雅思口语Part2：将来想买的东西 Describe something special you want to buy in the future

So, I’ve been asked to talk about ‘something special that I’d like to buy in the future’, it’s quite tricky to know how to respond to this topic. Should I pick something that I’d love to buy, but isn’t realistic (like a rainbow); something that I’d love to buy as a gift for someone else (treat my mum to afternoon tea at a posh hotel) or something practical for me (I could really do with a new pair of winter shoes)? In fact, I’m going to go with the first thing that popped into my head when you told me the theme – I’m going to talk about something that I would really like to buy, but haven’t quite got around to yet.

所以，有人让我谈谈“我未来想*的特别的东西”，我很难知道该如何回应这个话题。我应该选择我想*的东西，但不现实(像彩虹);我想*一些东西作为礼物送给别人(请我妈妈去一家豪华酒店喝下午茶)，或者给我*一些实用的东西(我真的需要一双冬天的新鞋子)?事实上，当你告诉我这个主题的时候，我首先想到的是——我要谈的是我很想*的东西，但还没来得及*。

I’m going to tell you what it is, what is like, when I intend to buy it and why it is I’d like this particular item so much.

我会告诉你它是什么，它是什么样子的，我打算什么时候*它，为什么*它，我非常喜欢这个特别的东西。

The special thing I have in mind is a photo book. You can get them on the internet I think. You select a range of digital photos that are special or meaningful to you and then arrange them electronically with captions and dates and so on. Then there are specialist companies that will put them together in a traditionally bound physical book.

我想到的特别的东西是一本相册。我想你可以在网上找到。你可以选择一系列对你来说特别或有意义的数码照片，然后用电子方式将它们配上文字说明和日期等等。还有一些专业公司会把它们放在传统装订的实体书中。

The idea is quite a simple one, but genius. In this age of digital cameras, it’s easy to take lots and lots of photographs, some are good, some are funny, and some are indifferent. Many are bizarre; others are hilarious; and some are just terrible, but all of them are quite literally snapshots of memories. However, because now photographs are everywhere, I think we take them a bit for granted and don’t appreciate them as much as we should. The really great photographs get lost in the multitude of average or terrible ones. There are so many files of photos on my computer, that I can’t even remember what they contain, let alone where the most important ones are stored anymore. So what I’d love to do, is take the time to pick out a selection that is really important to me, and have them brought together in an album that I can treasure and look back on, and share with others. Honestly, nobody really wants to look at 1000 pictures of your holiday/ family/ pet, but they might like to look at half a dozen of each that had been carefully chosen to tell a particular story, and it’s fun to share such memories.

这个想法很简单，但很天才。在这个数码相机的时代，拍很多很多的照片是很容易的，有些很好，有些很有趣，有些很冷漠。很多人奇怪;有些滑稽;有些很糟糕，但它们都是记忆的快照。然而，因为现在照片到处都是，我认为我们把它们看作是理所当然的，不像我们应该的那样欣赏它们。真正伟大的照片会在众多平庸或糟糕的照片中迷失。我的电脑里有太多的照片文件，我甚至不记得它们包含了什么，更不用说最重要的照片存放在哪里了。所以我想做的是，花点时间挑选一个对我来说非常重要的专辑，把它们放在一起，我可以珍藏起来，回头看看，和别人分享。老实说，没有人真的想看你假期/家庭/宠物的1000张照片，但他们可能想看半打精心挑选的照片，讲述一个特定的故事，分享这样的回忆很有趣。

When do I intend to do this? Well, interestingly, I have a ‘to-do’ list on my desk. One of the items that have been on it for some years is ‘sort through my photos’. I never get around to it. Maybe now I’ve been made to reflect on it, I should priorities this task. Just because it has never felt urgent (that is, something I need to do immediately) this activity never makes it to the top of my list. However, it is important, I need to make time for it. Maybe next week – I should give myself a deadline!

我打算什么时候做这件事?嗯，有趣的是，我桌上有一个“待办事项”清单。“整理我的照片”是多年来一直挂在上面的项目之一。我从来没想过。也许现在我已经开始反思了，我应该优先考虑这个任务。只是因为它从来没有感到紧急(也就是说，我需要立即做的事情)，这个活动从来没有排在我的清单的第一位。然而，这是重要的，我需要为它腾出时间。也许下个星期——我应该给自己一个最后期限!

I hope you can see already why I’d like to buy this so much. But if I need to explain more, it is because I think by making a selection of really important pictures, I can pick out special memories. By putting these together in a physical book I think they will endure longer and be valued more than if they are lost in the millions and millions of images that fill the internet. Even today, I have on my shelves books that are over a hundred years old, they have pages that have slightly yellowed with age, but are perfectly useable and readable. On the other hand, I have a pile of floppy discs, I have no idea what is on them anymore, and I no longer have a computer that I could read them on, effectively, those contents are lost forever. Despite how clever we are in this digital age, I have a suspicion that it is our books that will outlast us all, not pixels in cyberspace! What do you think?

我希望你已经明白为什么我这么想*这个了。但如果我需要解释更多的话，那是因为我认为通过选择一些非常重要的图片，我可以挑选出特别的记忆。通过将这些信息整合到一本实体书中，我认为它们将会持续更长的时间，并且比在互联网上数以百万计的图片中消失更有价值。即使在今天，我的书架上仍有一百多年前的书，它们的书页随着年龄的增长而稍微泛黄，但它们是完全可用和可读的。另一方面，我有一堆软盘，我不知道它们上面有什么，我不再有一台电脑，我可以阅读它们，有效，那些内容永远丢失了。尽管我们在这个数字时代是多么的聪明，我怀疑是我们的书比我们所有人都长，而不是网络空间的像素!你怎么认为?