Livia：Jennifer, how nice to see you! It's been too long since we last met. How are you?
利維亞：詹妮弗，真高興見到你，我們很久沒見了。你近來怎樣？
Jennifer：I'm fine thank you. It has been a long time but that's mainly because Jack and I have been so busy with our business. Anyway how are you?
詹妮弗：我很好，謝謝。很久沒見面，主要是因為我和傑克近來忙著料理生意。且不說這個。你近來怎樣？
Livia：I'm very well, thank you. In fact couldn't be better. By the way, I can't help noticing ... are you expecting?
利維亞：我很好，謝謝你，好得不能再好了。嗯，我看到……你懷孕了嗎？
Jennifer：Yes, I am. It's been getting pretty obvious this last week or two.
詹妮弗：是啊，上一兩個星期開始，肚子明顯大起來。
Livia：Oh, how lovely. Congratulations! When is the baby due?
利維亞：啊，好極了，恭喜恭喜！孩子預計什麼時候出世？
Jennifer：It's due in the third week of August, if all goes well.
詹妮弗：預計是八月第三個星期，除非有意外。
Livia：That's such wonderful news and I'm sure everything will go all right.
利維亞：那實在好得很，我深信不會有意外的。
利維亞見到詹妮弗，說 I can't help noticing... are you expecting? 昨天拙攔說過expecting即「懷孕」，同義詞有pregnant、with child等，作形容詞用。「懷孕」動詞是甚麼？
動詞是conceive，其後有沒有受詞(object)都可以，例如：She conceived (a child) soon after her marriage（她結婚不久就懷孕了）。留意只有女性可以conceive；英語國家有人用conceive來說男性生育能力，這絕對不宜效法。《卡斯爾常見英文錯誤指南》(The Cassell Guide to Common Errors in English)一書引用了以下一句為例：This proved he had a very low sperm count and would be virtually unable to conceive（這證明他的精子嚴重不足，幾乎無法生育）。這一句的conceive就用錯了，應改為(unable)to get a woman pregnant或(unable) to father / sire / beget a child。 Father是「父親」，sire是「陛下」，但作動詞，就和beget一樣，解作「成為…的生身父親」。
Can't help noticing的can't help意思是「無可避免」或「不禁」，其後習慣用ing形式動詞；假如說can't help but，則其後用原形動詞 (infinitive)，意思沒有分別，例如：One cannot help liking him / One cannot help but like him（你沒法不喜歡他）。
利維亞問詹妮弗：When is the baby due? Due是「到期的」或「預期的」，due date一般指帳單到期日或預期分娩日，例如：(1) The electricity bill of $300 is due tomorrow（三百元電費明天到期繳交了）。(2) She gave birth to a boy almost one month before the due date（她生了個男孩，比預期分娩日早了將近一個月）。
明天課文
How has your pregnancy been going?
你懷孕至今情況怎樣？
