Friends英语赏析【96】Bonding的用法

本栏目是由世博英语Starry_Night原创编写!

Ross: Look at you two, bonding, making us late for the airport so…
Emily: Are you all right?
Susan: Oh, he’s fine. He’s fine. It’s just that us getting along is difficult for him, because he doesn’t like me.
Ross: Oh come on! That’s-that’s… true.

罗斯:看你们俩,又说又笑,要我们耽误去机场了,所以…
艾米莉:你没问题吧?
苏珊:噢,他没问题,只不过我们俩相处起来有些困难,因为他不喜欢我。
罗斯:哈,得了!真是, 是真的。

【世博视角】

人与人之间的交往有时就是这么奇妙,有些人刚一见面就会对彼此有好感,谈起话来更是投机,然后很快就能成为朋友,这就是对话中罗斯所说的“bonding”的意思,bonding也常常用来指母亲与刚出生的孩子之间所建立的感情,如:Much of the bonding between mother and child takes place in those early weeks. 作为动词,bond本身的解释是“粘合”,比如:It takes less than 10 minutes for the two surfaces to bond.(10分钟不到这两个表面就能粘在一起)。同样这种反应也能发生在人身上,所以才有这样的例句:The two new recruits seemed to bond immediately.(两个新人之间好像一见如故)。

说到友好相处,get along也是经常用到的一个词组, 后面可以跟上介词with,表示与某人相处得不错,例如:

Mary was chosen because she is a good administrator who gets along with everyone.
I used to argue a lot with my parents, but now we get along fine.

Friends英语赏析【95】Mess up 搞糟

本栏目是由世博英语Starry_Night原创编写!

Ross: So, I just picked up a message from Emily, she and Susan are going to a poetry reading together!
Rachel: So?
Ross: So! Poetry? Susan’s gay! They’re being gay together!
Monica: Emily’s straight.
Ross: Oh, wake up!
Phoebe: Wow, Carol really messed you up!

罗斯:爱米莉留言给我说她和苏珊正打算一起去诗朗诵。
瑞秋:那怎么了?
罗斯:那怎么了!苏珊可是同性恋呢。她们一起同性恋去了。
莫妮卡:爱米莉不是同性恋。
罗斯:噢,你醒醒吧!
菲比:哇,开萝真是让你变得疑神疑鬼的。

【世博视角】

Gay一词最初是用来表示“欢乐的”, 可如今它已失去原义而普遍用来指“同性恋”了,一般说来gay大多用来指“男同性恋”,“女同性恋”的话则大多用lesbian来形容。在国外,如果碰到有同性很暧昧地和你搭讪,你只需说一声I’m straight,对方就会识趣地走开了。

再说说mess这个词,作为动词它的基本解释是“弄乱”或“弄脏”,经常与介词up一起连用,如:Who messed up the kitchen? mess up还常常用来表示“把…搞糟了”,例如:
It took me ages to get this right – I don’t want some idiot to mess it up.
It doesn’t matter if you mess it up, you can always try again.
I’m not going to let him mess up my life.

如果某个人被mess up了的话,那就表示这个人有一些问题,尤其是心理上或精神上,比如毒品就会把人给弄得人不像人:Drugs really messed her up. 还有青少年也是最容易出问题的,如:She was really messed up as a teenager.

Friends英语赏析【94】Make a Scene

本栏目是由世博英语Starry_Night原创编写!

Rachel: Umm, Joanna? I wanna talk about that interview.
Joanna: I thought it went very well.
Rachel: No! It didn’t! That’s what I want to talk to you about. Now, just to brief you…I may cry, but they are not tears of sadness or of anger, but just of me having this discussion with you.
Joanna: Rachel, please, don’t make a scene.
Rachel: There’s nobody here!

瑞秋: 嗯,乔安娜,我想和你谈谈那次面试的事情。
乔安娜:我觉得面试进行得很好。
瑞秋: 不是那么回事,我想和你谈的正是这个。先告诉你一下,我可能会哭的,那可不是因为伤心或是气愤,而只是因为我正在和你说这件事情。
乔安娜:瑞秋,得了,别在这儿丢人现眼了。
瑞秋: 这儿根本没人。

【世博视角】

Brief一词最常用的形式是形容词,意思是“简短的”,但在以上的对话中,brief却是用作动词,表示“简要地说明一下某个情况”,比如说警方在执行逮捕任务之前总会开个小会什么的:Police officers were briefed before going out to arrest the suspects.

再来看一下对话中出现的另一个常用的表达法 make a scene. scene这一名词的最基本解释就是“场景”,那么make a scene 从字面上来理解就是“制造一个场景”,只不过这个scene通常都是在公共场合吵架的情景,比如有时候我们会在马路边看到一大群人围在那里,当中有两个人在破口大骂,那就是make a scene了。另外我们还可以用这个表达法来提醒别人别太激动,有话好好说,如:Shh, you’re making a scene!