时间:2019-03-03 作者:英语课 分类:英语口语


英语课

   我最近一直在上一门艺术史的课。就在上个星期,一个学生在课堂上跟教授吵了起来,非说教授讲得不对,让我大吃一惊。我们上学那会儿,绝对没有人敢去指出老师的错误。不过,这倒让我想起了一个习惯用语,那就是:know one's place.


  To know one's place意思是按照自己的身份和地位行事,特别是指自己的地位比较低下的时候。中国文化讲究的是尊师敬长,老师说的都是对的,学生怎么能反过来质问老师呢?要让我说,He didn't seem to know his place. 他的表现太不得体了。让我们听听下面这个工厂工人的经历。
  "During my first year on the assembly line, I noticed the foreman making a lot of mistakes. But I kept quiet. As a lowlevel worker, I KNEW MY PLACE. I didn't want to get fired for telling my supervisor 1 what he had been doing wrong."
  他说,我在组装线上工作的第一年注意到,工头犯了很多错误,但是我一声没吭,作为刚上岗的新人,我知道自己的身份,我可不想因为批评自己的上司不好,而被炒了鱿鱼。
  这个工人看来挺会做人的,不象某些初出茅庐的年轻人。He knows his place.
  我先生的公司去年夏天曾经来过一批实习生。临走的时候,他们居然给公司总裁写了一封联名信,历数公司在管理上所犯的错误。有人说,他们真是不知深浅,居然教育老板如何去经营自己的公司。They should have known their place. 你觉得呢?畅所欲言需要考虑身份和等级吗?
  大家肯定还记得美国前总统卡特吧。他的太太罗莎琳?卡特受到很多美国人的敬重,但也有些人对罗莎琳颇有微词。为什么呢?让我们一起来听听下面这个历史学家是怎么解释的。
  "During her years in the White House, Rosalyn Carter was not a traditional First Lady. She would often sit on her husband's senior staff meetings and sometimes represented President Carter in discussions with world leaders. As a result, some voters criticized her for NOT KNOWING HER PLACE."
  这位历史学家说,在白宫的时候,罗莎琳并不是一位传统的第一夫人。她经常参加卡特政府高级官员的会议,有时候还代表卡特总统跟外国领导人会面。因此,有些选民批评她,说她没有摆好自己的位置。我祖母就有这种看法。她觉得卡特夫人作为第一夫人,任务就是端端茶,或是跟其他政要的夫人聊聊天。不过,这也反应了我祖母那辈人的传统思维。在她们眼里,A woman who knows her place will not try to compete with a man for a job. 女人本来就不应该跟男人抢工作,女人就是应该待在家里,照顾孩子、做饭、打扫卫生。
  根据我的研究,know one's place这个习惯用语是十六世纪后半叶开始流行的,也许是因为那个时候,逐渐出现了严格的社会地位的规范吧。如果你有什么更好的解释,一定要告诉我,I'm not going to come down on you for not knowing your place. 我不会因为你纠正我而迁怒于你的。

n.监督人,管理人,检查员,督学,主管,导师
  • Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说,我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
  • He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。
标签: 英语口语
学英语单词
3-methyl-2-cyclopentenone
anterolateral groove of spinal cord
AQCS (Analytical Quality Control Services)
art-style
be in blinkers
Benfeld
Bergading, Gunong
bexarotene
bioecologists
bridge mark
chalinid
climatic reaction
clorofenazole
contact acne
contract of mandate
contracted method
copper contact
creditor country
Delano
dimethylation
EDVAC(electron discrete variable automatic compiler)
entropy ratio map
Euclasterida
excudate
facing up to
farinaceous albumen
flake coffee
fluffing tendency
foot squared
free surface flow
furuto
fusion cast refractory
GAT-1
girllover
grayanotoxanes
hawes water
horizontal creel
Kali Yuga
Laser Dust Monitors
legists
leish
lift winch
light flash sensor
Lorain, John
maaseik
Mababe Dpr.
magnetostrictions
mckewen
McLellan
medievally
metal ink
miniature score
monochrome television
more sail than ballast
motor compensator with PID regulator
My Le
myodynias
noise identification
Obure
Olenus
Ophiopogon sylvicola
optimal coupling
output from decision-assisting models
pascal function
photo transmission
physical topology
pie crimper
Pilina
piringer-kuchinka(syndrome)
pitty-patty
pnina
quintuplet elliptic spring
regulating blood method
relegate to
rest position
rhizopus arrhizus
rhodotorula rubra
rousseaux
sarcocystiss
seagoing freighter
second viscosity coefficient
sending current
setscrews
shaft skid
shrinkage retarding treatment
side-trip
silicon photodetector
space writers
spot (satellite positionting and tracking)
streptobaeillus moniliforrais
subliminal
summer theater
transformer bridges
tuft row
undrooping
unqualified approval
viverriculas
wardrobe crate
white-chinned petrels
wildauer
zanily
Zikhron Ya'aqov