Helen: 大家好，我是Helen. 歡迎收聽BBC Learning English “On the Town”.

Neil: And today we're talking about places to get away from all the noise and pollution of the big city – London's parks and open spaces.

Helen: 我們現在就在倫敦市區的一個公園里， so are there many parks in London?

Neil: Well, even though London has a population of about seven million people there are over a hundred parks where you can go for a bit of peace and quiet and to get away from it all.

Helen: 聽到了嗎？倫敦雖然有7百萬人口，可是這里的公園可不少，超過了一百多個呢。那為什么人們這么喜歡公園呢？

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Man: I think it's the contrast, really. I mean London, hasn't it got the largest amount of green space for a capital or something?

Woman: The fact that, basically, here isn't like a tropical country and everything sort of comes to life in the spring and summer, makes it such a nice experience.

Man: It's really nice to have a lot of greenery in a big city.

Helen: 我們聽到有些人喜歡公園的原因是因為公園和周圍的繁忙都市有一種明確的對比 contrast. So Neil, which of the parks is the most famous?

Neil: The Royal Parks. There are eight of them in total, but the two most famous are probably Regent's Park and Hyde Park in central London.

Helen: Royal Parks, 就是皇家公園。那為什么像你說的這個Regent's Park, 還有 Hyde Park 海德公園是皇家公園呢？

Neil: Hundreds of years ago they used to be the private grounds for the royal family to go hunting, but in the 1800s they were opened up for the general public.

Helen: 原來是幾百年前這些地方都是皇室打獵 hunting 的地方，不過在1800年以后就開放了，老百姓也可以進皇家花園了， 那這些大的皇家花園里有些什么好玩的呢？

Neil: Well, Hyde Park's got a little bit of everything. It’s 142 hectares in size, with over 4,000 trees, a lake, a meadow and even horse rides. And in the summer there are pop and classical music concerts.

Helen: So there are lots of things to do in the park! Now first, hectare 這是一個面積單位，也就是一公頃. 海德公園有142公頃，那就是1.42平方公里。那里有樹，有湖，還有大片開滿野花的草地 meadow。 各項活動也很多，像騎馬，音樂會等等。And how about Regent's Park?

Neil: Well, Regent's Park is even bigger than Hyde Park. It's also the venue for Open-Air Theatre and the home of London Zoo.

Helen: Regent's Park 比 Hyde Park 還要大。倫敦動物園 London Zoo 也在那里。 在很多公園里夏天比較流行的一項活動是 open-air theatre, 露天戲院, 到時候很多人會帶上一份三明治，在傍晚時欣賞一出經典戲劇， now that's what I call great entertainment.

Neil: Absolutely, open-air theatres are great fun, and sometimes they are free too. We also asked people some of the other things they like doing in London’s Parks.

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Man: Drink coffee, watch the world go by, people watching.

Woman: I like to go and have a picnic, and I like to go and swim. And if I have friends who have dogs, then it's nice just going for a long walk with the dogs.

Man: I like swimming when it's sunny.

Helen: 有些人喜歡 watch the world go by, 這個短句的意思就是看著世界在你面前走過， 另一種說法是 people watching, 沒有什么目的的觀察周圍的人。有些人也喜歡野餐 picnic 或者是溜狗 walk the dogs.

Neil: So, the parks in Central London are pretty big, but they're nothing in comparison to some of the parks a little further out of the city centre.

Helen: 那你說哪個是倫敦最大的公園呢？

Neil: The biggest park in London is Richmond Park. It's almost a thousand hectares.

Helen: My goodness, that's huge!

Neil: It's really more like the open countryside than a city park.

Helen: 這就是完全像一個自然的公園，像到了鄉村一樣。

Neil: There are quite a few parks like Richmond where the trees and grass are left to grow naturally.

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Woman: I really like Holland Park, because it's quite wild. I really like Hampstead Heath, because they have the ponds so you can go and swim, and it's also massive as well. And I like Epping Forest, because it's just that – it's a forest.

Helen: 剛才這位女士提到了她喜歡的幾個公園，像 Holland Park 吸引她的原因就是這里有野外的感覺，the park is wild. 還有一個地方叫做 Epping Forest, 那里有一片小森林， 在倫敦東北方向。

Neil: Well, today we've heard about all the different types of parks there are in London and what you can do in them.

Helen: 那好吧，我們今天的節目就到這兒。

Neil: Join us next time for more “On the Town” from BBC Learning English.

Helen: 再見。 Bye bye.