本栏目是由世博英语Starry_Night原创编写!
第四十八篇
一天早上,Rachel被一阵鸡叫声给吵醒了:
Rachel: What the hell is that?!! (to Monica) What the hell is that? Is that you?
Monica: Boy, you are really not a morning person.
Rachel: You back off!!! Get up! Get up! Get up! God damn it! Get up, get up, get up, get up, get up!! What is that noise?
Chandler: You!
Joey: It’s the chick! She’s…going through some changes.
Monica: What kind of changes?
Chandler: Well the vet seems to think that’s she’s becoming a rooster.
【世博视角】
看来早起对于Rachel来说真是桩痛苦的事情,所以Monica看到她被吵醒的反应后说:Boy, you are really not a morning person. Boy一词在这里并不是“男孩”的意思,而是做为语气词使用,可以表示兴奋、失望、恼怒等情感,如:Oh boy—what a surprise!
再来看一下back off这个词组,看上去很简单,从字面上理解就是往后退的意思,其实它还是有多种含义的。在对话中,Rachel对Monica说“back off”除了让她站住往后退以外,还有让莫妮卡别再烦她的意思,也就是说back off的另一层含义就是让某人别再说三道四,以干扰别人做事,又比如:Back off, Marc! Let me run my own life! 除此之外,back off还可以用来表示退出或停止做某件已经计划好了的事情,如:Jerry backed off when he realized how much work was involved.
最后Rachel得知原来对门Chandler和Joey所养的一只小鸡正在变成一只公鸡,难怪早上会叫呢。说到公鸡,我们从小学的就是cock这个词,可要是在美国人面前提到这个词的话,可能十有八九人家会想到别的东西,因为这个词如今已渐渐失去原意而专门用来指男性生殖器了,所以我们最好还是学一学Chandler,用rooster来指公鸡。顺便说一下,十二生肖中的“鸡”,用的也是rooster这个词。
*本篇所讲到的表达法:
back off
rooster