The Photographic Elephant

by Pedro Pablo Sacristán

翻譯：Crazier

The Photographic Elephant

大象攝影師

by Pedro Pablo Sacristán

翻譯：Crazier

Track 7

或許很多人都沒想過，體型龐大的大象也能成為攝影師吧？但是，故事里的大象卻成功做到了！想知道他是如何做到的？那趕快一起來看看吧！

There was once an elephant who wanted to be a photographer. However, his friends would laugh when they heard him talk about it!

“How silly,” said some, “there aren’t any cameras for elephants!”

“Whata waste oftime,” others would say, “there’s nothing to photograph here anyway...”

But the elephant keptfollowing his dream, and,piece by piece, hemanaged tobuild himself a kind of camera. With this camera, the elephant had to design almost everything himself, from a button he pressed with the end of his nose, to a1)lensmade to ft an elephant’s eye, even something that helpedattachthe cameratothe elephant’s head.

When it was all fnished, he could fnallyget totake his first photo. However, the elephant camera was so enormous and strange-looking that it seemed like a huge2)ridiculous3)mask. So, many people laughed as he went by, and the elephant began to think of4)abandoninghis dream...Even worse, he was starting to realize those who had said there was nothing to photograph there had been right.

But thingsworked outdifferently. The sight of the elephant walking along with the camera on his head was so funny that no one could help but laugh when they saw him. And, using a great deal of good5)humor, the elephant managed to take some really6)amusing,7)incrediblepictures of all the animals.

In his photos, they always looked8)joyful; even the9)moody10)rhino! So the elephant managed to become the official11)savannahphotographer, and, animals would come from every direction to have some nice photos taken for their passports to the zoo.

詞組加油站

a waste of浪費……

follow one’s dream追尋某人的夢想

piece by piece一點一點地，逐漸地

attach…to把……系在，把……裝上

get to<口>開始（做某事）；到達

work out實現

1) lens [lenz] n. 鏡頭

2) ridiculous [r?,d?kj?l?s] adj. 可笑的

3) mask [mɑ?sk] n. 面具

4) abandon [?,b?nd?n] v. 放棄

5) humor [,hju?m?] n. 心情

6) amusing [?,mju?z??] adj. 有趣的，令人發笑的

7) incredible[?n,kred?bl] adj. <口>不可思議的，難以置信的

8) joyful [,d???f?l] adj. 快樂的

9) moody [,mu?d?] adj. 悶悶不樂的，喜怒無常的

10) rhino [,ra?n??] n. 犀牛

11) savannah [s?,v?n?] n.（熱帶或亞熱帶）無樹大草原

從前有只大象，他夢想成為一名攝影師。然而，當他談及這個夢想時，他的朋友們都會嘲笑他！

“真是愚蠢啊，”有動物嘲諷道，“根本就沒有適合大象用的照相機！”

“這純粹就是在浪費時間，”又有動物說，“況且這里也沒什么值得拍的……”

但是大象沒有放棄他的夢想。而且，漸漸地，他成功地給自己制作了一款照相機。為了做一款適合大象用的照相機，他需要自己設計出幾乎所有的配件—從一個可以用象鼻鼻尖按下的快門，到一個符合象眼大小的鏡頭，甚至還需要一個可以將相機固定在大象頭上的裝置。

當一切準備就緒，大象終于可以開始拍攝他的第一張照片了。然而，這臺大象照相機巨大無比且外觀奇特，就像是一副又大又滑稽的面具。所以，當動物們看到大象經過時，很多動物都嘲笑他，于是大象開始考慮放棄自己的夢想……更糟糕的是，他也開始認同動物們所說的，周圍確實沒有什么值得拍的東西。

但是，事情卻有了轉機。每當動物們看到大象頭戴那臺滑稽的相機在草原上來回穿梭，都會忍俊不禁。并且，因為動物們的好心情，大象成功地捕捉到他們一些非常有趣、不可思議的畫面。

在大象所拍攝的照片里，動物們都笑開了花；就連平時悶悶不樂的犀牛都露出了難得的笑容！大象順理成章地成為了那片大草原的官方攝影師，而后，各處的動物都會來找他幫他們拍攝動物園通行證的證件照。

同學們是不是經常弄不懂manage to do、try to do和try doing這三者間的區別呢？別擔心，下面小編就來給大家理順一下思路吧！

manage to do sth.

表達的意思是：設法去做某事并成功了，而且有一個明確的結果（＝succeed in doing sth.），可理解為“成功做到了某事”。例如：

? They managed to fulfll the task ahead of time. 他們成功提前完成了任務。

? He managed to save her in time. 他及時救了她。

try to do sth.

指的是努力做某事，但并不知道成功與否（＝make an effort to do sth.）。例如：

? Please try to fnish this work in thirty minutes. 請盡量在30分鐘內完成這項工作。

? She tried to carry the basket. 她努力提起籃子。

try doing sth.

意思是試著做某事。它與“try to do sth.”的區別就在于：“try to do sth.”表示“努力做……”，強調付出努力卻不一定能成功；而“try doing sth.”表示“嘗試做，做……試試”，含有“看結果如何”之意。例如：

? Why didn’t you try riding a bike to school? 為什么你不試著騎車上學呢？

? The next time you feel tired, you can try doing some exercise.

下次你感到疲勞時，你可以試著做下運動。