Friends英语赏析【23】回扣

本栏目是由世博英语Starry_Night原创编写！让我们通过影视轻松学英语！未经本站授权，请勿转载！

第二十三篇

Monica: (on phone) Yeah, hi, it's Monica. I just got paged.
Chandler: I'm just saying that sometimes we like to do stuff that costs a little more.
Joey: And you feel like we hold you back.
Chandler: Yes.
Rachel: Oh!
Chandler: No.
Monica: Leon, Leon. Shhh! Guys. (They quiet down.) Wait, I don't understand. Those steaks were just a gift from the meat vendor. That was not a kick back. I'll just replace them and we can forget the whole thing. What corporate policy? No. (Listens) Yeah. (Listens) Okay. (Hangs up) I just got fired.

【世博视角】

对于page这个词, 我们最熟悉的解释就是“页数”，其实它还可以作动词使用，表示“呼叫某人”，在beeper (呼机) 大行其道的时候，page的使用频率可是相当高的，那时我们总会说“有事呼我”（You can always page me if anything important comes up.）在Monica所说的 “I just got paged.” 这一句话中，page 就是作此解释。

在Monica回电的时候，其他几个老友又争论起关于花钱的事情来了，Chandler说“I'm just saying that sometimes we like to do stuff that costs a little more.(我只是说有时候我们喜欢做一些需要花多一点钱的事情)”stuff 是经常出现在口语中的一个词，它可以笼统地表示“任何东西或是事情”，注意这是个不可数名词，例如：

What’s all this stuff on my desk?
I’m telling him we don’t want all that stupid stuff here.
I think he has the right stuff for the job.

Chandler, Ross和Monica三个人赚钱比较多，因此就比较“小资”, 可Joey、Rachel和Phoebe三人的情况就不同了，所以Joey马上说“And you feel like we hold you back.（你觉得是我们拖累你们了）” hold back 也是个常用的词组, 它可以用来表示 “阻止、阻碍、防止移动”等意思，如：

No one can hold back the wheel of history.
Her hair was held back by two clips.

hold back 还常常表示“抑制某种感情”：

Joe held back his anger.
She bit her lip to hold back the tears.

Joey所说的正是Chandler所想的，所以他就很诚实地回应说Yes, 这下可引发了一声场口水大战，害得在一旁打电话的Monica都听不到电话那头在说什么了。等她让大伙安静下来之后，却发现自己被解雇了，原因是她拿了供应商的“小礼物”，而公司却认为是 “a kick back”, 也就是 “回扣”。

*本篇所讲到的口语表达法：

stuff
hold back
kick back