大家常??梢月牭接械恼煞虮г拐f,自己的太太在家里老是嘮叨個沒完,說他家務(wù)事做得不夠,衣服到處亂扔等。美國人用一個字來形容這種愛嘮叨的現(xiàn)象,那就是:nag。Nag這個字的意思就是沒完沒了地嘮叨,讓人聽起來很煩燥。但是,這個字不是用來專門形容太太的,它還可以用在其它方面,例如,下面這個例句里的工人把這個字用在他老板身上:
例句-1: I like my boss except for one thing - he's always nagging me about getting to work on time. I'm never more than five minutes late, and that's only when the bus doesn't show up on time.
這個工人說:我的老板什么都挺好,就是老是囑咐我要按時上班,嘮叨個沒完。實際上,我即便晚到也從來沒有超過五分鐘的,而那也只是在公共汽車晚到的時候才會發(fā)生。
這句話里的nag是個動詞,但是,nag也可以用做名詞來形容那些不斷批評別人,要別人按著他的意志行事的人。下面就是一個例子:
例句-2: My wife is such a nag about my smoking - she keeps after me all day long to stop it. You know, I've been smoking twenty years now and giving up my four packs a day is hard to do.
這個人說:我的太太在我抽煙的問題上真是愛嘮叨,為了要我戒煙她成天說個沒完??墒悄阋溃页闊熞呀?jīng)有二十年啦,要戒掉一天四包煙的習(xí)慣可是很難的事。
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要是有人老是對你嘮叨個沒完,你總有一天會感到無法忍耐,你可能會說: "Hey, get off my back, will you!"這就是說:"喂,你別跟我嘮叨了,行不行!"我們這兒要講的常用語就是:to get off one's back。
下面的例子是一個汽車工人在談?wù)撍睦习澹?/p>
例句-3: I'm telling you, if that guy doesn't stop nagging me about working faster, I'm going to tell him to get off my back or I'll walk right off the job and let him see how hard it is to find a good mechanic these days.
這個工人說:我告訴你,要是那個家伙再來嘮叨要我干得更快地話,我就要告訴他別再糾纏不清,否則我就不干了,讓他知道現(xiàn)在要找一個真正懂機械的工人是多么的難。
To get off one's back還可以指一些對人起限制作用的規(guī)章、條例或機構(gòu)等。下面這個例子就是一個商人在抱怨政府過多的條例:
例句-4: Do you know what would help pick up the economy? Just get the government off our backs with all these useless rules and regulations that keep us filling out forms and showing inspectors around.
這個人說:"你知道什么能夠促使經(jīng)濟發(fā)展更快嗎?就讓政府取銷所有那些毫無用處的條例和規(guī)章就行了,省得我們老是填表格,帶著檢查員到處看。"