"飞人大战"后,你知道"老鼠赛跑"吗?
(2008-08-27 11:36:18)
体育赛事中的"飞人大战"历来是大家津津乐道的一项比赛。看过博尔特9.69秒勇破奥运百米记录,你想看看rat race 吗?大家都知道rat是老鼠,race意为竞赛,那么rat race岂不就是老鼠赛跑?想象一下一群饿得发慌的老鼠看到好吃的就一拥而上、你抢我夺的样子,是不是很好笑?
不过rat race并不是老鼠赛跑,而是激烈竞争的意思。An
unpleasant way in which people compete against each other at work in order to succeed. Rat race会被用于指自己的工作或者自己的办公室。当一个人讨厌自己的工作,或者不愿意直说喜欢自己工作的时候就可以用带有贬义的俚语rat race来描述自己的工作。同样,被称作rat race的办公室也不是一个好地方,在那里大家像老鼠般争权夺利,勾心斗角。
让我们来举个例子:I'd love to get out of the rat race and buy a house in some remote part of the countryside.
我真想退出这激烈的龙争虎斗,到乡下偏僻的地方买栋房子住。
又如一位工作繁忙的律师午餐后对朋友说:
Man, look at the time! Almost two o'clock! Got to get back to the rat race--I've got people coming to see me all afternoon.
咳,看看都什么时候了!快到两点了。我非得回去搏斗了。整个下午都有人找我。
句中出现的rat race指的就是办公室。这位律师用贬义词称呼他的办公室究竟是什么意思呢?是因为他讨厌这个争名夺利的地方呢,还是他只是要向朋友显示一下自己实在是个日理万机、顾客盈门的忙人呢?这两种可能性都有,真正的答案只有他自己心里明白,但是不论他这样说的真正用意是什么, rat race的意思都指十分激烈的竞争。
说到这里,想起前两天在受骗傻瓜VS爱情骗子&骗子机构这篇博文中曾经给大家介绍过rat love的用法。大家在此顺便复习一下:
Love-rat
这是一个和老鼠相关的词汇。许多人都be scared of rats,想来和老鼠相关的都不该是好词。Love-rat,爱情老鼠,听起来也是全身不舒服。
的确,love rats are terrible, they're people who cheat on their partners, and they're quite often men. Love-rat 爱情老鼠的真正意思就是爱情骗子,指那些经常在恋人背后出轨的人。
例句:
I've met people who just can't stop cheating on their partners. They're love-rats and they're getting away with it.
对话:
A: Have you read the story on Britain's biggest love-rat in the papers this morning?
B: No, not yet. What did it say?
A: Well,
apparently Britain's biggest love-rat has 12 children with 12 different women, all of whom he has cheated on at least five times.
B: That's
disgraceful. He shouldn't be getting away with it.
We also hear the expression love-rat used quite often in popular newspapers. 爱情老鼠这个表达也经常出现在那些通俗小报上。
Have you ever met someone who's a love-rat? 过街老鼠,人人喊打。爱情老鼠,也该人人喊打。
最后再说几个和rat有关的习
惯用语:
Look like a drowned rat
落汤鸡,因为大雨而湿透;to be very wet, especially because you have been in heavy rain.
例句:I had to cycle home in the rain and came in looking like a drowned rat.
我不得不淋雨回家,结果就成了落汤鸡。
A rat fink
卑鄙小人,极端惹人厌的家伙;an extremely
unpleasant person, or someone who has given secret information about you to the police.
例句:If I find the rat fink who informed on me, he won't live long enough to do it again.
要给我找出哪个卑鄙小人出卖我,他就活不长了。
Mall rat
Mall就是购物中心。一到周末,许多人都会去mall买东西。有的人也不见得想买什么,他们只是愿意在里面逛。人们把经常到mall去逛的人叫做:mall rat。
例句:Hey, there's always something to do there for us mall rats. At least a dozen fast food places where we can buy a burger, a slice of pizza, ice cream--whatever. Ten different movie theaters. And a whole lot of people to watch, you know? I can, like, spend the whole day there, you know?
嗨,对我们爱逛购物中心的人来说,那儿总是有好玩的事的。那儿至少有十几个快餐店,我们可以在那里买汉堡包,意大利饼,冰淇淋等,什么都有。那儿还有十个电影院,放映不同的电影。你还可以看到好多人,你知道吗?我可以在那里玩上一整天。
又如:Sure, I used to be a
typical mall rat
hanging around watching the crowds, especially the girls. But then I went out for basketball, made the team and I don't have time to waste anymore!
当然了,我过去是个典型的逛购物中心狂,喜欢在那里观看来来往往的人,特别是女孩子。可是,后来我去打篮球,而且进了球队,这样我就没法再浪费时间了。
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