胡敏讀故事記托福詞匯24：任務 The Assignment
Lesson24 The Assignment 任務
His eyes blazed with excitement. “I’ve got an important assignment for you,” he said, as he glanced back down at a newspaper. “The leaders of our nation have just signed a bilateral travel treaty with the isolated country of Bandu on the African continent, and I want you to go down there right away to do research for a biography.”
他的雙眼興奮地閃耀著。“我有個重大任務讓你干。”他說道，一面低頭瞟了眼報紙。“我國領導人剛剛同非洲到過班杜簽署了一項雙邊旅游條約，我要你立刻去班杜，給一本傳記做研究。”
The research my boss wanted was for a biography about Bob Boon. Boon was a brilliant biologist who was somewhat bigoted when it came to discussing politics or religion. He was known for making blasphemous statements. He spent most of his adult years studying animals in the country of Bandu. He was one of the first scientists to successfully track the migratory patterns of the bison. Boon was also a strong advocate for maintaining biological diversity.
老板制定的研究對象是關于鮑勃布恩的傳記。布恩是一名出色的生物學家，但談起政治和宗教，他卻有些頑固不化。他以放些褻瀆神靈的狂詞著稱。他壯年時大多時候都在班杜研究動物。他是最早追蹤野牛遷徙習性的科學家之一，還是維持生物多樣性的堅決擁護者。
My boss pays me quite well to do his bidding. He owns a billion-dollar publishing company, and when he sets his mind on doing a story, he doesn’t care about the bill.
老板命令的任務酬金豐厚。老板擁有一家資產10億的出版社，而且當他決意要搞到一個故事時，毫不在乎賬單上的開資多寡。
So here I am in Bandu, surrounded by bizarre animals and bitter food. Frankly, I’d rather eat bland food. It’s freezing here at night and my blanket doesn’t keeping me warm. During the day, it is as hot as a blast furnace. Last week, the blazing sun caused a fire that blazed out of control for several days.
于是我來到班杜，置身于奇珍異獸和苦澀的食物的包圍中。說實話，我寧可吃淡而無味的食物。這里晚上冷得要死。我的毯子一點也不暖和。白天，這里又熱得想鼓風爐。上周，熾熱的太陽導致了一場大火，火苗失控的燒了好幾天。
I hate these assignments to remote areas. But I always end up accepting the job. It’s not as though I was blackmailed into coming here. I have no one to blame but myself. I just hope that my next assignment doesn’t require that I blast off to the moon!
我討厭去偏遠地帶執(zhí)行任務，但到頭來我還是會接下這些任務。我好像并不是被訛詐而來這里的，要怪只能怪我自己。我只希望我的下一個任務不會要我飛上月球!
Words:
bidding n. 投標;命令，要求
bigoted adj. 固執(zhí)己見的，偏執(zhí)的，頑固的
bilateral adj. 兩邊的，雙邊的
bill n. 賬單，發(fā)票;(細長或扁平的)鳥嘴;議案，法案;鈔票，錢幣
billion n./adj. 10億(的)
biography n. 傳記
biological diversity 生物多樣性
biologist n. 生物學家
bison n. 美洲或歐洲的野牛
bitter adj. 令人痛苦的;尖酸、刻薄的
bizarre adj. 指(態(tài)度、容貌、款式等)奇異的，古怪的
blackmail vt. 勒索，訛詐
blame vt. 譴責，責備;n. 過失，責備
bland adj. 淡味的，無味的
blanket n. 毯子;厚的覆蓋物
blasphemous adj. 褻瀆神靈的，不敬神的
blast furnace 鼓風爐
blast off (火箭、航天飛機等)發(fā)火起飛，發(fā)射上天
blaze vi. 燃燒，照耀
blazing adj. 熾燒的，閃耀的
