誰知我的一個同事突然請長假,她的工作全都推給了我,結(jié)果我的新節(jié)目還沒開始,就被無限期擱置了。
這在英語里叫:put in mothballs. Mothball在中文里是衛(wèi)生球,樟腦丸。put in mothballs, 就是束之高閣,無限期擱置的意思。My show idea has been put in mothballs. 我新節(jié)目的提案就這樣被無限期地擱置起來了,不知道什么時候才有時間去做。
很多人喜歡收藏舊東西,不舍得扔,其實,這些看似沒用的東西有時也能派上用場。讓我們聽聽下面例子里這個父親是怎么說的。
例句-1:My son loves the ice skates his grandmother gave him. I don't think he realizes they had been mine when I was his age. Mom had put them in mothballs, not sure if anyone would ever get any use from them. I'm sure glad she'd decided not to throw them out.
這個人說:我兒子特別喜歡奶奶送他的冰鞋。其實他可能不知道,這雙冰鞋是我小時候穿過的,后來被媽媽收了起來,并不知道以后會不會有人能穿。她沒把這雙冰鞋丟掉,讓我太高興了。
我祖母也是一樣,什么東西都不舍得扔。She puts everything in mothballs. 家里跟個二手店似的。英語里有個詞專門形容這種人, packrat。
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剛才說到,我祖母什么都不舍得扔,經(jīng)常拿個舊打字機什么的老古董問我要不要。你別說,有時候還真有點兒值錢的東西。我覺得,她可以把所有東西都捐給下面這個例子里正在籌備中的歷史博物館。讓我們一起聽。
例句-2:Our town clearly supports building a history museum. But the mayor came out to say that he's putting the proposal in mothballs for now. Apparently there isn't enough funding available. Still, no one's giving up hope that it can be reconsidered in the not-to-distant future.
他說:我們鎮(zhèn)里的人顯然都很贊成建一個歷史博物館,但是鎮(zhèn)長卻說,他要暫時把這項提案擱置起來,因為沒有足夠的資金。不過,大家都不肯放棄,希望不久的將來這項提案會重新被考慮。
很多項目不能上馬,問題都出在資金上。我的一個朋友在美國航空航天局工作,他開發(fā)的很多項目都是因為缺少聯(lián)邦撥款而處于停頓狀態(tài)。
Put in mothballs, 最早是二十世紀四十年代出現(xiàn)的,如果更簡單一點的話,可以直接把mothball做為動詞來用。比如我可以說,My show idea has been mothballed. 或者說The mayor is mothballing the proposal for a new museum.