and use the nut cracker to open them up cause they've got a very very hard shell, so even if you throw them on the ground, it's very difficult to open them up, so you have to have a nutcracker, to really crush the shell, and once you open them up inside, they're very white, very pale in color and they almost look like nuggets of white chocolate. It's quite strange and they have a real creamy taste to them, so they're, yeah, probably one of my favorite things to eat in Australia.

學(xué)習(xí)內(nèi)容：

part of the deal

As part of the deal, we had to go out and pick nuts every day.

When something comes as 'part of the deal' it means that it is included in the arrangement orcontract. Notice the following:

As part of the deal my family gets to travel for free.

They have to fix the kitchen and this bathroom as part of the deal.

proper job

For me, it was fun because it wasn't a proper job.

A 'proper job' is a serious or professional job that may be part of a career. Notice the following:

A few months after he graduated from university he had a proper job.

I'm not ready for a proper job yet.

take time

We took our time and had laughs and jokes while working.

When you 'take your time' in doing something it means that you do it at a comfortable speed and don't feel rushed. Notice the following:

Shopping is more fun if you can take your time.

Don't stress out about it. Just take your time.

native to

I think macadamia nuts are native to Australia.

If a plant or tree is 'native to' a place it means it naturally grows in that area, that is where the plant is from. Notice the following:

These monkeys are native to the rain forests in Brazil.

Pine trees are native to the northern areas.

handful

We used to bring a handful of nuts with us for breakfast.

A 'handful' is the amount that fits in your hand. Notice the following:

I can only eat a handful of potato chips.

He took a handful of cereal from the box.