胡敏读故事记托福词汇24：任务 The Assignment
Lesson24 The Assignment 任务
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.”
他的双眼兴奋地闪耀着。“我有个重大任务让你干。”他说道，一面低头瞟了眼报纸。“我国领导人刚刚同非洲到过班杜签署了一项双边旅游条约，我要你立刻去班杜，给一本传记做研究。”
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.
老板制定的研究对象是关于鲍勃布恩的传记。布恩是一名出色的生物学家，但谈起政治和宗教，他却有些顽固不化。他以放些亵渎神灵的狂词著称。他壮年时大多时候都在班杜研究动物。他是最早追踪野牛迁徙习性的科学家之一，还是维持生物多样性的坚决拥护者。
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.
老板命令的任务酬金丰厚。老板拥有一家资产10亿的出版社，而且当他决意要搞到一个故事时，毫不在乎账单上的开资多寡。
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.
于是我来到班杜，置身于奇珍异兽和苦涩的食物的包围中。说实话，我宁可吃淡而无味的食物。这里晚上冷得要死。我的毯子一点也不暖和。白天，这里又热得想鼓风炉。上周，炽热的太阳导致了一场大火，火苗失控的烧了好几天。
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!
我讨厌去偏远地带执行任务，但到头来我还是会接下这些任务。我好像并不是被讹诈而来这里的，要怪只能怪我自己。我只希望我的下一个任务不会要我飞上月球!
Words:
bidding n. 投标;命令，要求
bigoted adj. 固执己见的，偏执的，顽固的
bilateral adj. 两边的，双边的
bill n. 账单，发票;(细长或扁平的)鸟嘴;议案，法案;钞票，钱币
billion n./adj. 10亿(的)
biography n. 传记
biological diversity 生物多样性
biologist n. 生物学家
bison n. 美洲或欧洲的野牛
bitter adj. 令人痛苦的;尖酸、刻薄的
bizarre adj. 指(态度、容貌、款式等)奇异的，古怪的
blackmail vt. 勒索，讹诈
blame vt. 谴责，责备;n. 过失，责备
bland adj. 淡味的，无味的
blanket n. 毯子;厚的覆盖物
blasphemous adj. 亵渎神灵的，不敬神的
blast furnace 鼓风炉
blast off (火箭、航天飞机等)发火起飞，发射上天
blaze vi. 燃烧，照耀
blazing adj. 炽烧的，闪耀的
