Popular American - #98
流行美語-第九十八課
what's her face
thingamajig
Li Hua正在往圖書館走,突然,Larry把她叫住了。 Li Hua在今天的談話中會(huì)學(xué)到兩個(gè)常用語:what's her face和thingamajig。
LL: Hey, Li Hua. One of your classmates asked me to give you this envelope.
LH: 我的同學(xué)要你給我這個(gè)信封?哪個(gè)同學(xué)呀?
LL: Oh, it was... what's-her-face, you know, the tall girl with red hair.
LH: 高個(gè)子、紅頭發(fā)的女孩兒?你還說什么- What's her face? 哎,F(xiàn)ace不是“臉”嗎?
LL: I said "what's-her-face" instead of her name because I couldn't remember her name. I guess it means I can remember her face, but not her name.
LH: 噢,你不記得她的名字,但是你記得她的臉長的是什么樣子,所以你說what's her face, 也就相當(dāng)于what's her name 。Hm,Larry, 你這么說是不是不太禮貌呢?
LL: Well, it's not really rude, but it's very informal. You shouldn't call someone what's-her-face if she is nearby... in that case, you should just ask her what her name is.
LH: 哎喲,幸虧你告訴我, 盡管what's-her-face是很隨便的說法,但是也不應(yīng)該當(dāng)著那個(gè)人的面這么說。要是這個(gè)人就在你身邊,那么我就應(yīng)該直接問她叫什么名字。哎,對(duì)了,Larry, 剛才你是說what's her face, 要是男孩子的話,那應(yīng)該怎么說呢?
LL: You would say what's-his-face.
LH: 噢,要是男生,但是又記不起他的名字,那也可以說what's his face。我想起來了,那個(gè)高個(gè)紅頭發(fā)的女孩是Julia。我和Jenny向她借了上星期四的筆記,因?yàn)槟翘煳覀z沒去上課。這個(gè)信封里肯定是她的筆記。
LL: That's right - You missed a class last Thursday. Hey wait, if you needed notes, why didn't you just ask me?
LH: 但是我們覺得 - what's-her-face... um, Julia... 她肯定比你記得好。
LL: Well, come to think of it - If I were what's-her-face, er... I mean Jenny, I wouldn't want my notes either.
******
LH: 哎,Larry, 你手里拿的是什么東西呀?
LL: This thing in my hand? Oh, it's the thingamajig I use to measure the air pressure in my car's tires.
LH: 什么?Thin-ga-ma-jig - 這名字聽起來很好玩兒。
LL: No no, that's not the real name of this thing. We use "thingamajig", to replace the name of an object when we don't know or can't remember its real name.
LH: 噢,Thingamajig不是這個(gè)東西的名字。那要是不知道,或是忘了一樣?xùn)|西的名稱,我們就可以用這個(gè)thingamajig來代替。哎,那不就是像我們中文里說的“那玩意兒”嗎?是不是?
LL: That's right. Actually, I think the thing in my hand is called a "tire pressure gauge". Tom asked me to help him check the air pressure of his car's tires.
LH: 原來你手里拿的這個(gè)thingamajig是用來測(cè)量汽車輪胎壓力的。你要幫Tom來測(cè)測(cè)他的車子輪胎啊 ?哎喲,Larry, 看來你對(duì)車子還挺懂的嘛!
LL: Hey, I never said I'm good with cars. To me, everything under the hood of my car is just a bunch of thingamajigs.
LH: 汽車引擎蓋下面的東西你是一竅不通???我才不信。噢,說到修車,我這輛自行車的手閘最近不太靈,你幫我看看好不好?
LL: Let me see. I think you just need to oil these thingamajigs on your handlebars here.
LH: 自行車把手上的這些零件該上油啊?你肯定嗎?
LL: Well, if you don't believe me, you can ask what's-his-face, Jenny's boyfriend, the tall Indian guy - He can fix bikes.
LH: 那個(gè)高個(gè)子的印度人,Jenny的男朋友?你是說Rick吧!他會(huì)修自行車?那我可要去問問Jenny了!
LL:OK! Let's go!
今天李華從Larry那兒學(xué)到兩個(gè)常用語。一個(gè)是what's her face, 也可以說what's his face。意思是“那個(gè)叫什么什么的人”。李華學(xué)到的另一個(gè)常用語是thingamajig, 就相當(dāng)于中文里所說的“那個(gè)玩意兒”。