时间:2019-03-14 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

 美国习惯用语第855:迫不得已的时候(音频)


put in mothballs
我最近建议制作一个新节目,以美国语言和文化为主题,举行相关的知识竞赛,大家都说是个好主意,让我立即开始做。
谁知我的一个同事突然请长假,她的工作全都推给了我,结果我的新节目还没开始,就被无限期搁置了。
这在英语里叫:put in mothballs. Mothball在中文里是卫生球,樟脑丸。put in mothballs, 就是束之高阁,无限期搁置的意思。My show idea has been put in mothballs. 我新节目的提案就这样被无限期地搁置起来了,不知道什么时候才有时间去做。
很多人喜欢收藏旧东西,不舍得扔,其实,这些看似没用的东西有时也能派上用场。让我们听听下面例子里这个父亲是怎么说的。
例句-1:My son loves the ice skates his grandmother gave him. I don't think he realizes they had been mine when I was his age. Mom had put them in mothballs, not sure if anyone would ever get any use from them. I'm sure glad she'd decided 1 not to throw them out.
这个人说:我儿子特别喜欢奶奶送他的冰鞋。其实他可能不知道,这双冰鞋是我小时候穿过的,后来被妈妈收了起来,并不知道以后会不会有人能穿。她没把这双冰鞋丢掉,让我太高兴了。
我祖母也是一样,什么东西都不舍得扔。She puts everything in mothballs. 家里跟个二手店似的。英语里有个词专门形容这种人, packrat。
******
刚才说到,我祖母什么都不舍得扔,经常拿个旧打字机什么的老古董问我要不要。你别说,有时候还真有点儿值钱的东西。我觉得,她可以把所有东西都捐给下面这个例子里正在筹备中的历史博物馆。让我们一起听。
例句-2:Our town clearly supports building a history museum. But the mayor came out to say that he's putting the proposal in mothballs for now. Apparently 2 there isn't enough funding available. Still, no one's giving up hope that it can be reconsidered in the not-to-distant future.
他说:我们镇里的人显然都很赞成建一个历史博物馆,但是镇长却说,他要暂时把这项提案搁置起来,因为没有足够的资金。不过,大家都不肯放弃,希望不久的将来这项提案会重新被考虑。
很多项目不能上马,问题都出在资金上。我的一个朋友在美国航空航天局工作,他开发的很多项目都是因为缺少联邦拨款而处于停顿状态。
Put in mothballs, 最早是二十世纪四十年代出现的,如果更简单一点的话,可以直接把mothball做为动词来用。比如我可以说,My show idea has been mothballed. 或者说The mayor is mothballing the proposal for a new museum.

adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
标签: 习惯用语
学英语单词
2'-phosphodiesterase
a cutie pie
abnormal focal length
aggregation of individual preferences
air inlet valve of dredger's deliving pipeline
air-guns
alcala de la selva
archeri
Ariquemes
assinie
Auberger blood group system
Banbayan Pt.
bar rack
be food for worms
between-class correlation
Brachypodium sylvaticum
calex
capon test
carbon steel
catch copy
Central I.
chantha
chromophobic
couchful
day disk
deformational stress
detonation point
deutscheland
drive out of
duramatral
echymose
Elephanta Island
expected yield
fadged
fermentation inhibitor
floating point unit
folded and grooved seam
go hard or go home
half titles
harker lines
hideosities
Higher bid
imperialls
insinuate
iris detachment
Jeans viscosity equation
lactocidin
lbgs
lead metasilicate
left atrium failure
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
lock cylinder
loi-cadre
M.H.R.
macromitrium ferriei
marie dolores eliza rosanna gilberts
membranogenesis
mesh side cutter
Minskian
nodes
nonitemized
normal congruence
observantially
order parameter
pachometers
papular pruritic gloves and socks syndrome
paroxysmal coliky pain
patent licence-agreement
Phulsāri
pioneering work
plain ashlar
plant ledger card
pork fillet
preconising
PSD (power spectral density)
ragtop
relish
residual valency
Santa Maria, I.
satish
scientific data processing
search and seizure
Seawater Quality Standards
sharpness of focusing
side-by-side
Simonart band
Sleepwell
smazes
spherochromatism
starch slurry
stop-and-direction-indicator-lamps
storage cathode ray tube
sweetkin
tabby-cats
teamkillers
tetracontagons
tip clearance area
Tossåsen
uppermost part
us sea
water ejection tube
you're a star