英國文法大師 Alexander L G寫過名作Advanced Grammar和New C oncept English,他鼓勵學習英語的人多用片語動詞 (phrasal ver b)。他舉了一個很有趣的例子:你聽到有人敲門,你會不說〝Enter 〞,而是用:Come in。常看影集的人可能會用:Come on in。說Co me in也好,Come on in也好,二者都是片語動詞,也是英美兩國人脫口而出的常用語。
美國人喜歡用〝come on in〞,英國人用〝come in〞。Alexande r是英國學者,所以他說:〝有人敲門時,我們常說〝Come in〞而不說〝enter〞。〝come on in〞是三字一體的片語,三字一體的片語動詞中,含〝on〞的相當多。
例如像「蝙蝠俠開戰時刻」 (Batman Begins)裡的克利斯汀貝爾( Christian Bale),「當地球停止轉動」 (The Day The Earth Stoo d Still)裡的基努李維等人,都是有趣的例子。而且,這兩部電影的觀眾如果打開了耳朵,好好聽那部分的普通話對白,就會發現克利斯汀貝爾與基努李維唸得其實磕磕碰碰。好在這部分無關劇情緊要之處,因此並無大礙。
可是運動競賽就不一樣了。姚明加入火箭隊之後,NBA的競賽主播也必須學會了「姚明」 (Yao Ming)與「要命」 (同樣拼作Yao Ming )的玩笑話。但這並不是姚明去NBA後才發生的現象,從一九八零年代末期開始,就不斷有東歐球員加入NBA,比方像Drazen Petrovic以及 Toni Kuko,都先後在九零年代大出風頭。當時的運動主播,還會把這些東歐球星的名字讀錯。大家還記得上次提過的原則嗎?語言的發音方式,應尊重當地人習慣;也就是說,人名之發音,應從該人自己之主張。說得簡單些,就是Kuko自己認為自己的姓該怎麼唸,別人就該怎麼唸。
Debra: Hi, there and thanks for logging onto Window 1001. On this show, Mike and I are going to talk about some usefu l phrasal verbs you can use to effectively talk about busin ess-related concepts. I think you'll find these expressions good for discussing a variety of situations.
Mike: Right, let's get started. The first one we'll intro duce is〝fall through.〞
If something falls through it simply means it fails. All sorts of things could fall through, but most often it is us ed for some kind of a deal or arrangement that was made. Yo u often hear,〝The deal fell through,〞or〝The plans fell t hrough.〞
Debra: Of course,〝fall through〞 also has a more literal meaning. You can literally fall through the floor if it is a very old and weak building, especially if there's a hole in the floor. But that's the thing about phrasal verbs -th ey aren't literal, they are figurative(比喻). If an express ion is literal, it has a direct meaning related to the prec ise definition of the words. That's why phrasal verbs areso difficult to understand sometimes - they are figurative, n ot literal.
Mike: Here's another figurative expression: hold up. Lite rally, if you hold up something, it means you put it in you r hands and raise your hands. But, we're not talking litera lly when it comes to phrasal verbs. As a phrasal verb, if s omething holds up, it means it remains strong. For example, you could say,〝Despite the problems in the economy, thesto ck market has held up.〞 That means the stock market has st ayed strong.
Debra: However, as you know, with all the problems in the U.S. economy, many stock markets around the world have noth eld up recently. In addition to talking about financial ide as, the phrase, hold up, can be used to describe other thin gs that remain strong or stable.
Mike: Right, you can say,〝His health is holding up,〞 or 〝Her confidence is holding up.〞 In these cases, you would probably use〝hold up〞 to indicate that despite pressure against his health or her confidence, he or she is ableto w ithstand the stress or difficulties.
Debra: Let's look at a few more examples of useful phrasa l verbs. If you fill in for someone, it means you do his or her job while they are not at work, or when he or she is do ing some other project and can't do the regular work. So,yo u might say,〝Ken is filling in for Sandy while she is on h olidays.〞
Mike: It's interesting to note that the word order is qui te important because there is another phrasal verb that isq uite similar: fill somebody in. That has an entirely differ ent meaning. When you fill somebody in, it means you inform them. Thus, you could say,〝After Sandy returned from her holidays, Ken filled her in on what happened at work.〞That simply means Ken told Sandy what happened at work while sh e was away.
Debra: Another expression is〝take on.〞If you take somet hing on, it means you agree to do it, as in,〝Ken took on S andy's job duties while she was on vacation.〞 OK, let's lo ok at these expressions more closely during our role-play.
Mike: Hey, I've heard your company had some financial pro blems. I hope everything is OK.
Debra: Yeah, thanks. We had a few problems in the past, b ut business is holding up these days. However, one of our p rojects fell through recently.
Mike: That's too bad.
Debra: How are things with you? Fill me in on what's new.
Mike: Well, I'm pretty busy at work. One of my coworkersi s off sick, so I'm filling in for her. Plus, I've taken ona few extra assignments as well.
Debra: Let's review our show about phrasal verbs. We look ed at several expressions, including "fall through," whichm eans to fail, as well as "hold up," which means to stay str ong.
Mike: Other phrasal verbs included "fill in for someone", which means to do their job while they are away, and "fills omebody in," which means to inform them. The other idiomwe discussed was "take on," meaning to agree to do something. That's our show for this time and thanks for listening--bye .
Debug:
這10句每一句話都有一個錯誤,請你挑出錯誤來,再對答案。
1.Reading detective stories are my favorite pastime.
2.Having not finished her housework, Mary could not go wi ndow-shopping with her friends.
3.Comparing with that in China, the standard of living in Taiwan is very high.
4.Finishing his homework, Bee went to the football pitchw ith her friends.
5.Charles loves Angel more than Simpson.
6.The driver, as well as four passengers, were injured in the head-on collision.
7.One of my students have sent me a birthday card.
8.Don is one of the most intelligent students that has ev er existed in our school.
9.Five hundred miles are a long distance.
10.Either you or he are the one who stole the watch.
debugged:
1.Reading detective stories is my favorite pastime.
2.Not having finished her housework, Mary could not go wi ndow-shopping with her friends.
3.Compared with that in China, the standard of living inT aiwan is very high.
4.After finishing her homework, Bee went to the footballp itch with her friends.
5.Charles loves Angel more than Simpson does.
6.The driver, as well as four passengers, was injured int he head-on collision.
7.One of my students has sent me a birthday card.
8.Don is one of the most intelligent students that have e ver existed in our school.
9.Five hundred miles is a long distance.
10.Either you or he is the one who stole the watch.