流行美語第一百八十二課

字號(hào):

Larry的車子正在廠里修理。今天李華陪他去取車。李華會(huì)學(xué)到兩個(gè)常用語:grease monkey和fender bender。
    LL: I hope my car is ready. The grease monkey said it would be fixed by 3:00 this afternoon.
    LH: The grease monkey? Larry,你的車不是送到修車廠了嗎?修車廠怎么會(huì)有猴子呢?
    LL: (Laugh) No, there aren't any monkeys like the monkeys in the zoo. Grease monkey is a slang term for auto mechanic.
    LH: 你們把汽車修理工叫g(shù)rease monkey?真有意思。所以你是說,修車的工人告訴你,車子在3點(diǎn)以前會(huì)修好。
    LL: Right, but I doubt it will be ready. Every time a grease monkey tells my car will be ready, he's wrong.
    LH: 你不相信那修車的人?為什么每次他們說的時(shí)間都是錯(cuò)的?
    LL: Well, last time I had my car fixed. The mechanic said it would be ready the next day. As it turned out, my car wasn't ready until three days later.
    LH: 原來上回修車你就受騙過。說好第二天可以取車,結(jié)果拖了三天才修好。怪不得你不相信他們了。對(duì)了,Larry,我們可以當(dāng)著修車工的面叫他們grease monkey嗎?
    LL: Some mechanics wouldn't care, but others might not like being called a grease monkey. If I mean it as a joke, it's okay; however, it can also be used negatively.
    LH: 有些人不在乎,有的人會(huì)不高興。這也是很自然的。要是叫他們grease monkey是開玩笑的話,我想應(yīng)該不會(huì)有什么問題。
    LL: Yeah, but it can be an insult.
    LH: 那么到底怎么樣才算是開玩笑呢?
    LL: Well, my sister tried to fix her car and got covered in grease. After that, my father jokingly called her his little grease monkey.
    LH: 哈哈,你妹妹自己想修車,結(jié)果搞的全身油污,你爸爸叫她my grease monkey。那你呢?你有沒有自己修過車?
    LL: No, I'm not very good at fixing cars. I would be a lousy grease monkey.
    ******
    LH: Larry, 你還沒告訴我,為什么你的車要送去修???
    LL: I was in a little fender bender the other day and my tail light needed to be fixed.
    LH: 你的車怎么啦? A fender bender? 那是什么東西???
    LL: A fender bender is a minor car accident. Usually, no one is seriously hurt in a fender bender and the cars are not damaged too badly.
    LH: A fender bender就是小事故。Larry你撞車?yán)?,怎么都沒有告訴我呢?
    LL: It was just a fender bender, so I didn't think it was important enough to tell you about.
    LH: 小事故也可能會(huì)受傷啊。你怎么樣?你沒什么事吧?
    LL: I'm fine. I didn't even get a scratch.
    LH: 你沒事就好。對(duì)了,你怎么會(huì)和別的車擦撞呢?
    LL: The girl in the car behind me was talking on her cell phone and she wasn't paying attention. She drove into the back of my car.
    LH: 一面開車一面打手機(jī)真的很危險(xiǎn)的。那個(gè)從后面撞上你的女孩,如果開車速度再快一些,你們都有可能受傷呢!
    LL: Fortunately, she wasn't driving very fast, so it turned out to be just a minor fender bender.
    今天李華學(xué)到兩個(gè)常用語。一個(gè)是grease monkey, 是指修理汽車的工人。另一個(gè)常用語是fender bender, 這是指小車禍,通常沒有人受傷的事故。