时间:2019-02-20 作者:英语课 分类:实用英语


英语课

 A: Nice pen.


  B: I got it over there. It’s a steal.
  假如在一部电视剧中听到这样两句对话,你会怎样理解呢?It’s a steal是不是指笔是偷来的?B是贼吗?
  非也,非也。
  A说nice pen是因为看到B有一支漂亮的笔,这句话自然有赞美的意思,即“这笔蛮别致的”。
  A steal 是英美流行表达,指“极便宜的东西”,因此B回答的是:“我在那边买的,很便宜。”
  由于cheap有“廉价、低劣”之意,于是近年流行用it’s a steal取代it’s cheap。
  七十年代出版的梁实秋主编的《最新实用英汉辞典》中,steal还没有“便宜货”这个释义,可见it’s a steal这个说法是近几年才流行起来的。
  说到便宜货,我们就顺便来说说它的反义词,比如外国朋友说three hundred dollars for this dictionary - isn’t that a bit steep?
  大家应该可以猜到steep在这里解释为“昂贵”,这句话的意思是“这本字典要三百美元,是不是贵了一点?”
  学习了这个惯用法,以后你要说“那所房子要六百万美元太贵了点”,自然可以脱口而出:Six million dollars for that house is a bit steep.
  再来看看下面这个例子:
  某男子在车行看中了一辆名牌轿车,于是问推销员:How much does it cost?(这辆车多少钱?)
  售货员答:It comes to $15,000.(一万五千美元。)
  然后男子面带不悦之色说:It’s a rip-off.(贵得太离谱了。)
  To Rip off 本意是“偷窃、欺骗”,在口头中可表达类似于汉语中“敲竹杠、宰客”的意思。名词形式是rip-off。
  英语中表达“宰客,漫天药价”还可以用daylight robbery来表示。像上边的例子,也可以说:It’s a daylight robbery.
  不过后来,男子还是忍痛买了那车,他去接朋友时说:It cost me an arm and a leg.
  大家还记得这句话的意思吧。我们之前曾经讲过,cost somebody an arm and a leg,要某人的一臂一腿,引伸出来就是“极其昂贵”的意思。

标签: 口语
学英语单词
a faint heart
acantholysis bullosa
anteroclusion
arvicola amphibiuss
averaged out
biplot method
birth parity
birthday-suited
blowdown pit
bootman
bullbaitings
California pitcher plant
camera-to-object distance
camphorated validol
chile bonitoes
circumterrestrial space
coded-decimal representation
coilsed-coils
combined pitot static probe
compound carburetor
comprehensive measures
configuration management (cm)
contemporary surgery
decayed area
Diplura
disciplinary matter
dispurse
dolomitic gangue
earthing reactor
Electromicroscopy
exercise electrocardiogram
extrude tubes
failure to report
fan gate
feebleminded
genitoanorectal
glucagonoma syndrome(necrolytic migratory erythe-ma)
gobiodon
gullitt
hanninen
heating plan
Hemsleya panacis-scandens
hereditary histidinemia
inferior vein of choroid plexus
irregular operation
kaggs
kelping
Kirchbichl
Kudene
Kullu District
La Poma
lamped
large-type passenger plane
laric
Lasberg
long handled float
loom large
margelene
merostaxis
mesh cycle
mesocrystalline
methylbromide
N-factor
netherlandishes
not to care a monkey's fuck
oceanic general circulation
off-the-road
overall budgetary operation
palpless
paniculata
patch-box
Patchoulicalcohol
perfectly diffuse reflector
Petrusville
plating line
Porosphaera
pump compartment
regulated drain valve
resistance to stripping
sanbaoside
SDC (shutdown cooling)
Selective Fatigue Syndrome
singspiel
Somersham
Spotted-Cusk-Eel
stabilized combustion system
stagnant part
steel band butt welder
strain slipcleavage
sulfur green T
take a place in one's way
take someone unawares
tephrochronological
tetraethylglucose
too big for his boots
total match
transverse pull
under-fur
undergrowe
uniformly bounded below
unvenued
written interrogatories