TED演讲-口语练习：德语与西班牙语的描述差异

在TED演讲节目中，演讲者清晰的口语表达及其内容的写作手法都是值得我们学习借鉴的。在本期的TED演讲中，演讲者将展开“德语与西班牙语视角下的桥梁性别与描述差异”的讨论。请结合视频内容，开始口语练习吧！

原文及翻译

You ask German and Spanish speakers to describe a bridge. The bridge happens to be grammatically feminine in German and grammatically masculine in Spanish. German speakers are more likely to say bridges are beautiful, elegant, and stereotypically feminine words, whereas Spanish speakers will be more likely to say they're strong or long, these masculine words. 

你让德语和西班牙语使用者描述一座桥。德语中，桥在语法上属于阴性，而在西班牙语中属于阳性。德语使用者更可能认为桥是美丽、优雅且典型的阴性词，而西班牙语使用者更可能认为桥是坚固或长远的阳性词。

In English, it's fine to say "he broke the vase." In a language like Spanish, you might be more likely to say "the vase broke itself" if it's an accident, you wouldn't say that someone did it. In English, quite weirdly, we can even say things like "I broke my arm." Now, in lots of languages, you couldn't use that construction unless you are a lunatic and you went out looking to break your arm and you succeeded.

在英语中，说“他打破了花瓶”是可以的。在西班牙语等语言中，如果花瓶是意外，你更可能说“花瓶自己坏了”，你不会说是别人弄坏的。在英语中，很奇怪，我们甚至可以说“我摔断了胳膊”。现在，在很多语言中，除非你是个疯子，想摔断胳膊，而且成功了，否则你无法使用这种结构。

以上就是本期TED演讲的分享，希望对您的口语、写作水平都有帮助！您也可以访问网站主页，获取最新的英语学习资料，全方位提升英语水平。