今天我們要講的美國(guó)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)是:over the moon. Over是在上面的意思,moon是月亮的意思。over the moon連在一起,不是登月,而是高興萬(wàn)分的意思。不管遇到什么好事,比如說(shuō)是漲工資、生寶寶、或是自己支持的球隊(duì)贏了比賽的冠軍,都可以說(shuō)over the moon, 來(lái)表達(dá)興奮的心情。下面我們來(lái)看一個(gè)例子。
這名男子多年來(lái)一直暗戀一名女友,讓我們看看什么能讓他over the moon:
例句-1:You can imagine how nervous I was when I finally told her how I felt. I didn't know what to expect. She could have gotten angry or acted like I was joking or even felt sorry for me. But, when she said she felt the same way, I was just over the moon.
他說(shuō):你可以想象,我向她表白的時(shí)候心里有多緊張。我不知道她會(huì)有什么樣的反應(yīng)。她可能會(huì)生氣、也可能會(huì)覺(jué)得我是在開(kāi)玩笑,甚至可能會(huì)同情我??墒撬谷徽f(shuō),她也喜歡我,這簡(jiǎn)直讓我喜出望外。
這個(gè)片段不由得讓我們想起愛(ài)情影片的最后一幕。在生活中,最大的快樂(lè)往往會(huì)在最意想不到的時(shí)刻出現(xiàn)。
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Over the moon這個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)來(lái)源于一個(gè)古老的童謠。
童謠: Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle/The cow jumped over the moon./The little dog laughed to see such fun/ And the dish ran away with the spoon.
這個(gè)童謠本身并沒(méi)有什么具體意思,但是童謠里的over the moon卻被作為習(xí)慣用語(yǔ),一直沿用至今。在下面這個(gè)例子中,一名老人回憶他第一次被提升的時(shí)候說(shuō),
例句-2:It was two weeks after I married your mother. We were living in a tiny apartment and we had no idea how we were going to afford a family. So when I heard I was being promoted to sales manager, I was just over the moon.
他說(shuō):當(dāng)時(shí)我娶你媽媽剛剛兩個(gè)星期,我們住在一個(gè)小小的公寓里,不知道怎么能養(yǎng)得起孩子。因此,當(dāng)我聽(tīng)說(shuō)自己被提升為銷(xiāo)售經(jīng)理時(shí),簡(jiǎn)直高興極了。
這讓我想起自己當(dāng)年申請(qǐng)來(lái)美國(guó)留學(xué),又考托福,又考GRE,還要申請(qǐng)獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金,最后得到入學(xué)通知和獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金時(shí),恐怕也只有over the moon 才能形容了。最讓人高興的事情,往往是付出努力最多,最終有所收獲的事情。