Friends英语赏析【111】Have a soft spot for 偏爱

本栏目是由世博英语Starry_Night原创编写!

Ross: Okay-okay! Two very good points, look I’ve known you both a long time, and I’ve never seen either of you one/millionth as happy as you’ve been since you’ve got together. Do you really want to throw that all away over a room? That is so silly. Now wh-what is more important, love or silliness?
Chandler: Well, we are fond of the silliness, but we also have a soft spot for the love.
Monica: Love is the best medicine.

罗斯:好啦,好啦。听我说两点:我认识你们俩很久了,在你们走到一起之前,我从没见你们两个有这么快乐过。你们真的要因为一个房间而丢掉快乐吗?那真是太愚蠢了。什么更重要呢?爱情还是愚蠢?
钱德乐:哦,我们喜欢愚蠢,不过我们更喜欢爱情。
莫妮卡:爱情是最好的药方。

【世博视角】

Be fond of 这一词组可以用来表示“喜欢”的意思,后面既可以跟上something,也可以是somebody。be fond of sb 要比like sb所表达的程度更深一点,相当于like somebody very much,近乎于love sb的意思。例如:

Jack’s quite fond of her, isn’t he?
I was very fond of my Uncle Jim.

此外,我们还可以说 be fond of doing sth, 表示经常喜欢做某事,不过有时这种爱好可能会使别人有些受不了,例如:

Susan’s very fond of hiking and backpacking.
My grandfather was very fond of handing out advice to all my friends.

乍一看soft spot这个表示法,大家可能会认为它就是中文里所说的“软肋”,其实“软肋”所对应的英文表示法应该是 weak spot, 而have a soft spot for sb/sth所表达的意思是“偏爱”,比如我就对我的小侄子有些偏爱,尽管他有时很淘气,但我就是对他“没脾气”:

I always have a soft spot for my younger nephew.

Friends英语赏析【110】Smooth-talking 花言巧语来说服

本栏目是由世博英语Starry_Night原创编写!

Rachel: Hi!
Monica: Hey, look at you! Where have you been?
Rachel: Oh, I went to have pizza. With Danny.
Monica: How did that happen?
Rachel: That yeti is one smooth talker.
Monica: I hope you’re not full, ’cause dinner’s almost ready.

瑞秋:嗨
莫妮卡:嘿,瞧你!上哪儿去啦?
瑞秋:噢,去吃比萨了,和丹尼一起。
莫妮卡:怎么会和他一起去呢?
瑞秋:那野人挺会说的。
莫妮卡:希望你还有胃口,晚饭马上就要好了。

【世博视角】

Smooth一词的基本解释是“平滑的”,“顺畅的”,比如说到丝绸我们就会用smooth来形容,广告中常说的“如丝般顺滑”就是silky smooth。在生活中有些人说话也很“顺滑”他们很善于用一些花言巧语来说服或欺骗别人,英语中就管这类人叫做smooth talker/operator,或者形容他们为smooth-talking, 例如:

a smooth-talking salesman
She fell for his smooth talk and handed over $1000 for him to invest.
You ought to be careful with her. She’s a very smooth operator who can make you agree to almost anything.

另外,对话中出现的yeti本身是指传说生活在喜玛拉雅山上的雪人。

Friends英语赏析【109】Snap judgment 未经仔细思考而做出的快速判断

本栏目是由世博英语Starry_Night原创编写!

Rachel: Fine! I judged you. I made a snap judgment. But you did it too! And you are worse because you are sticking to your stupid snap judgment! You can’t even open up your mind for a second to see that you may be wrong! What does that say about you?
Danny: The pizza-place across the street any good?
Rachel: What?!
Danny: I’m hungry. Wanna get some pizza? You can keep yelling if there’s more.
Rachel: Okay. Okay.

瑞秋:好吧!我妄下评论。我未经思考就做判断。但你也这样做了。你比我更糟因为你还不肯承认你的武断。你都不肯花一秒的时候来想想可能你错了。这又怎么说呢?
丹尼:街对面的那家比萨店好不好?
瑞秋:什么?
丹尼:我饿了。你想不想吃点比萨?如果你觉得意犹未尽,你还可以继续说我。
瑞秋:好,好啊。

【世博视角】

Judge 作名词时可以解释为“法官”“审判员”等意思,用作动词时它的基本含义是“审理”“判定”。在日常用语中,judge可以用来表示对于某个人或某件事形成某种主观的看法,而这种看法很可能是不正确的,或是带有偏见的,比如我们平时常说不要以貌取人:You should never judge a person by their looks.

如果judge某个人或某件事可能会有失偏颇的话,那么a snap judgment则更容易犯错。judgment是动词judge的名词形式;snap作形容词用可表示“突然的”,a snap judgment/decision 就是指那种未经仔细思考而做出的快速判断或决定。

说到judgment, 这里要提到它的一个衍生词judgmental. 相信大家都碰到过这样一些人,他们的思想比较狭隘,对事对人都不太宽容,常常喜欢搞批判,对于这些人我们就可以说上一句:Don’t be so judgmental, 也就相当于对话中瑞秋所说的open up your mind.