Day 154: Holes in the New Kerb
Walking home from school along their newly rebuilt street in Miko艂贸w, an eight-year-old girl (A) points out something odd to her mother (B).
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Polish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Polish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Mamo, zobacz, kto艣 zepsu艂 nowy kraw臋偶nik! Co kilka metr贸w jest w nim dziura.
Mum, look, someone's broken the new kerb! There's a hole in it every few metres.
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B
Nikt go nie zepsu艂, tak ma by膰. Przez te szczeliny woda z jezdni sp艂ywa do ogrod贸w deszczowych, czyli obni偶onych rabat, po czym powoli wsi膮ka w ziemi臋.
Nobody's broken it, it's meant to be like that. Water from the road runs through those gaps into rain gardens, that is, sunken flowerbeds, and then slowly soaks into the ground.
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A
A po co? Przecie偶 woda mo偶e lecie膰 do kana艂贸w pod ulic膮.
But what for? The water can just go down into the drains under the street.
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B
Przy ulewie kanalizacja nie nad膮偶a, bo zar贸wno ulice, jak i podw贸rka zamieniono w betonow膮 pustyni臋. Woda nie ma gdzie wsi膮kn膮膰, wi臋c p艂ynie tam, gdzie jest najni偶ej.
In a downpour the sewers can't keep up, because both the streets and the courtyards have been turned into a concrete desert. The water has nowhere to soak in, so it flows to wherever is lowest.
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A
Do piwnic? Jak do naszej w lipcu, kiedy p艂ywa艂y w niej moje stare zabawki?
Into cellars? Like into ours in July, when my old toys were floating around in it?
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B
W艂a艣nie. Miasto ma dzia艂a膰 jak g膮bka i zatrzymywa膰 wod臋 tam, gdzie spad艂a, dlatego nale偶a艂oby tak przebudowa膰 ka偶d膮 ulic臋.
Exactly. A town is supposed to work like a sponge and hold on to the water where it falls, so every street ought to be rebuilt like this.
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A
A jak tata w sobot臋 umyje samoch贸d przed blokiem, to piana te偶 sp艂ynie do tych kwiatk贸w?
And if Dad washes the car in front of our block on Saturday, will the suds run into these flowers too?
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B
Sp艂ynie i zaszkodzi ro艣linom. Wobec tego tata pojedzie na myjni臋, a ty mu wyt艂umaczysz, co to jest miasto-g膮bka.
It will, and it'll harm the plants. In that case, Dad's going to the car wash, and you can explain to him what a sponge city is.
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