真是悲惨的生活

真是悲惨的生活 Mrs. Tsai: Honey, you look exhausted. Grace: I am. All I want to do is crawl back in bed. Mrs. Tsai: That sounds nice, but it’s a school day. Did you stay up late? Grace: Yes. It’s really a dog’s life preparing for exams. Mrs. Tsai: I know. It can be really tough. Grace: Tell me about it. I’m so tired I can’t see straight. Mrs. Tsai: Well, you can sleep in on Saturday. Grace: Huh? I’m sorry. I think I just dozed off for a minute. 蔡太太:寶貝,妳看起來累壞了。 葛瑞絲:我是啊,我現在只想爬回床上。 蔡太太: 聽起來很棒,不過今天妳要上學。妳熬夜了嗎, 葛瑞絲:對啊,準備考試的生活真不是人過的。 蔡太太:我知道,這真的很不容易。 葛瑞絲:那還用說嗎,我累到無法思考了。 蔡太太:嗯,妳星期六可以睡久一點。 葛瑞絲:呃,什麼,抱歉,我想剛剛我打起瞌睡了。 a dog’s life 字面上的意思為『狗的生活』。以前的狗兒不像現在被當成寵 物這麼幸福,有些狗兒甚至會被當成食物吃掉。a dog’s life 即用來形容人 過著如狗般,『悲慘不快樂的生活』。 阿雄早上被老闆罵,下午被客戶抱怨,晚上還要加班到 12 點,可是賺的錢 卻少得可憐。女友阿花見狀難過地說: It’s a dog’s life doing this miserable job. :做這份悲哀的工作真不是人過的生活。: 下列是一些與狗兒相關的有趣俚語: dog in the manger 佔著毛坑不拉屎 manger [ `mendjK ] 『馬槽』。這個俚語源自伊索寓言:一隻狗躺在馬 槽占的稻草堆上睡午覺,狗兒本身是不吃草的,但牛兒靠近想吃草時,牠 卻霸道地凶狠吠叫,不讓牛靠近。dog in the manger 就用來比喻自己並不需 要某樣東西,卻自私地也不讓別人擁有,即中文俗話說的『佔著毛坑不拉 屎』。 小李要把一張用不到的桌子丟掉,他寧可把它扔到垃圾場也不給家徒四壁的阿雄。阿雄生氣地說: Don’t be such a dog in the manger. :不要佔著毛坑不拉屎。: Every dog has its day. 風水輪流轉。 此俚語字面意義表『每隻狗都有牠得意的一天』,用來表示人總會有幸運、成功的時候,即中文所說的『風水輪流轉』。 皇天不負苦心人,辛苦工作的阿雄終於獲得老闆賞識,不但升官還加薪。我們就可以說: Every dog has its day. He finally got a promotion. :風水輪流轉,他終於升官了。: ,promotion [ prJ`moSJn ] n. 升遷 1. exhausted [ Ig`zOstId ] a. 精疲力竭的 : He was exhausted by the long trip. = He was worn out by the long trip. :這趟長途旅行讓他精疲力竭。: 2. crawl [ krOl ] vi. 爬 : He crawled across those rocks carefully. :他小心翼翼地爬過那些石頭。: 3. stay up 熬夜 : I stayed up until 2 a.m. studying English. :我們熬夜到半夜兩點唸英文。: 4. prepare [ prI`pEr ] vi. 準備 : The basketball team has prepared for the game for a long time. :這支籃球隊已經為這場比賽準備很久了。: 5. tough [ tVf ] a. 艱難的 : They promised to complete the tough task on time. :他們承諾準時會完成這項艱難的任務。: ,promise [ `pramIs ] vt. 承諾 6. doze off 打瞌睡 : The speech was so boring that he nearly dozed off. :這場演講太無聊,害他差點就打起瞌睡了。: