头脑风暴10-0512
看“绝望主妇”学地道口语
全美收视冠军：Desperate Housewives。这部美剧有很多地道的英语表达。
1. The bank says your check is gonna take five days to clear.
银行说你的支票五天才能兑现。
2. It all boils down to your DNA.
这完全取决于你的DNA。
3. I friended you on Facebook.
我在Facebook上请求加你为好友了。
4. I wanna take a family portrait.
我想照张全家福。
5. Well, how about I make it worth your while?
我给你些酬劳怎么样？
6. So we've gotta play ball.
所以我们得合作。
7. He read my palm.
他给我看手相了。
8. What's the point? The past is the past.
有什么好谈的？过去的就让它过去吧。
9. You're gonna have to take over my carpools on Mondays.
我每周一得搭你的车。
你知道这些bed习语吗？
Bed这个单词大家都认识，是床的意思。英语中有很多习语是跟床有关的，我们一起来学习一下吧！
1. Can I bed down here with you?
我能在你这睡吗？
2. The temperature fell out of bed last night.
昨晚气温骤降。
3. You were the one who chose these house painters because they were cheap. I told you they'd do a terrible job. As you make your bed, so you must lie in it.
是你要雇这些便宜的油漆工的，我都告诉你他们手艺不行了。你自己的主意，自己承担后果喽！
4. Mike's looking for another job. His boss is rude and very bad-tempered. And the five people who work for Mike are lazy and untrained, so Mike has to explain everything to them. Therefore, his job is a real bed of nails for him.
迈克正在找新工作，他现在的老板粗暴无礼、脾气又非常坏，而在他手下工作的那五个人既懒惰又没受过什么训练，所以迈克凡事都得向他们解释。迈克在那工作真是如坐针毡，处境极其艰难。
5. I had to take a bed-and-breakfast because the hotels in the city were much too expensive.
我只能住那种含早餐的小旅馆，城里的宾馆太贵了。
6. Nothing you could say about Pete would surprise me. The man couldn't even lie straight in bed.
不管你说起皮特什么，我都不会惊奇的，那人没一句实话。
7. My sister Irene works at a full time job and has two young sons to take care of when she gets home in the evening. Her husband Bob tries to help out, of course, but he just isn't too handy with kids. Believe me, her life these days is no bed of roses.
我姐姐艾琳有一份全职工作，晚上回家还得照料两个小儿子。她丈夫鲍勃当然也试着帮她分担一些家务，但是鲍勃带孩子就是不太在行。所以艾琳眼下的日子过得可实在不舒坦。
8. What's the matter with you? Did you get out of bed on the wrong side or something?
你怎么了？心情不好还是怎么回事？
9. I can't believe she went to bed with him on their first date!
真不敢相信她们第一次约会就上床了！
10. My grandparents always go to bed with the chickens.
我的爷爷奶奶总是睡得特别早。
11. I make my bed every morning.
我每天早晨整理床铺。
12. What a horrible day! I should have stood in bed.
今天太背了，我就不应该出门。
13. I had to take to my bed with a bad cold last week.
上周我重伤风，只好卧病在床。
怎么用英语称呼“老年人”
国家统计局4月28日发布了第六次全国人口普查数据，60岁及以上人口比2000年上升了2.93%，引发了人们对老龄化的担忧。近年来，医疗事业的发达延长了人们的寿命，老年人已经成为人口中举足轻重的群体。今天我们就一起来学习一下怎么用英语称呼“老年人”。
第一个是：golden years。你听了这个说法也许会想不通怎么把老年称为黄金时代呢？想出这条高见的人言下之意是退休后人们就展开了人生最轻松如意的岁月，因为子女都已长大成人，不再需要为他们操劳，从此可以随心所欲地享受自己的人生了。
例句-1：Always too busy to see Paris in the spring? If you've reached your golden years, come fly with us to France -- until June 1, it's 20 per cent off the regular fare if you're over 60.
您是不是一直忙得没机会欣赏巴黎的春天呢？如果您已经退休，那何不享受一下您的黄金年华，跟我们乘飞机去法国看一看呢！6月1日之前，六十岁以上的人买机票可以打八折。
尽管创造golden years这个说法的人用心良苦，这个短语却并没赢得人们的广泛赞赏和共鸣；有时反而被人用来开玩笑地指在老年慢性病缠绕下、以微薄的退休金勉强度日的风烛残年。
第二种说法是：senior citizen。Senior这个词听来很顺耳，因为它可以用来说资历深、职位高、地位显要的人。在美国被称作senior citizen的老人能得到种种优待，去商店购物、上电影院看电影都可以打折，坐公共交通车也可以享受半价。
例句-2：My mother never asks for a senior citizen discount or a half price ticket. The whole problem is she hates to admit she's over 60, even if it saves her money.
我妈妈从来不要求老人优惠折扣或者半价票，她压根儿就讨厌承认自己已经过六十了，即使那样能省钱她也不乐意。
这儿的senior citizen是美国称老人的委婉说法，显然它也并不能赢得每个人的欢心。说真的，可能任何对老人的称号都无法博得老人的欢心，因为谁都不愿意有人提醒自己青春不再的现实，要是可能的话他们也许宁愿放弃种种老人福利优待，来换回二十年的青春。
既然这些费心取悦老人的称号也不见得都能讨好，那么另一些对老人带有不敬的称呼就更会让他们恼火了。有这样一个说法：old codger。Old codger相当于中文的老家伙。
例句-3：Gee, I sure wish that old guy who lives next door would buy himself a hearing aid -- he's a nice old codger but he's deaf as a post and I have to yell every time I talk to him.
嗨，我真希望隔壁那老头儿能给自己买个助听器。他是个和气的老家伙，只是耳朵聋得不行；我每回跟他说话都得大喊。
这里的old codger意思是老家伙。注意这个说法对老人不太礼貌，通常只是用在背后议论的时候。
还有个指老人的说法也是不够尊重的。它是：geezer。Geezer解释为老家伙、老头儿。
例句-4：I know it wasn't polite but I had to laugh when I saw that old geezer with his false teeth eating corn on the cob. He looked just like an old dog gnawing on a bone.
我知道这样不礼貌，但是我看到那老家伙用假牙啃玉米棒子的样子就忍不住要笑。他看来活像啃骨头的老狗。
这里的geezer意思也是老家伙或者老头儿。请特别注意old codger和geezer都是不礼貌的称呼，得谨慎使用。
你是哪种“猫”？
很多人都喜欢养猫做宠物，关于猫的词组也分外奇特有趣。我们一起来学习一下吧！
1. Bill can tell a dead cat on the line before anybody knows there's something wrong.
比尔总能比别人先发现问题。
2. Jill: I've hinted to Mary several times that I need her to pay me the money she owes, but she just ignores me.
Jane: A cat in gloves catches no mice, Jill. Tell her bluntly that you need the money.
吉尔：我跟玛丽暗示了好几次，说她应该还欠我的钱了，但是她就是装不知道。
珍妮：吉尔，过分谨慎可能一事无成。你就直接告诉她让她还钱就行了。
3. Has the cat got your tongue? I'm waiting for an explanation.
你哑巴了吗？你倒是解释啊！
4. What's the matter with her? She's like a cat on a hot tin roof this morning.
她今天怎么了？一早上都坐立不安的。
5. This year the other party is way ahead of us when it comes to campaign money. They have all the fat cats on their side.
今年对方党派的竞选经费比我们多很多，因为那些有钱的赞助人都在他们那边。
6. Your presentation must have gone well. You look like the cat that swallowed the canary.
你的发言反响一定不错，你看起来满面春风的。
7. Poor Dave looks like something the cat drug in. He must have been out late last night.
可怜的戴夫看起来累极了，他昨晚肯定很晚才回来。
8. It's a secret. Try not to let the cat out of the bag.
这是个秘密，别告诉别人啊！
9. We get on very well as adults but as kids we fought like cats and dogs.
我们小时候经常吵吵闹闹，但是长大之后相处得很好。
10. When the teacher left for a few minutes, the children nearly wrecked the classroom. When the cat's away, the mice will play.
老师出去了几分钟，那些孩子们在教室里闹翻了天。真是“大王外出，小鬼作怪”。
11. Tell them all they've got to work on Saturday. That should set the cat among the pigeons.
告诉他们说周日得加班，这消息肯定能引起轩然大波。
12. The terrorists were playing cat and mouse with the hostages. One minute they thought that they were going to be released, the next they thought that they were going to be killed.
恐怖分子像猫戏老鼠似的戏弄人质，让他们时而感到就要被释放，时而又感到就要被杀害。
13. Your new car is the cat's meow.
你的新车太棒了。