时间:2018-12-01 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

我们今天要给大家介绍的两个习惯用语里一个关键的字就是:top。要是你站在一个高高山峰的顶上往下看,下面到处是村庄、山冈和河流,你会感到你好像是站在世界的顶峰,有一种兴奋的感觉。这就是我们要讲的第一个习惯用语:On top of the world. On top of the world从字面来解释,它的意思是:在世界的顶峰,但是,作为习惯用语,它的意思就是:非常得意,非常高兴。下面这个例句里说的是一个身体有缺陷的韩国年轻人。但是由于他在学校的成绩优秀而被美国一个大学的研究院所录取。下面是一个人在对此表示感叹。


例句1: Who would imagine somebody like Lee could even graduate from college - confined 1 to a wheel chair! Now he's going to America all by himself. Nobody could feel more on top of the world right now!


这个人说:谁能想像像李这样一个坐在轮椅里的残疾人居然能够从大学毕业。现在,他自己一个人要到美国去了。没有人现在能比他更感到高兴的了。


这句句子里用了一个名词wheel-chair。Wheel-chair就是残疾人坐的轮椅。Wheel是轮子,chair就是椅子,wheel-chair就是轮椅。


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下面这个例句是讲一个母亲。这位母亲靠了自己一个人的努力扶养大了四个孩子。这是她的一个朋友在说话:


例句2: I really admire Alice. Thirty years of hard work raising kids. Her youngest son just got married and all her children are doing well. She tells me she's on top of the world now for the first time in her life.


这个人说:我真是佩服艾丽斯。她辛苦了三十年把孩子培养成人。她最小的儿子刚结婚,所有的孩子都很发达。她对我说,现在她真是感到非常高兴。这是她一辈子第一次感到这么高兴。


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我们现在来讲第二个以top这个字为主的习惯用语。Off the top of one's head. Head在这里就是人的头。 Off the top of one's head是美国人经常用的一个习惯用语。它的意思是:没有经过仔细考虑或仔细计算。我们来看看在日常生活中off the top of one's head是怎么用的。这是一个负责预算的主管在记者招待会上回答记者的问题。


例句3: Sorry, I can't give you the exact figure off the top of my head. But I guess the percentage of working women in the American labor 2 force right now is about, oh say, 47%.


这位负责预算的主管说:对不起,我现在一下子不能给你精确的数字。但是,我猜在美国整个劳力中,工作的妇女大约占,嗯......就说百分之四十七吧。


美国妇女参加工作的人数越来越多,原因之一是现在的家庭单靠丈夫一个人的收入已经不够支出,所以妻子也得出外工作,以补贴家用。一些比较富裕的家庭,妻子不工作的仍然不少。


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我们再来举一个例子。这是一个学生在说话。他在上课之前没有做好准备,因此上课的时候就措手不及了。他在告诉他的朋友上课时的情况。


例句4: You know, I didn't study for this English quiz. So when the teacher called my name, I was frozen 3. Then standing 4 up to recite the poem, I found myself doing it off the top of my head! Can you believe that?


他说:你可知道,我没有为这次英语课的测验好好念书。所以,当老师叫我名字的时候,我真是愣住了。然后,我站起来背那首诗。我发现自己不加思索地随口而出。你相信不相信?



1 confined
adj. 被限制的,狭窄的,在分娩中的; 动词confine的过去式和过去分词
  • The work will not be confined to the Glasgow area. 此项工作不会局限于格拉斯哥地区。
  • It is cruel to keep animals in confined spaces. 把动物关在狭小的空间里是残酷的。
2 labor
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
3 frozen
adj.冻结的,冰冻的
  • He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上,他被冻死了。
  • The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。
4 standing
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
学英语单词
3-carboxyantipyrine
accident costs
aetosaurs
analytically unramified semilocal ring
angstrom's scale
Ban Pa Daeng
batons sinister
beltway/ Beltway bandit
bilardoes
blind thrust fault
bloody vomit
Bolocephalus saussureoides
Bom Sucesso, Ribeirāo
boundary scan test
clastoderma debaryanum
claw foot
climbing maidenhair fern
color gradients
combat day of supply
consolidated income tax system
constructable
contrail formation
deseasonalizes
DIBOA
Didymocarpus stenocarpus
elephant-hide pahoehoe
emphasis
enterprise registration
entwicklung
epigrammatism
extraordinary disbursement
flopsand
franciso
Gamvik
gardyn
gas-solid reaction
generic flow control
guaiac
gut course
Habenaria humidicola
heavenware
hollow tube
hydrochemicogeography
ince burun
information bandwidth
injection-moulded
Innocent III
intercentral articulation
intermining
ion-exchange process
ionic valve
job classification analyst
Klamath R.
koseki
Kronotskiy Poluostrov
logicizes
lung tumor
machine reel
mathewsons
maximum-modulus theorem
misbefalls
montastrea curta
Naka-umi
on-line aerophotogrammetric triangulation
paraffin oils
phaeo-
plurivalent chromosome
porvoos
pregreasing pump
prewrap
pricing entire product package
pyrotechnic gas generator
radioisotope transmission gage
Rally for the Republic
rami utriculi
schlimazel
Selimiye
semi-strong linear element
sequelitis
sir john rosses
slag-hammer
sodium butylate
St-Jean-du-Gard
standing field
suiboku
temperature hyperbola
terminal switching
thawing water irrigation
theoretical geodesy
throws up
townleys
Tremelleae
trichloro-phenomalic acid
unexploded
United Nations Administrative Tribunal
upper breast
wheedles
with-it
wollard
yellow coneflower
zigzag chain
zoolater