美語(yǔ)訓(xùn)練班096

A: 歡迎大家來(lái)到這期的美語(yǔ)訓(xùn)練班! 我是小北!

B: 我是Mike! What are we going to teach today, Xiaobei?

A: 今天，我們要和大家聊聊旅行計(jì)劃，看看在家工作的好處，還要告訴你怎么說發(fā)瘋。

B: But first, let's learn a word!

Learn A Word 1663 unconditional

今天我們要學(xué)的詞是 unconditional, unconditional is spelled unconditional, unconditional. Unconditional 無(wú)條件的。The U.S. Senate passed a resolution calling for Cuba's immediate and unconditional release of Alan Gross, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison. 美國(guó)國(guó)會(huì)參議院通過決議，要求古巴政府立即無(wú)條件釋放被判入獄15年的艾倫.格羅斯。1970年，佛羅里達(dá)州一個(gè)16歲的女孩因?yàn)樗幬锓磻?yīng)進(jìn)入昏迷狀態(tài)，一直沒有醒來(lái)。42年間，她的家人一直陪伴在她身邊，直到她上星期去世。This is undoubtedly a true testimony of unconditional love. 這無(wú)疑是無(wú)條件愛的真實(shí)體現(xiàn)。好的，今天我們學(xué)習(xí)的詞是 unconditional, unconditional, unconditional...

A: unconditional love,真讓人感動(dòng)啊! 在現(xiàn)在這個(gè)是故的社會(huì)中，很多事情都講條件。It's hard to find unconditional support or unconditional friendship.

B: Speaking of friendship, I went to a highschool reunion last week. I had expected to meet some of my old friends and talk about the funny things we did in the old days.

A: 對(duì)啊，結(jié)果呢?

B: The reunion turned into a brawl!

A: 啊?同學(xué)聚會(huì)變成了吵架大會(huì)?What happened?

B: One guy confessed after a few drinks that back in high school he actually stole another guy's girlfriend.

A: 原來(lái)是因?yàn)闋?zhēng)風(fēng)吃醋啊。結(jié)果呢?

B: Well, we can use the phrase from the following program to describe the reaction of the other guy. Let's listen.

Words and Idioms Go Berserk

美國(guó)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)第813講

有時(shí)候，人急了會(huì)做出非常過激的反應(yīng)。今天早上在樓下餐廳，一個(gè)男的不小心撞在了一位女士的身上，托盤里的東西撒了女的一身。雖然他連忙道歉，但那個(gè)女的還是不依不饒，大叫著要找律師，把那個(gè)男的告上法庭，周圍的人都覺得有些過份。在英語(yǔ)里，這就叫 go berserk.

M: Go berserk. Berserk is spelled berserk. GoBerserk. Go berserk.

Go berserk 這個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)是發(fā)瘋的意思，而且往往是以瘋狂、粗暴的形式表現(xiàn)出來(lái)。要形容今天早上我在餐廳里看見的那位女士， go berserk 這個(gè)詞簡(jiǎn)直是再恰當(dāng)不過的了。她本來(lái)不用發(fā)那么大火的，完全沒有必要因?yàn)檫@點(diǎn)兒小事 go berserk.

在下面這個(gè)例子里，一場(chǎng)舞蹈比賽的觀眾對(duì)比賽結(jié)果做出了強(qiáng)烈的反響，讓我們聽聽其中一個(gè)“粉絲”是怎么說的。

M: "After our favorite couple finished their dance, everyone stood up and applauded. No one had ever seen such a perfect performance. But the judges gave them scores which put them in second place. Well, the crowd WENT BERSERK. It took security guards to restore order."

這個(gè)人說，我們最喜歡的一對(duì)參賽選手表演完畢后，全場(chǎng)起立，掌聲雷動(dòng)。大家從來(lái)沒有看過如此完美的表演。但是評(píng)委給他們打的分，卻讓他們排在了第二位，場(chǎng)下的觀眾簡(jiǎn)直氣炸了，直到保安人員進(jìn)場(chǎng)，才恢復(fù)了秩序。Went berserk? 我怎么從來(lái)沒遇到過這種情況呢?我最愛看的就是真人秀?，F(xiàn)在的真人秀五花八門，不僅讓著名舞蹈演員、歌星，還讓設(shè)計(jì)師、廚師，甚至是發(fā)型師現(xiàn)場(chǎng)一比高低，雖然那些號(hào)稱專家的評(píng)委有時(shí)打分也不公平，但是 The audience has never GONE BERSERK. 觀眾從來(lái)沒有為此而不依不饒。當(dāng)然還有一種可能，就是節(jié)目是提前錄制的，觀眾鬧場(chǎng)的部分播出前被減掉了。好的，讓我們?cè)賮?lái)聽聽上面那段話。

M: "After our favorite couple finished their dance, everyone stood up and applauded. No one had ever seen such a perfect performance. But the judges gave them scores which put them in second place. Well, the crowd WENT BERSERK. It took security guards to restore order."

大家可以想象，go berserk 這個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)不僅可以用來(lái)形容人，而且可以用來(lái)指事物。讓我們一起來(lái)聽聽下面這個(gè)例子。

M: "When I tried to use my laptop, the cursor began moving all over the screen by itself. Then it clicked on several documents without my ever touching it. So I unplugged the mouse, cleaned it, and plugged it back in. Now the computer isn't GOING BERSERK anymore."

這個(gè)人說，今天我的手提電腦好像發(fā)了瘋，光標(biāo)自己在屏幕上到處亂跑，我根本沒碰它，它卻自做主張地打開了好幾份文件。我只好把鼠標(biāo)拆下來(lái)，清理干凈，再插回去，電腦才停止發(fā)瘋。]

這里說 the laptop went berserk 意思就是電腦不聽指揮，好像發(fā)了瘋一樣。同樣的，go berserk 也可以用來(lái)形容動(dòng)物。我曾經(jīng)讀過一本暢銷小說，講的是馬戲團(tuán)里的一頭大象跑了，出去闖了不少禍。至于它為什么會(huì) go berserk, 我現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)記不清楚了。好的，讓我們?cè)俾犚幌律厦娴睦洹?/p>

M: "When I tried to use my laptop, the cursor began moving all over the screen by itself. Then it clicked on several documents without my ever touching it. So I unplugged the mouse, cleaned it, and plugged it back in. Now the computer isn't GOING BERSERK anymore."

大家可能會(huì)問，這種說法是從哪來(lái)的?有人說，Go Berserk 最早是指古代的北歐勇士，他們以英勇善戰(zhàn)著稱。這些人打仗不穿盔甲，只穿一件熊皮做的單衣，叫 Berserkar. Go berserk 這個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)由此而來(lái)。

好的，這次美國(guó)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)]就到此結(jié)束了。我是楊晨，我是 Douglas Johnson。這次節(jié)目的制作人是胡小玲。謝謝各位的收聽。

B: Yep. The guy who got dumped by his girlfriend went Berserk and the whole reunion was ruined.

A: 唉，都是陳年舊事了，何必動(dòng)怒呢? They should let bygones be bygones.

B: I agree. Let's lighten things up a bit and listen to a guy's plan for a vacation!

禮節(jié)美語(yǔ)Vacation I

Jerry跟同事Paula和Will打招呼，注意聽他們?nèi)酥苣┒几闪诵┦裁础?/p>

Jerry: Hey, Paula. Hi, Will. Did you have a good weekend?

Paula: Yeah... I checked out that new 3D movie. It's amazing what they can do with technologies these days!

Will: I went mountain biking with a couple of friends. We worked up a good sweat and had a good time. How about you, Jerry?

J: Actually, I spent most of the weekend looking at travel brochures.

Paula 周末去看了新出的三維電影，3D movie. Will 跟幾個(gè)朋友一起去騎山地車，山地車在英語(yǔ)里叫 mountain bike，可以是名詞，在上面那段話里是做動(dòng)詞用，Will went mountain biking. Will 還說，他們出了一身汗，玩得特別開心。work up a sweat 是一種習(xí)慣用法，指鍛煉身體或從事體力活動(dòng)很投入，可以是真的出了一身汗，也可以形容特別賣力。Jerry呢，一個(gè)周末大部分時(shí)間都在看旅游宣傳材料 travel brochures. 看來(lái)他是要休假嘍?Paula問：

P: Really? Are you going somewhere?

J: Well, starting on the 20th of this month, I'm taking a fiveweek vacation.

W: Five weeks!! No way!

P: Get out of here! How did you swing that?

J: Actually, the company owes me about four months' worth of vacation time. I've been working here since 2002 and haven't taken a vacation yet. I've got oodles of comp time as well.

W: Sorry, what's comp time?

Jerry 要休五個(gè)星期的假，Will和Paula都不敢相信，問Jerry, How did you swing that? to swing it 是一種口語(yǔ)里非正式的說法，意思是說服別人，達(dá)到自己的目的。Jerry解釋說，他從2002年來(lái)這家公司工作，就一直沒休過假，現(xiàn)在公司欠他四個(gè)月的假期，Jerry說，另外，I've got oodles of comp time as well. oodles is spelled oodles, oodles, oodles of something 也是一種非正式的說法，相當(dāng)于 a lot of something 很多，Jerry說自己除了四個(gè)月的假期，還攢了很多 comp time. Will是新畢業(yè)的大學(xué)生，不知道什么是comp time. Paula解釋說，

P: The "comp" is short for compensation. Basically he means overtime pay.

J: Yeah, but some companies like ours don't really pay overtime.... they give you extra vacation hours instead. If you add up all the vacation time and comp hours I have, I have a lot of time.

P: When I was working for a company in Germany they had super short work weeks and very liberal overtime rules.

Paula 解釋說，comp, comp, comp 是 compensation的簡(jiǎn)寫，其實(shí)就是 overtime 加班，有些公司不發(fā)加班費(fèi)，而是把員工加班的時(shí)間折合成假期，補(bǔ)償給員工。另外，歐洲和美國(guó)的情況也有很大的區(qū)別，Paula說，她以前曾經(jīng)在德國(guó)的一家公司工作過，they had super short work weeks and very liberal overtime rules. 那家公司不僅工作時(shí)間短，而且加班的規(guī)定也 very liberal, 很松。

A: 唉! 要去旅行一次真不容易，平時(shí)還要攢假，comp time, vacation hours，要加班加點(diǎn)才能獲得的一點(diǎn)獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。

B: That's why we envy some of the European countries where the work weeks are short and overtime rules are liberal.

A: 好吧，咱們還是繼續(xù)把對(duì)話聽完，看看Jerry到底打算怎么渡假。

禮節(jié)美語(yǔ)Vacation II

Jerry跟同事Paula和Will聊天，說到telecommuting遠(yuǎn)程上班。Paula說：

Paula: Twenty years ago, many people thought that by this time, no one would be working in offices and everybody would have a more flexible schedule.

W: Well, that certainly hasn't happened.

J: Not yet....but it could still be the wave of the future. Then again, you know the famous saying: "Old habits die hard." Most bosses like to keep tabs on their employees and they think the best way to do that is by having them come into an office.

Paula說，20年前，很多人都以為社會(huì)發(fā)展到今天，大家都不用去辦公室，可以在家上班了，and everyone would have a more flexible schedule. 大家都有更靈活的工作時(shí)間，但這種情況顯然沒有出現(xiàn)。Jerry 說，It could still be the wave of the future. the wave of the future 意思是未來(lái)的發(fā)展趨勢(shì)。不過，老話說得好，"Old habits die hard." 積習(xí)難改。Jerry說，Most bosses like to keep tabs on their employees 大多數(shù)老板都想嚴(yán)格控制員工，to keep tabs on someone or something 是密切注意某人某事的意思。要想控制員工，最好的辦法當(dāng)然就是讓他們來(lái)辦公室上班，在老板眼皮底下工作。

J: I have to say I'm looking forward to my long vacation. I think you need at least three or four weeks of doing nothing before you can truly relax.

W: I thought you said you had months and months of vacation time available. Why are you only taking five weeks off?

J: Five weeks was the best I could negotiate with my boss. She says she knows I've earned the time, but she begged me not to take more than five weeks.

P: Five weeks should be long enough! Who knows? Maybe you'll get bored and come back early!

J: (laugh) I doubt it.

Jerry雖然有好幾月的假期，但老板最多只讓他休五個(gè)星期， 看來(lái)他一定是很能干。Paula開玩笑說，五個(gè)星期也足夠了，搞不好用不了五個(gè)星期Jerry就覺得實(shí)在無(wú)聊，提前回來(lái)上班了呢!Jerry休假準(zhǔn)備到哪里去呢?

W: So, where are you going?

J: I can't decide if I want to go with a more relaxing trip, or if I want to explore cities.

W: If you were to choose the more relaxing option, where would you go?

J: I'm thinking of the island of Bali in Indonesia. I hear it's a very relaxing and cheap vacation destination.

P: And what's your second option?

J: I was thinking of traveling around Europe, starting with Paris. I could take trains and visit other nearby major European cities as well. It's a tough call.

W: I'm so jealous of you!

P: Me too! Don't forget to bring us back some souvenirs!

J: I won't!

Jerry 說，他有兩種選擇，一個(gè)是印度尼西亞的巴厘島，去那里更放松 more relaxing, 另外一種選擇是去歐洲，第一站是巴黎，然后可以從巴黎坐火車到其他歐洲城市去玩。Jerry 說，It's a tough call. 意思是他很難在這兩種選擇之間做出決定。Will 和 Paula 都很羨慕 Jerry, 提醒他一定要帶 souvenirs 紀(jì)念品回來(lái)送給他們。

A: 原來(lái)Jerry要去歐洲，而且要坐火車游遍歐洲的各大城市，真夠爽的!

B: Yeah. That's my dream vacation too. But Europe is expensive. I need to start saving right now. My first goal is to save enough money for an air ticket!

A: 說到坐飛機(jī)，咱們先來(lái)學(xué)一個(gè)很有用的詞!

Learn A Word inflight

今天我們要學(xué)的詞是 inflight, inflight is spelled in, in, flight, flight, flight, inflight. Inflight 飛行中的。比如：inflight meals 飛行餐點(diǎn);inflight movies 飛行途中播放的電影。A number of airlines in the U.S. are now offering inflight WiFi service to passengers. 美國(guó)現(xiàn)在有好幾家航空公司都向乘客提供飛行途中無(wú)線上網(wǎng)的服務(wù)。In August, the FAA released a study of inflight use of cell phones in a few European countries that found no direct incidents of interference. 美國(guó)聯(lián)邦航空局八月份公布了一份在幾個(gè)歐洲國(guó)家進(jìn)行的對(duì)飛行途中使用手機(jī)的研究結(jié)果，沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)直接影響飛行信號(hào)的情況。好的，今天我們學(xué)習(xí)的詞是 inflight, inflight, inflight...

A: I have to say a lot of airliner's inflight service is not laudable.

B: I know what you mean. But still, flying is your only option if you want to go to a faraway place.

A: 對(duì)啊。另外，去外國(guó)旅游最好還是要事先了解一下人家當(dāng)?shù)氐娘L(fēng)俗，不然很可能去了之后不光外語(yǔ)聽不懂，禮節(jié)也不懂，這可是要出丑的。

B: And the idiom we'll teach in the following program can describe such a situation! Let's listen

Words and Idioms 814 Be Greek to Me

美國(guó)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)第814講

我花了整個(gè)一個(gè)周末的時(shí)間，終于把地下室清理干凈了。你肯定想象不到，我找出了多少零七八碎的舊東西，其中不知道哪來(lái)的一本天體物理學(xué)課本，里面的公式對(duì)于我來(lái)說，簡(jiǎn)直就是天書。不過，這倒讓我找到了靈感，今天我們學(xué)習(xí)的習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)就是：

M: Be Greek to me. Greek is spelled Greek. BeGreektome. Be Greek to me.

大家都知道， Greek 是希臘語(yǔ)的意思。Be Greek to me 這個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)的意思就是完全無(wú)法理解，換句話說，就是中文里說的天書。這下你明白了吧，我對(duì)天體物理學(xué)一竅不通，所以那些公式對(duì)于我來(lái)說，就是天書。It's Greek to me.

中文說，隔行如隔山，很多專業(yè)都有自己的術(shù)語(yǔ)，外行人聽上去自然會(huì)一頭霧水。讓我們聽聽下面這個(gè)人買房子的經(jīng)歷。

M: "Finding a house to buy was complicated enough. But that's nothing compared to all the paperwork my realtor is asking me to sign. I'm looking at nearly a hundred pages of official documents full of terms I've never seen before. It's all GREEK TO ME."

這個(gè)人說，找到合適的房子已經(jīng)夠麻煩的了，但這跟經(jīng)紀(jì)人讓我簽字的那些文件相比，簡(jiǎn)直就是小巫見大巫。我要在一百來(lái)頁(yè)的正式文件上簽字，雖然里面說的是什么我完全搞不懂。

我也有同感。每次要在正式文件上簽字，我都會(huì)很緊張，因?yàn)槲募系教幎际切g(shù)語(yǔ)。It's Greek to me. 另外一件讓我頭痛的事就是地方口音。就在幾天前，我接到了一個(gè)推銷產(chǎn)品的電話，推銷員一口美國(guó)南部口音，雖然她重復(fù)了好幾遍，但我就是聽不懂她在說些什么。It was Greek to me. 好的，讓我們?cè)賮?lái)聽聽上面那段話。

M: "Finding a house to buy was complicated enough. But that's nothing compared to all the paperwork my realtor is asking me to sign. I'm looking at nearly a hundred pages of official documents full of terms I've never seen before. It's all GREEK TO ME."

說起電話，不知道聽眾里有多少人使用過“即時(shí)通信”instant messaging? 我侄女每天都不停地在手機(jī)小小的鍵盤上敲打，給朋友發(fā)短信，可說來(lái)慚愧，我發(fā)短信的次數(shù)最多不超過五次。這種代溝給很多家長(zhǎng)帶來(lái)了困擾。讓我們一起來(lái)聽聽下面這位父親的牢騷。

M: "What was so important that our daughter was always exchanging messages with her friends? Finally, I grabbed her cell phone to see for myself. But it's like she was writing in some kind of code. My wife couldn't figure it out either. It WAS ALL GREEK TO US."

這個(gè)人說，我女兒好像無(wú)時(shí)無(wú)刻不在給朋友發(fā)短信，這難道真的那么重要嗎?最后，我拿起她的手機(jī)，要看看上面到底寫了些什么。但她好像是在用密碼，我和太太根本看不懂。

沒錯(cuò)，這些孩子們用的都是縮略語(yǔ)，比如LOL是laugh out loud太好笑了;BBL 是 be back later 一會(huì)兒見，還有 POTS 是 parents over the shoulder 有家長(zhǎng)站在身后，意思是不方便。

不過，并非所有家長(zhǎng)都象我這么落伍，與時(shí)俱進(jìn)的父母還是很多的，所有孩子們最好不要肆無(wú)忌憚。好的，讓我們?cè)俾犚幌律厦娴睦洹?/p>

M: "What was so important that our daughter was always exchanging messages with her friends? Finally, I grabbed her cell phone to see for myself. But it's like she was writing in some kind of code. My wife couldn't figure it out either. It WAS ALL GREEK TO US."

大家可能會(huì)問，這種說法是從哪里來(lái)的? It was Greek to me 這個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)的歷史可以追溯到1599年莎氏比亞的名著凱撒大帝。在書中，他談到了一篇講話，很多聽眾都聽不懂，因?yàn)橹v話用的是希臘語(yǔ)。It was Greek to them. 這個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)由此而來(lái)。

好的，這次美國(guó)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)]就到此結(jié)束了。

B: Speaking of not being able to communicate, I had firsthand experience at my high reunion.

A: 又是你的高中聚會(huì)?

B: Yep! After the brawl, we went to an after party and for some reason all my friends started talking about investing in stocks and securities. They spoke in jargons and it was Greek to me!

A: 看來(lái)你落伍啦! 趕快多看點(diǎn)財(cái)經(jīng)新聞吧，這年頭，不懂點(diǎn)股市期貨啥的都不好意思和別人打招呼啦!

B： Are you also speaking from personal experience, Xiaobei?

B: 這你就別管啦! 好了，節(jié)目時(shí)間到了，聽眾朋友，咱們下次再見嘍!

A: See you next time!