时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

 


我们家隔壁住着一位老奶奶,八十多岁,孤苦伶仃,没有人照顾。如今,物价涨得这么厉害,她的生活一天比一天困难。好在,我们左邻右舍经常都会帮她一把。她的处境让我想起了一个习惯用语。那就是:keep one's head above water。


Head,脑袋。water,水。把头放在水面上,这样就不会呛水了。因此说,Keep one's head above water,这个习惯用语就是说,在艰难的处境下为生系,克服生活、工作和财务上的困难。说到我们邻居的那位老奶奶,She's scarcely 1 able to keep her head above water.


Keep one's head above water这个习惯用语很实用。让我们听听下面这位餐馆老板最近的生意如何。


例句-1:Before the new highway was built, I could easily fill every table in my restaurant. These days, with fewer diners, it's become a struggle to stay in business. I'm barely 2 keeping my head above water. I don't know how much longer I can afford to stay open.


这位餐馆老板说:没有那条高速公路的时候,我的餐馆里总是坐得满满的。可是如今,客人少多了,钱越来越难赚,能维持收支平衡就已经很不容易了。我真不知道还能坚持多久。


看来,这条高速公路真是断了这个餐馆老板的财路。他肯定特别怀念以前生意兴隆的日子。在英语里,我们说生意开在了黄金地带,黄金地带就是goldmine, goldmine, 金矿。


******


眼下,越来越多的美国人都从东北地区搬走,住到南方去。不过,现在房地产市场不景气,在买房和卖房之间一定要协调好,否则的话,就会出现跟下面这对夫妇同样的状况。


例句-2:My wife and I are excited about furnishing 3 our new house in North Carolina. But since we still haven't sold our old place back in Massachusetts, it's been a huge financial challenge. So far we've kept our heads above water. We only hope we can find a buyer soon!


这位先生说:我跟太太正在装修北卡罗来纳州的新房子,兴奋极了。但是因为我们在麻萨诸塞州的旧房子还没有脱手,所以财务上压力很大。到目前为止,我们还能勉强支撑着,真希望能尽快找到买主。


设身处地想想看,要同时负担两栋房子的按揭,ouch! 真够他们受的。如果暂时卖不掉,把房子租出去也是一种选择。我姑姑姑父就把自己的公寓租了出去,因为地点好,从来都不愁找不到房客。They not only keep their heads above water, 他们不仅不愁付不出按揭,而且还能小赚一笔,投资有了回报。


大家肯定已经猜到了,keep one's head above water,这个习惯用语是从游泳来的。没错,这个习惯用语最早是十八世纪初出现的,意思就是让头露出水面,不要被淹死。



1 scarcely
adv.几乎不,简直没有,勉强
  • He found the dullness of his work scarcely bearable.他觉得他的工作枯燥乏味,简直无法忍受。
  • She scarcely earns enough money to make ends meet.她几乎挣不到足够的钱以维持开支。
2 barely
adv.仅仅,几乎没有,几乎不
  • The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
  • He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。
3 furnishing
n.家具,设备
  • Thank you for furnishing me with so many data. 谢谢你供给我这么多的资料。
  • We should be grateful for your furnishing us details of your requirements. 如承赐示具体要求,不胜感激。
学英语单词
accumulated net loss
ajmers
angas range
antipredation
art houses
bet coupling link (looped coupling link)
biovarial
brassie
bridge doffing motion
Cameroidea
ceramic oil
chrysil rubber
Clevelander
closed ash-pit
closed career system
compression index
conciergeries
copunctual
core image dump
cow in milk
cruisiest
dandois
Delphene
dependency needs
destruction fires
dimethyl nitrite amine
drive someone round the bend
economical maturity
entire margins of the leaflets
Euphorbia nematocypha
european organization for quality
Exploret Axion
exulceratio
fade to white
fault plate
fouling rate
fragment of tissue
freight elevator
gear pair with in-tersecting axes
give sb to understand that
holding force
homotopic chain-mapping
hydraulic descaling system
hydrogen-ion concentration
Hyperotreti
infantile amaurotic familial idiocy
insect repellant
iron-Melanterite
Ivan Asen II
jus naturae
Kansas neck-blister
localizes
lupinid
manganese bath method
marmadyne
matriarchism
mesognathic
monopolistic imperfection
multicast DNS
normotriglyceridemia
odometer
oil atomization
peg back
pick-resistant lock
plow disc
podospora multipilosa
position welding
pressure twin
pressurizing stand
price pressure
quasi-market
real object
resisting power
roll on return pass
run rusty
SAPONG
self-dual code
shanin
sharkling
shault
simplifier
split-tank oscillator
Stockholm
stream ice
suicidalness
Sulzheim
superseniors
szent
tanuras
tehri garhwal
television synchronizing signal generator
theo-mythology
threaded fittings
ultrashort wave transmitter
unary operation
unicellulate
variable ratio reinforcement
very same
vision comparison
voice ID
william harrison hayss
Zitronensauresirup