生活美語《He is the city’s most eligible bachelor》
He is the city’s most eligible bachelor
他是城中閨女最理想的未婚男人
對話
Charlene：Honey, come and look at this news report on the TV.
沙琳：老公，來，看看電視的新聞報導。
Harmon：OK. Ah, that's Damon Warner. What's it all about?
哈蒙：好吧。啊，那是戴蒙．沃納。說的是什麼？
Charlene：He's just announced that his company has bought that prime piece of real estate next to the Intercontinental Bank building on Sunrise Boulevard.
沙琳：他剛才宣布，他的公司買了日出大馬路洲際銀行旁邊那幅黃金房地產。
Harmon：He sure has done well since his dad put him in charge of the real estate company.
哈蒙：他父親把房地產公司交他管理之後，他的確表現出色。
Charlene：That's not the only thing about him.
沙琳：他令人注意的可不止這一點。
Harmon：What do you mean?
哈蒙：我不明白你的意思。
Charlene：He isn't married yet. He's the city's most eligible bachelor. Everyone's wondering how much longer that's going to last.
沙琳：他還未結婚，是城中閨女最理想的未婚男人。人人都在想，他還會獨身多久。
Harmon：With his dad's millions he's certainly got plenty of time to choose the right woman.
哈蒙：他父親那麼有錢，他絕對可以慢慢挑選合適的女人。
多學一點點 未婚男人
沙琳談到一個富家子：He's the city's most eligible bachelor。Eligible是「有資格的」或「適合的」，例如：(1) You must be over fifty to be eligible for the competition（五十歲以上才有資格參賽）。(2) The interviewing panel considered him to be the most eligible candidate（面試小組認為他是最合適的人選）。
Bachelor讀者大概都知道是「未婚男人」或「學士」。這個字還有一個意思，只是現在較為罕見：武士副手。中世紀時，貴族子弟要成為武士(knight)，一般先做武士副手。他們通常都年紀尚輕，還未結婚，所以衍生了「未婚男人」這個意思。Eligible bachelor是常用詞語，指「適宜作結婚對象的獨身男人」，例如：Handsome, humorous and well-off, he is a very eligible bachelor and has quite a handful of girlfriends（他英俊，富幽默感，而且有錢，女朋友不少）。
俚語把bachelor略作bach或batch，作名詞、動詞都可以，動詞指「（男人）過獨身生活」，常作bach it 或batch it，例如：(1) He batched it till he was fifty, when he married Miss Ruth Monroe（他一直沒有結婚，到五十歲才娶了露絲．門羅小姐）。(2) An old bach of sixty winters, he is unlikely to get married（他六十歲還是獨身，看來不會結婚了）。
已婚男人假如妻子去了公幹、旅遊等等，暫時須自己照顧一切，往往也叫bach it，例如：His wife is out of town, so he is baching it for a week (他妻子不在城裡，他這個星期要過「獨身男人」生活了)。
