Kitty: Yeah, this place is always packed on weekends; it's totally commercialized. You can only experience its simple lifestyle from the old days during the night, after the tourists are gone.

Taike: But I think the winding old streets are still filled with plain and simple human culture. And the herbal cakes and taro balls are exceptional!

Robert: I thought the old Jinguashi mines that we visited this afternoon were something special. I actually felt a trace of sadness while visiting the Crown Prince Chalet and the ruins of the Gold Zen

Temple.

Taike: Hey, you've never been governed by Japan, so what are you all sad about

Robert: The brochure of the Gold Ecological Park said that during the period of Japanese colonization, all the gold mined from here was sent to Japan. Also, it's sad that Jiufen was prosperous because of a gold rush but then faded with the decline of gold mining activities.

Kitty: And the saddest part is that you were totally left out from this gold-digging business!

Taike: Well, perhaps this is why the film ”A City of Sadness” is such a sad movie.

Kitty: Sadness your ass! With so many tourists visiting here, the shop owners are thrilled to rake in all their money. Who in his right mind wouldn't be happy

羅波：哇，這裡的夜晚好謐靜，與九份白天的嘈雜完全不一樣！

高貴：是呀，這裡周末時總是人擠人，完全商業化，只有在晚上遊客離開後，才能感受純樸的舊日生活風貌。

邰克：不過我覺得曲折的老街還是有質樸的人文風情啦，尤其草仔粿和芋圓超好吃的！

羅波：我倒覺得今天下午參觀的金瓜石礦坑很特別，看到「日本太子賓館」及「黃金神社」遺址，讓我有一絲絲的悲情。

邰克：喂，你又沒被日本人統治過，悲情個啥咧？

羅波：這個「黃金博物園區」的簡介有說，日據時代時，被開採出來的大量黃金全都被輸往日本啊。而且這地方因為採金而繁華，卻也隨著採金事業的沒落而蕭條，當然很悲情啦！

高貴：最悲情的是你竟然沒有躬逢其盛，趁機淘金賺一筆！

邰克：咦，或許這就是電影「悲情城市」之所以悲情的原因喔。

高貴：悲情個鬼啦！現在遊客這麼多，商家賺得笑呵呵，誰還會悲情咧？

字彙Vocabulary

bustling (adj.) 忙亂擾攘

crowd (n.) 群眾

commercialized (adj.)

商業化的

winding (adj.)

彎曲的；迂迴的

herbal cake 草仔粿

taro ball 芋圓

mine (n.) 礦

trace (n.) 一絲絲；少量

sadness (n.) 悲傷

ruins (n.)（複數）遺跡

govern (v.) 統治

brochure (n.) 小冊子；手冊

colonization (n.) 殖民

mine (v.) 開採（礦物）

prosperous (adj.) 繁榮的

gold rush 淘金熱

decline (n.) 衰退；式微

gold-digging (adj.) 淘金的

thrill (v.) 使感到興奮或激動

rake in (the money)

（口語）大量地賺（錢）

【2006-09-26/聯合報/C7版/教育】