Friends英语赏析【56】Baby Shower

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第五十七篇

Rachel: Hi!
Monica: Hey!
Phoebe: Hey!
Rachel: So what’s the final head count on my baby shower?
Phoebe: About twenty, a couple people from work who had something else to do.
Monica: Also both of your sisters called and neither can make it.
Rachel: What?! You mean they’re not coming to a social event where there’s no men and there’s no booze?! That’s shocking! I don’t care, as long as my mom’s here.
Monica: Oh my God, your mother!
Rachel: What?! My mom’s not gonna be here?!
Monica: Well, given that we forgot to invite her it would be an awfully big coincidence if she was.
Rachel: My God!
Monica: Well it wasn’t my fault, Phoebe was in charge of the invitations!
Phoebe: Well I don’t, I don’t have a mother so often I forget that other people…
Monica: Oh give it a rest!
Rachel: So my mother is not coming to my baby shower?!
Phoebe: No.

【世博视角】

先来看一下什么是baby shower，它其实有点类似于我们这里为满月的孩子所办的“满月酒”， 只不过美国的这种baby shower是为即将出生的婴儿所办的聚会，参加的亲朋好友都会带一些婴儿用品来送给母亲。在对话中，Monica和Phoebe正在为Rachel的baby shower做准备，Rachel想知道会有多少人来参加她的baby shower, 所以她问：So what’s the final head count on my baby shower? head count指的就是“人数”。Phoebe回答说人数是20， 有一些同事有事不能来(a couple people from work who had something else to do.) Monica 又说Rachel的两个姐妹也打电话来说她们来不了了（Also both of your sisters called and neither can make it.）make it 在这里并不是制作什么东西的意思，而是表示“能够做到某事”例如：

I'm really sorry, but I won't be able to make it on Sunday after all.
Frank was very ill, and the doctors didn't think he'd make it.

Rachel觉得她的姐妹们很过分，都不来参加她的baby shower，就因为这种聚会男人是不参加的，而且也不供应酒精饮料（What?! You mean they’re not coming to a social event where there’s no men and there’s no booze?! That’s shocking!）booze在俚语可以用来指烈酒或酒精饮料。不过Rachel又说她也不在乎她的姐妹们来不来，只要她妈妈会来参加就好了(I don’t care, as long as my mom’s here.) as long as… 是一关联词，表示“只要…就…”，也可以写成so long as…, 如：As long as we keep playing well, we'll keep winning games.

说到妈妈，Monica如梦初醒般叫了声“Oh my God, your mother!”这下Rachel可急了，难道她母亲也不会来参加？（My mom’s not gonna be here?）Monica她们根本就忘了邀请Rachel的母亲了，她要是会来那才怪呢，所以Monica说：Well, given that we forgot to invite her it would be an awfully big coincidence if she was. given that放在句首表示“考虑到…”, 又比如：Given the circumstances, you've done really well.

接下来Monica马上说那可不是她的错，Phoebe是负责去邀请人的，所以这应该是她的责任 （Well it wasn’t my fault, Phoebe was in charge of the invitations!）我们来看看Phoebe又有什么话好说：Well I don’t, I don’t have a mother so often I forget that other people… (噢，我没有，没有母亲，所以我常常忘记别人的…)。Phoebe的确不知道自己的生母是谁，而养母后来又自杀了，但她拿这个来作理由就让Monica很不以为然，因此她打断道：Oh give it a rest! 从字面上理解是说“就让它休息一下吧”，其实Monica的意思是让Phoebe别拿她自己的母亲来说事儿。

*本篇所讲到的表达法:

head count
make it
so/as long as
given that