听播客学英语 60 我不能忍受

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　　“To bear” is a verb². Its past tense is “bore”. Originally³, “to bear” meant “to carry”. We still use it to mean “to carry” in some set expressions, but it sounds a bit old-fashioned⁴. However, you will often hear people saying things like :

　　I cannot bear the noise which the children are making.

　　I cannot bear the hot weather in summer.

　　If I say that “I cannot bear” something, I mean that I cannot tolerate⁵ it, it is awful, it is too much, it makes me very unhappy, it makes me want to scream and run away and hide! Here are some more examples :

　　I cannot bear travelling by air, because you have to wait so long at the airport.

　　George cannot bear getting up early in the morning.

　　I cannot bear it when you are angry.

　　Kevin cannot bear it when Joanne’s mother says that there are more important things in life than football.

　　There are some other expressions which mean almost the same as “I cannot bear..”. Here are some of them:

　　I like classical⁶ music, but my children cannot stand it.

　　I cannot put up with the pop music which my children like.

　　Now suppose you want to say the opposite of “I cannot bear..”. Suppose you wanted to say that you are OK with your children’s pop music. It is not a problem for you. How would you say that? You could say :

　　I don’t mind my children’s pop music.

　　My children’s pop music does not bother me.

　　So, now you know all about the word “bear”. And some of you will remember that there is another word “bare” in English, spelled B-A-R-E. The B-A-R-E sort of bare is an adjective⁷, and it means⁸ uncovered⁹, not covered with anything. So, you can say that someone has bare arms, which means that they are wearing a short-sleeved shirt or blouse which leaves their arms uncovered. Or you can say that someone has a bare head, which means that they are not wearing a hat. You can talk about the bare earth, which means ground where there is nothing growing; or about a bare mountainside, where there are no trees, just rocks.

　　Near where I live, there is a man who never wears any shoes. He says that his feet smell if he wears shoes, so for the last 30 years he has walked the streets of the city with no shoes. People call him Pete the Feet, and there is an interview with him on YouTube. Pete the Feet has bare feet; he goes bare-footed.

　　Now you are all experts on “bear” (the animal), and “to bear” (the verb) and “bare” (the adjective). So you can try the quiz¹⁰ on the website and see how good you are!

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