时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

 


半年前,我加入了一个读书俱乐部,每个月聚会一次,讨论读书心得。上星期聚会,俱乐部成员们没完没了地聊经济、聊物价、聊孩子上学,本来应该讨论的书根本没有涉及到。我非常失望,所以决定退出。不过,这倒让我想起了今天要学的习惯用语,叫,lost in the shuffle 1.


如果你喜欢玩牌的话,肯定知道,shuffle,是洗牌的意思。Lost in the shuffle意思是在混乱之中把某件事情遗漏或是忽略了。比如说我们那个读书俱乐部。俱乐部的成员们东拉西扯,可就是忽略了俱乐部的真正目的,交流读书心得,The discussion of our book got lost in the shuffle.


读书俱乐部的“走题事件”虽然让我很不满,但是跟下面这个人比,我简直可以说是“小题大做”。让我们一起听听他干吗那么气愤。


例句-1:There's been so much controversy 2 over the collapse 3 of the bridge. The mayor's office blames the engineers for poor design while they fault the city for not keeping up with routine repairs. But no one is showing much concern for commuters like me who desperately 4 need the bridge to be fixed 5. We're getting lost in the shuffle.


这个人说:大桥倒塌引起了极大的争议。市长办公室责怪工程师设计失误。工程设计人员则指责市政府没有定期维修。可就是没有人关心象我这样每天开车上班,希望大桥能早日修复的人。我们完全被忽略了。


我以前一直痛恨开会,因为很多时候,开来开去,讨论的都是一些并不重要的话题。最近我们刚换了主管,每次开会都按照轻重缓急,列出会议日程,so that the most important issues won't be lost in the shuffle. 保证重要问题不会被忽略掉。


******


大家都希望得到重视,孩子也不例外。让我们听听下面这个人对自己童年的回忆。


例句-2:Growing up as a middle kid in my family could be tough. Sometimes my folks seemed to spend a lot of time looking after my younger brother and sister or worrying about my older siblings 6. Is it any surprise I felt lost in the shuffle? I wanted mom and dad to notice me more often.


这个人说:我上面有哥哥姐姐,下面有弟弟妹妹。小时候,父母不是在照顾弟弟妹妹,就是在关心哥哥姐姐。我觉得自己简直被遗忘了。这不奇怪吧?我真希望妈妈爸爸能更多地注意到我。


我表妹就是这种情况。小时候,她大部分时间都是在跟院子里的孩子玩,经常在邻居家吃饭,甚至过夜。这倒培养了她跟人打交道的能力,如今,她已经成了一个成功的公关总裁。


对了!In the shuffle这个习惯用语源于二十世纪,毫无疑问,是从扑克牌来的。今天尽顾着解释这个习惯用语的用法,The explanation of its original nearly got lost in the shuffle! 差点就忘了解释它的来源。



1 shuffle
n.拖著脚走,洗纸牌;v.拖曳,慢吞吞地走
  • I wish you'd remember to shuffle before you deal.我希望在你发牌前记得洗牌。
  • Don't shuffle your feet along.别拖着脚步走。
2 controversy
n.争论,辩论,争吵
  • That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
  • We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。
3 collapse
vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷
  • The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
  • The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。
4 desperately
adv.极度渴望地,绝望地,孤注一掷地
  • He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
  • He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。
5 fixed
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
6 siblings
n.兄弟,姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )
  • A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分
学英语单词
ac-dc power conversion
Amiopromazine
be up to
beam and slab floor
branchiferous
briz
bromoacetates
bulimia nervosa
by pass vavle spring
capitulums
card pack
chronic interstitial nephritis
computer communication console
cone resistance
congo brown
contour bender
control by exception
croissance
cry peccavi
cuircumvolve
daphne tangutica maxim.
data literal
database access language
dental jurisprudence
diffusion hygrometer
dowdey
drink problem
electron beam melted material
emission signal
enanthic acid heptyl ester
enriched boron trifluoride neutron detector
exothecae
fading memory material
Fixed-For-Fixed Swaps
flat clipping machine
genroes
genus Arctonyx
glide slopes
gnotobiotron
go out for
grass drier
grayed menu item
ground chalk
gym candy
high-value
Hinayanist
image-disturbing
intravarietal
IRBP
Kichuas
kneader type mixer
knit together
liberal fundamentalism
limited executor
lobopods
long term money market
maal
Macrophoma
magicore
Mamonovo
mantle cloths
maximum number of operations per routing
mosheh
mucilages
occipitial
one-way repeater
open-beak
outer suture hair
pileated
plagiocephalic
posterior vein of septum pellucidum
predictabilty
present problems
pressure guard
prisses
proton accelerator
Raglitsy
read while write
reference seismometer
reflex pathway
service-type test
single currency
single cylinder piston pump
Smith's stockless anchor
snowdrop trees
soak in
steel plants
supergene structure
supervisory body
tevester
tobacco drier
trauail
type of glass container
urbanus
verietal character
Vitex negundo var. heterophylla
way of lumber piling
whitecraig
woman of letters
word family
working agreement