时间:2019-02-12 作者:英语课 分类:美国之音《流行美语》


英语课

今天李华和Michael 在讨论做生意的事。李华会学到两个常用语:to make a killing 1
和to break even..

M: Li Hua, what are you looking at on the Internet?
L: 噢,我想在网上买个做豆腐的机器。我和一个朋友想做了豆腐周末拿到农民集
市上去卖。你说有人会买吗?
M: Of course people would buy your tofu! You'd make a killing!
L: Make a killing? 做豆腐和杀人有什么关系?
M: No, I said you'd "make a killing". "To make a killing" means to earn a lot of money
quickly through some kind of lucrative 2 business.
L: 唷,to make a killing 就是通过做生意赚了许多钱! Michael, 这么说,你认为
我们这个生意能做得成,是吗?我不知道美国人是不是爱吃豆腐呐。
M: Of course! A lot of people who don't eat meat, or who want to eat healthy foods eat
tofu. Also, there are a lot of Chinese in this part of town. I'm sure you'll make a killing.
L: 对,好多美国人现在健康意识很强,不吃肉,爱吃豆制品。Michael, 你说得没
错,这一带中国人也很多,肯定有人会买新鲜豆腐的。Michael, 你能不能再给我
举一个例子呀?
M: Well, for instance, my uncle Roger made a killing in real estate. A few years ago, he
bought a lot of land and then rich people started building houses in the area, and he
made a lot of money.
L: 你叔叔几年前买了好多地,然后有钱人在这些地上盖房子,所以他就通过房地
产生意赚了好多钱!他可真有远见呐!
M: You can also say to make a killing in the stock market, in the insurance business or
even in the tofu business!
L: 噢,to make a killing in the stock market 就是通过买卖股票赚了好多钱,in the
insurance business 就是保险业。可是,我想靠卖豆腐大概不会make a killing --赚不
了太多钱。
* *****
M: Don't worry about losing money, Li Hua. At the very least, you will break even.
L: 你说我至少会什么?break even?
M: "To break even" means to neither lose nor gain money. If you do some business and
are able to cover the costs of the business, but don't make a profit, you are breaking
even.
L: 噢,那就是既不赚钱,也不亏本。做豆腐的机器不是太贵,所以,你说得对,
要做到收支相抵,也就是break even, 应该不会有问题。
M: Even if you don't earn a lot of money, if you break even you lose nothing, plus you
get to enjoy lots of fresh tofu.
L: 唷,你倒想得好,不赚不赔没什么损失,还能吃好多新鲜豆腐!你不就是想不
出钱白吃豆腐嘛!对不对?
M: What? I don't care that much about tofu. Stop being silly and use this phrase in a
sentence.
L: 嗯...有了。我和我的朋友Regina 上星期第一次去大西洋赌城玩。开始我们各自
出了50 美元,可是不到一小时全输光了。后来我们两人各出10 美元,合在一起,
结果终于把100 美元又赚了回来。所以,In the end, we broke even.
M: (Sarcastically) Wow. $50. Good thing you were able to break even, or you'd have to
sleep in a cardboard 3 box on the sidewalk.
L: Michael, 别小看人哪!输了50 美元,我就得睡在马路上的纸箱里呀?哎,不
过,说实话,50 美元是不少钱,我本来就不该去赌钱。

今天李华学到两个常用语,一个是:to make a killing, 意思是做生意在短期内赚了
很多钱。另一个是:to break even, 意思是做生意没有亏本,也没有赚钱。



n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
adj.赚钱的,可获利的
  • He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
  • It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。
n.硬纸板,卡纸板
  • She brought the shopping home in a cardboard box.她将买的东西放在纸箱里带回家。
  • There is a sheet of stiff cardboard in the drawer.在那个抽屉里有块硬纸板。
学英语单词
active proliferation
additivity
American Museum of the Moving Image
antirationing
baghmati nadi
Banjul
basocyte
bedribbled
Benjina
binocularity
bodgie
Bremke
bumph
cakeries
cirripectes quagga
classifieation
clysterize
column crane
commutings
craniotomy for irrigation
criterion
dash post
decisive move
dephenolize
DOCMaker
echelon spectroscope
eclect
endomyocarditis
Essequibo R.
ethyl triphenyl silicane
femmullet
finish plane
format object
fractional counting loss
gas-permeability of glass
giante
Glissonian capsule
Hilbert class field
Horbelev
inductive storage switch
inlapidating
Jakoch's tests
laconize
library insurance
limit(ing) point
logarithmic megohmmeter
lynk
mahogany sulfonate
map reliability
mastrantonio
measurest
noruzs
number table
oreinol
outstanding balance of borrowed money
Oyodo
pacemakings
photoprint
power generating rail car
pre-relativity
probe type pyrometer
promisers
prompt reactivity
psychomotor development index (pdi)
push-pull amplification system
racking bend
rail-cambering machine
reassurer
refined product
reissued
roman timess
running voltage
sag to leeward
salt-n-pepa
sandcast
save one's bacon
segmental interchange
sewage pit
sheepherder
skiagraphical necrosis
skimmertons
speculative middleman
spent bullet
stromatoporid
styrenated phenol
summer sausage
surface colony
synagogical
technical brief
thin-film composite
thingifying
Tiefenbach
toothed scraper
TR2RE-SV40
traffic permit
tribespersons
underlying accounting data
upper yarn
wild swing
within-individual
working mine
ynne