英語趣味課堂：夏威夷-Hawaii

Mari: Hi, I’m Mari. I’m here with Ron. Ron is from Hawaii. So Ron, what is so special about Hawaii?

Ron: Well, Hawaii is my home, but to people not from Hawaii, I think Hawaii is famous for its nice weather, its warm all year ‘round, also it’s known for its beaches. The beaches are very nice. And it’s also known for its warm hospitality. The people are also very nice.

Mari: So can you tell me more about the weather? It’s always sunny? It never rains?

Ron: It does rain, but often it rains and it's sunny at the same time, so we have a lot of rainbows. Hawaii is also famous for rainbows.

Mari: That’s nice. Can you tell me more about the beach?

Ron: We have beaches on all shores of the island -- all our islands. There’s many beaches to choose from. And often, some beaches have big waves, some beaches have small waves, and you can choose which beach to go to depending on whether you want to surf in big waves or you want to swim where there’s no waves.

Mari: Can you tell me maybe about the nature in Hawaii?

Ron: We have forests, so there’s lots of animals, like birds, and small animals like wallabies: we have Hawaiian wallabies and they live in the forest.

Mari: What’s a wallaby?

Ron: Wallabies, they’re those little mammals from Australia and they were introduced in Hawaii and now they’re wild in Hawaii. They’ve become their own species.

Mari: What do they look like?

Ron: They look like little kangaroos I think.

Mari: Interesting. Any other interesting animals in Hawaii?

Ron: We have a lot of pigs, wild pigs. We like to go hunting for them and we like to eat them.

Mari: Are there any animals that live in the sea?

Ron: We have nice coral reefs, so there’s lots of beautiful fish in our coral reefs and many people like to go snorkeling to look at our reefs. We also have turtles and seals in Hawaii.

Mari: Are there any whales?

Ron: We do have whales during the months of March till February I believe. They come from Alaska and they come to Hawaii during those months and then they return to Alaska.

Mari: Wow, there are a lot of animals that live in Hawaii. Sounds like a great place to visit.

重點詞匯：

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

warm hospitality

Hawaii is also known for its warm hospitality.

Hospitality is being friendly to visitors by doing things like entertaining them and giving them food. In this case, “warm” does not refer to temperature, but to friendly people and atmosphere. If someone is very caring and nice, they are called “warm”. Look at the examples below:

They showed us such great hospitality. They gave us a tour of the entire city.

The hospitality at that hotel was terrible -- they were rude and unhelpful.

introduced

Wallabies were introduced from Australia and now they are wild in Hawaii.

To bring a plant or animal to a new place and give it a chance to reproduce and establish itself in the new environment. Notice the two examples below:

Cane toads were introduced to Australia from Hawaii and now they are everywhere.

The plants that were introduced did not survive the cold winter.

snorkeling

Many people like to go snorkeling to look at our reefs.

Snorkeling is swimming with a mask and breathing through a short, curved tube. Snorkelers also usually use flippers on their feet to help them swim easier. See the following examples:

We spent 3 days snorkeling when we were on vacation in Hawaii.

I like snorkeling better than scuba diving because I don’t like diving so deep.

till

We have whales from March till February.

Till is simply a short way to say “until”. In written form usually the full word "until" is used and “till” is mostly used in spoken language. It is sometimes also spelled ‘til. See the examples below

I didn’t learn to swim ‘til I was an adult.

I won’t be finished till eight o’clock.

sounds like

Sounds like a great place to visit.

“Sounds like...” means “from what you are saying...” In other words, “it seems like...”. Study the examples below:

After reading the review in the newspaper, it sounds like that movie is really good.

It sounds like you need to take a break.