他該怎么辦呢?未來生活會怎么樣呢?也許只能用我們今天要學的習慣用語來回答:anyone's guess. Anyone的意思是“任何人”。在anyone后面加上撇S, anyone's guess意思是誰也說不準,任何人都不確定。
我的這位老同學身處窘境,一時真看不出出路在哪,it's anyone's guess how he'll cover living, 誰都不知道他要怎樣才能負擔起生活的各種花銷。經(jīng)濟大環(huán)境不好,不僅讓個人的生活沒有著落,也讓很多工程項目下馬,前途未卜。我們來聽聽下面這段話:
例句-1:The sports arena downtown has been abandoned for years. So far, no developers have made any offers to buy it. Whether it will eventually be renovated or torn down or turned into something completely different like a night club or shopping center is anyone's guess. At this point, nobody has offered any clue as to what might be its future.
這段話是說:市中心的體育館已經(jīng)好多年無人問津。到目前為止,沒有任何開發(fā)商對其提出過收購計劃。到底這個體育館最后是會被翻修、拆掉還是被改建成夜總會或購物中心等完全不同的東西呢?誰也說不準。現(xiàn)在,誰也不知道它的未來會是什么樣。
我覺得,最好的出路是把這個閑置很久的體育場另為它用。這個做法叫repurpose, 改變用途。比如,A neglected church was repurposed into a fashionable restaurant, 一所廢棄不用的教堂被改變用途,變成了一家時髦的飯館。
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很多人肯定有過這樣的經(jīng)歷: 那就是,匆忙地走到一個地方,卻忽然忘了原本是要干嘛來的。這種突然的健忘讓人煩惱不已。要是您和下面這個人一樣急著要找一個重要的東西,可怎么也找不到,那就更慘了。我們來聽一聽:
例句-2: I admit I've misplaced things before. But this time I'm in real trouble. I'm leaving tomorrow on an overseas business trip and I can't locate my passport. I've already looked in all the places I'd expect to find it. Then I made an exhaustive search throughout my apartment. It's anyone's guess where that passport is. I wish I could find it.
這段話的意思是:我承認,我以前也把東西放錯過地方??蛇@次我真是遇到大麻煩了。我明天要出國旅行,可怎么也找不到護照了。我把所有能想到的地方都找了。然后又把家的每個角落都看了一遍。可是,護照毫無下落。我真希望能把它找出來!
希望這個人能趕在出國前找到護照! 另外說一句,我們今天學習的這個anyone's guess也可以被說成anybody's guess, 是一個意思。