ESL Podcast 940 – Ending Excessive Spending
时间：2018-12-06 作者：英语课 分类：地道美语播客
英语课
Raphael: Sorry to be a buzzkill, but this gravy 1 train we’ve been on is about to end.
Kelly: What do you mean?
Raphael: There have been a lot of complaints about our department’s spending on extraneous 2 things, and to quell 3 the masses, the department head is making some major changes.
Kelly: Like what?
Raphael: Like no more frivolous 4 and excessive spending on travel and entertainment at conferences.
Kelly: But those are the only things that make this job bearable. Those perks 5 are part and parcel of working for a government agency – at least that’s what I used to think.
Raphael: Well, once the press got wind of some of our spending practices, they started to question our budget allocations. The long and short of it is that those days are about to end.
Kelly: And I was planning to take you and a few other employees to St. Lucia for a retreat in the spring.
Raphael: I think you’d better change those plans, at least the venue 6. You’d have better luck getting it approved if you picked Cleveland!
1 gravy
n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快
- You have spilled gravy on the tablecloth.你把肉汁泼到台布上了。
- The meat was swimming in gravy.肉泡在浓汁之中。
2 extraneous
adj.体外的；外来的；外部的
- I can choose to ignore these extraneous thoughts.我可以选择无视这些外来的想法。
- Reductant from an extraneous source is introduced.外来的还原剂被引进来。
3 quell
v.压制，平息，减轻
- Soldiers were sent in to quell the riots.士兵们被派去平息骚乱。
- The armed force had to be called out to quell violence.不得不出动军队来镇压暴力行动。
4 frivolous
adj.轻薄的；轻率的
- This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
- He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。