生活美語《There’s one thing we’ve got to do now..》
There’s one thing we’ve got to do now and that’s wet the baby’s head
現在我們有件事要做,就是去喝一杯慶祝孩子出世
Steve:Hello, is that you Max?
史蒂夫:喂,是麥克斯嗎?
Max:Hi, Steve. Yes it's me. What can I do for you?
麥克斯:喂,史蒂夫。不錯,就是我。有什麼要我效勞?
Steve:I'm ringing to congratulate you on the birth of your new baby daughter. Millie just told me the news.
史蒂夫:我打電話來,是要祝賀你生了個女兒。米莉剛剛把消息告訴我。
Max:Gee, thanks Steve. It's great. We've a boy and a girl now. It's what we've always wanted.
麥克斯:啊,謝謝你,史蒂夫。真好,我們現在有一個兒子,一個女兒,這正是我們向來的心願。
Steve:How are Lois and the new baby?
史蒂夫:洛伊絲和初生孩子好嗎?
Max:They're both doing fine. They should be out of hospital in a couple of days.
麥克斯:他們都很好,幾天就可出院。
Steve:Well there's one thing we've got to do now and that's wet the baby's head. Are you free this evening?
史蒂夫:我們有件事要做,就是去喝一杯慶祝孩子出世。今晚有空嗎?
Max:Yes.
麥克斯:有啊。
Steve:OK, I'll pick you up at seven. We've got to celebrate.
史蒂夫:好,我七點鐘開車來接你。我們得慶祝一下。
多學一點點 慶祝孩子出世
史蒂夫打電話給麥克斯說:I'm ringing to congratulate you on the birth of your new baby daughter。查第四版《朗文當代高級辭典》congratulate(祝賀)條,你會看到以下例句:All three are to be congratulated for doing so well(三人表現那麼好,都值得祝賀)。要說「為某事」祝賀人家,應用on還是for帶出那件事?
答案是on 或upon,例如:(1) All three are to be congratulated on doing so well。(2) I congratulated him on his success(他成功了,我向他道賀)。不過,英語國家不少人都在congratulate之後用for帶出doing之類動名詞(gerund),所以有些詞典把這用法收錄,當作正確用法,但嚴格的英語學者未必同意,例如Frederick Wood 的Current English Usage(當代英文用法)congratulate條下說:“For”or“at”(is) frequently, though wrongly, used before a gerund(動名詞之前常用for 或at,但那並不正確)。名詞congratulations同樣須和on / upon連用。
史蒂夫說:There's one thing we've got to do now and that's wet the baby's head。談到「要做(do)的是(be)什麼」,那be(=is、was等)之後常用「to+原形動詞(infinitive)」,但to可以略去,例如:What I wanted to do was (to) forget everything(我要做的,是把一切忘掉)。史蒂夫那一句,wet之前當然也可加to字。
Wet the baby's head是成語,指喝酒慶祝嬰兒出世,例如:When we learned that he had just become a father, we went with him to the bar to wet the baby's head(我們知道他剛為人父,就和他一起上酒吧,為嬰兒舉杯)。