时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

 


第一次用信用卡的人,都会觉得,这简直太方便了,身上不用带现金,就能想买什么就买什么。可以别忘了,刷卡也是花钱,银行帐户里要有足够的存款,账单来的时候才不会陷入被动。


我侄女就是,第一次有了自己的信用卡,兴奋得忘乎所以,结果付不起账单,欠了信用卡公司很多钱,只好节衣缩食,用了整整一年的时间,才慢慢还上。这让我想起了今天要学的习惯用语,叫, make a dent 1 in.


名词dent在中文里是凹痕的意思。Make a dent in something, 这个习惯用语的意思就是取得初步进展。从刚才我侄女的信用卡的例子里,我们就能看到,要还清信用卡债务,有多困难。It is very difficult to make a dent in credit 2 card debt. 所以一定不能大意。


生病总是难免的,特别是冬天。大家可能都有过类似经历,在家歇几天病假,回去上班时,会发现很多工作都在等着自己处理。让我们听听下面例子里这个可怜人是怎么说的。


例句-1:After being home with the flu for a week, I finally returned to the office. I can't believe how much I missed. I've already spent two days trying to catch up on the pile of paperwork on my desk. But I've barely 3 made a dent in it. There's still a lot more I need to do.


这个人抱怨说:因为流感在家歇了一星期的病假,真没想到短短一个星期,会积累下这么多工作。我花了整整两天的时间,处理桌子上堆积如山的文件,但是好象一点也不见少,还是有一大堆需要处理。


******


每年圣诞节前夕,商店里都会拥挤不堪,大家都要给亲朋好友购买礼物。对于很多人来说,这是一件躲不过去的头疼事儿,但是下面这个顾客好象却很有成就感。让我们一起听听这是为什么。


例句-2:I come from a large family, so I have many people to buy for at Christmas. I'm usually rushing around in stores until the last minute, but this year is different. I'm really making a dent in my shopping list. Now I only have to pick up a few more presents and then I'll be ready.


这个人说:我来自一个大家庭,圣诞节要给很多人买礼物。往年我都要等到最后一分钟才匆忙跑到店里去采购,但是今年不同,购物清单上的很多东西都已经买齐了。如今只剩下几件东西,我就万事大吉了。


真是好样的,加油!最近,我们那个社区突然出现了很多胡乱涂鸦,破坏公物的情况。虽然警察局增派警力,加强巡逻,但丝毫没有改善。It hasn't made a dent in it.


有 些事情不能操之过急。比如说,我女儿念书的那所学校里,去年学生阅读考试的成绩普遍下降。校长决定使用一套新教材。整整花了一年的时间,the teachers finally made a dent in test scores. 老师们终于帮助学生提高了考核的成绩。



1 dent
n.凹痕,凹坑;初步进展
  • I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事,但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
  • That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大,用不着把它锤平。
2 credit
n.信用,荣誉,贷款,学分;v.归功于,赞颂,信任
  • I credit him with a certain amount of sense.我认为他有一定的见识。
  • He got the credit,and we did the dirty work.他得荣誉,我们做不讨好的工作。
3 barely
adv.仅仅,几乎没有,几乎不
  • The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
  • He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。
学英语单词
absorption tower
acute traumatic bone atrophy
AIDS-related condition
amats
auxiliary floating drydock big
avitas
bessent
bey daglari
bicycle traffics
Bjarneyjar
brachycyrtus nawaii
brass work
bridgmen
casehardening
chaplainship
Chebanse
chloropentabromoethane
Coccidium cuniculi
constant damping locus
Coster-Kroning transition
cot.
current-zero period
data input pin
defoaming device
dexiotorma
dim down
directly produce
dry-cell tube
electric wire hoist
electronic band
electronic temperature control system
electrophonic layer
endothelio-leiomyoma (myosarcoma)
Fazilka
financial highlight
flour bag cleaning
Giuseppe Balsamo
H-shaped steel
hairpin tube
hipocrisies
holzworth
in one's own time
industrious peasantry
intrusion aid
irregular jettison
jean-louis lebris de kerouacs
kerness
key routing
long filler machine
long-term depression (ltd)
low-ceilinged
main silicon rectifier cubicle
management volume inventory
microradiomete
natural cheese
Németkér
on faste
open chain mechanism
out-of-pocket costs
over top
palmate leaf
Panama hats
parachutists
parallel planetary gear
perendinating
pipe accessories
ploughboy
propios
pseudo out-of-sample forecasting
question in dispute
Requejo
rhykenologist
ROC curve
second maxillary segment
secure electronic transaction protocol (setp)
semicupia
separatability
Shireet
shorten
sides against
sieges of syracuse
sodium hydrogen arseniate
spill it
steel wire ring wheel
stiffness curve of steering gear
submarine
supplemental claim
taban
talkies
terminal implant
the admirable crichtons
thrust decay phase
trichopteryx fastuosa
tunnel platform
underabsorbed burden
universal beam
utterances
values of factor K
vnrc
westviews
wet tumbling barrel
wing wall tunnel portal