Amanda: Hi, Mike. What are you reading?

Mike: Oh, these are just some books I picked up at a local poetry festival that took place a couple of weeks ago. Even though a lot of what the featured poets read wasn't in English, it was still neat to see that there are so many people who appreciate poetry in Taiwan.

Amanda: I didn't know you were such a poetry lover, Mike. Personally, I've always found that stuff a little bit boring and hard to understand. All that flowery language gives me a headache! I'd rather read a nice long novel any day.

Mike: I'll admit that poetry's an acquired taste. But once you learn more about it, you'll find that poems aren't all flowery and incomprehensible-they don't even have to rhyme! One of my favorite poets is Billy Collins, who writes really funny, clever poems in simple everyday English.

Amanda: I'll have to look him up. Say, have you ever written any poetry of your own? Some love sonnets, perhaps?

Mike: No love sonnets, but I did try to rewrite some poems a long time ago. They were all really bad. Once I spent three hours trying to come up with a word that rhymes with "panda"!

Amanda: Silly Mike! How could you not think of "Amanda"?

poetry (n.) 诗

Most people have heard of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, but did you know that he wrote poetry as well?

festival (n.) 节庆

At this year's international food festival, I tried a lot of dishes that I'd never had before.

headache (n.) 头痛

I didn't get much sleep last night, so I've had a headache all day long.

incomprehensible (adj.) 难懂的;无法理解的

Lisa didn't know anything about the stock market, so most of what her friends were discussing was incomprehensible to her.

to rhyme (v.) 押韵

Sandi Landy's friends often teased her because her name rhymed.

flowery language 瑰丽的词藻

A: How did you do on your essay?

B: Better than I expected. I was afraid I'd used too much flowery language, but my teacher still gave me a good grade.

love sonnet 十四行情诗

A: Can you think of a good way to impress the girl I like?

B: Maybe you should memorize a few love sonnets and recite them to her.

to come up with 想出…

A: This math problem is so hard!

B: Relax. I'm sure if we work on it together we'll be able to come up with the correct answer