大家到現在都認識 Michael這個美國學生了,他不斷在學中文,他很喜歡聽他的中國同學李華講中文。李華呢,在和Michael接觸中也學了不少英文?,F在他們倆剛上完課,正從課堂里走出來。今天李華會學到兩個常用語: lucky break和mellow。
L: 今天教授把考卷發(fā)回給我們了,Michael,你考得好嗎?
M: I did much better than I expected. It was a lucky break that I knew most of the answers.
L: 你考得比你預期的好,那太好了。不過,你說什么又是lucky,又是break的?Lucky不是好運氣嗎?Break是休息,對不對?
M: Lucky break together means something good that happens that you were not expecting.
L: 噢,lucky和break這兩個詞放在一起,它的意思就是沒有預料到的好運氣。Michael,你剛才那句話是怎么說來著?
M: I said: it was a lucky break that I knew most of the answers.
L: 我懂了。你是說,你沒有想到運氣會那么好,大多數考題的答案你剛好都知道。
M: Yeah, that's right. If you understand, give me an example.
L: 哼,我當然懂了,你還要考考我吶? 那天我開車開的飛快, 警察讓我把車停下來??墒撬唤o了我一個警告,而沒有給我罰單,我可沒想到會有這種好運氣。這可以說是一個lucky break吧?
M: That was a lucky break. I think it was because the police officer found you attractive.
L: 警察因為看我漂亮才不給我開票?你別開玩笑了!不過,那次可 運氣,否則至少要罰我五十美元。讓我想想還有什么例子可以用lucky break這個說法的。
M: Well, the paper that's due in two days, I.....
L: 對了,教授要我們在兩天后交報告,Michael,你還沒有開始動手吧!幸好教授推遲了限期,讓我們下星期一交。這對你來說真是個lucky break吧?
M: Let's go to lunch to celebrate our good luck.
L: 好呀, 去吃午飯,慶祝我們的好運氣。
(Michael和李華到了吃飯的地方)
L: 啊呀,這個地方太鬧了!
M: Yeah, you're right. It'll be hard for us to have a conversation here. Let's go to a place that's more mellow.
L: 對,在這里講話都聽不到。到別的地方去吧。Michael,你剛才講什么more mellow?
M: I said that let's go to a place that's more mellow, meaning someplace more calm and relaxing.
L: 噢,more mellow的意思是比較平靜,比較放松。那也就是說到一個不太鬧的地方去,對不對?
M: Yeah, you can use the word mellow to describe a person too.
L: Mellow也可以用來形容一個人,那今天我們的教授很平靜,我可不可以說:She was mellow today!
M: Yeah, let's go the cafe near the library.
L: 太好了,這個地方很安靜。我們來看看菜單。喲,你看,再過五分鐘就開始減價了,三明治今天半價。我們運氣可真好呀!
M: Well, we found the mellow place and we pay half price. Really a lucky break. Worth celebrating too.
L: 對,找到安靜的地方,還只付半價。真值得慶祝。你多吃點吧, 晚飯就別吃了。
M: Ok. Good idea!
這倆個小年輕還在狼吞虎咽地吃三明治。今天他們在講話中用了lucky break 和mellow這兩個常用語,這是美國人在日常生活中經常用的,大家不妨也在口語中試著用用。今天的[流行美語]就到此結束, 謝謝大家,我們下次再見。