英語早間課堂:新車

北魏才子賈思勰 《齊民要術·園籬》：“若值巧人，隨便採用，則無事不成。” 這里的隨便是什么意思呢?我們先來聽2個例子：

例句-1：His manner was so bright and pleasant that Tom felt at ease with him at once.

他的態(tài)度如此爽朗愉快，Tom覺得和他在一起沒什么拘束。

例句-2：The retired old worker is living at his ease.

這位退休老工人的生活過得很舒服。

接招：上面的2個例句中都用到了同一個詞語：at ease。這是一條介詞性習語。習語中的ease是“lack of difficulty”(容易，輕易，不費勁)的意思，和介詞at搭配意思就是relaxed and confident and not nervous的意思，中文意思即：舒適，自由自在，無拘無束。我們可以在名詞ease前加上物主代詞，即：at one's ease。此外，這個習語和ill連用，即：ill at ease則成了其反義詞，意思是不安，感到拘束。

由此，上述的北魏《齊民要術·園籬》中提到的隨便意思就是無拘無束，不受限制，隨其所宜的意思。

我們通過更多的例子來熟悉這個習語的意思和用法。首先我們來聽一個小對話：

A : I am ill at ease for I am a stranger there.

她在那人生地不熟，感到很不安。

B : And you must accustom yourself to be more at ease when you are before strangers.

在你和陌生人在一起時，要使自己習慣于別太拘束。

我們再來看一些例子：

They put her as much at ease as they could.

他們盡力使她感到自在。

Hanley seemed ill at ease when he first moved into the Director-General's office.

Hanley剛搬進局長辦公室辦公時，似乎不太自然。

Please put your mind at ease about my well-being.

你們不用掛念我。

My sisters seem out of spirits, and Tom is certainly not at his ease.

我的妹妹們無精打采，湯姆肯定也心神不寧。

It is the interest of every man to live as much at his ease as he can (Adam Smith).

盡可能生活得舒適是每個人的追求(亞當.史密斯)。

He liked to wander at his ease in the fields and the woods, enjoying the sunlight and the flowers and the songs of the birds.

他喜歡在田野和森林里自由自在地漫游，欣賞陽光，花卉和鳥兒的歌聲。

The little man sat down, quite at his ease, and yet still with a servant-like air, the air of a valet enjoying a privilege.

那個小伙子坐了下來，十分自在，但仍有一種仆人的神態(tài)，一個享受特權的貼身仆人的神態(tài)。

He had been dreading their meeting but her warm welcome soon put him at his ease.

他對彼此相見一直忐忑不安, 可是她的熱情相迎使他很快就無拘無束了.

好，親愛的朋友們，今天的這招說“隨便”——at ease，我想您一定接住了，那么下回我再來拋出“隨便”的招數，期待您再來接招。好，朋友們，我們下次再見吧。