英语口语话题：追逐时尚，跟上潮流

（单词翻译:单击）

Since trends can change quickly, you have to pay attention if you want to follow them. Something can be in one day and out the next.

If something is in, it’s cool and popular right now. If it’s out, then it is no longer cool. Sometimes, tight pants are in, but sometimes they are out and looser pants are in. It might be in to play tennis right now, but next year it might be out and softball will be in again.

Some people don’t care if what they are wearing or doing is in or out. Ella is not one of these people. See what trend she is following today.

 

Dialogue

Marni:  Uh, hi.

Ella:  Welcome. Hello.

Marni:  What’s going on here? Who’s this little guy?

Ella:  Oh, this is my new son. His name is Table. It’s so in to have a kid right now.

Marni:  Wait. You have a son?

Ella:  Yeah. I do. Isn’t he great?

Marni:  Yeah. How do you have a son? When did that happen?

Ella:  Oh, I just adopted him legally through, you know, an agency¹ and now he’s mine.

Marni:  You adopted a child?

Ella:  It’s totally in right now.

Marni:  What do you mean it’s totally in right now?

Ella:  Everyone’s doing it. Angelina, she’s got 4. Sandra Bullock got a cute little kid from the South. Everyone’s doing it so…might as well jump on the bandwagon.

Marni:  You just thought it would be fashionable to adopt a child.

Ella:  Yeah, just a clutch². Unlike your shoes, which are so 2004. Kids, 2011.

Dale:  There’s a kid. I found a kid.

Ella:  Oh, that’s mine. Table! Oh, Table. I think he likes you. Yeah, his name’s Table.

Dale:  We’ll find something for you, Table.

Marni:  So let me ask you this. What are you going to do once it becomes out of fashion to have a child and people worry about overpopulation and they just stop breeding³ and they stop adopting? What are you going to do then?

Ella:  Well, the agency I went through does have an exchange policy, so I’d probably just get my money back or…

Marni:  What?

Ella:  ...I don’t know, exchange him for a different kid, a smaller one or a bigger one that can take care of itself so as time’s progressing, I could watch it less, as it becomes more out. I figured it out. Don’t worry.

Marni:  What agency did you use? Because these people need to be closed down.

Ella:  A very reputable one that I don’t want to share with you because I don’t want you to be in.

 

Discussion⁴

Marni is surprised to find a kid in the office. Ella says that it’s her kid. His name is Table. She adopted him because it’s in right now to have a kid.

Since Angelina Jolie and other celebrities⁵ have adopted children, Ella has decided⁶ that it’s in to do so. She likes to wear clothes that are in and be cool, so she needed a kid of her own. She even gave him an unusual name, which also in.

Marni thinks it’s crazy to adopt a kid because it’s in. She asks Ella what she’ll do if kids go out of fashion. She says if kids are ever out, she can exchange hers for one of a different age. Marni thinks this adoption⁷ agency sounds terrible, but Ella won’t tell her about it because she doesn’t want her to be in.

What’s in right now where you live? What’s out?

英语口语话题