【前情提要】
自從寶寶出現(xiàn)后,6個(gè)年輕人的生活似乎開始圍繞孩子打轉(zhuǎn)了。取名風(fēng)波剛結(jié)束,關(guān)于孩子未來的教育問題又被提上了日程。在大家對(duì)孩子教育方式都莫衷一是后,Sabrina最終決定讓孩子自然成長,不施加任何壓力。
【本期劇情】
小強(qiáng)上班把手機(jī)落在了家里,結(jié)果讓Lily接到了一個(gè)陌生女人的電話。事業(yè)春風(fēng)得意的小強(qiáng)陷入了感情的漩渦……
【重點(diǎn)提示】
Language Focus / 語言點(diǎn):
1. 語言背后的文化知識(shí)
2. 固定英語表達(dá)法
3. 閱讀難點(diǎn)解析
Part One: Big Brother 陌生女人來電
(早上,小強(qiáng)忘了帶手機(jī)就去上班了。當(dāng)Lily拿起手機(jī)時(shí),手機(jī)響了,Lily接起了電話。)
Lily: Hello? (She waits for a response but does not get any) Hellooo??
Woman: Hello? Is Xiao Qiang Ge Ge there?
Lily: What? Who is this?
Woman: (sweetly) Just tell him someone called for Xiao Qiang Ge Ge and he'll know who I am.Oh, and can you also tell him that I'll be waiting for him in the office for lunch, and that I've made his favorite for lunch?
(Speechless, Lily angrily cuts her off and slams the phone back down on the night stand.)
(Lily hears a knock on the door and goes to open it. It is Xiao Qiang, who has returned to pick up his mobile.)
Xiao Qiang: Hi darling! You will never guess what I did, I went and forgot… (he sees the look on her face and stops in his tracks)
Lily: You looking for this? (holds up Xiao Qiang's mobile)
Xiao Qiang: What's wrong? Did something happen?
Lily: Oh, nothing happened, \"Xiao Qiang Ge Ge\". I'm sure your \"little sister\" is eagerly awaiting your return for lunch at the office, why don't you get going so you don't disappoint her?
Xiao Qiang: What?! Oh…oh, it's…it's not what you think, Lily.
Lily: It's not what I think?
Xiao Qiang: No, it's… it's my secretary. She just likes to look out for me, you know, and she's almost overprotective about it. The whole \"Ge Ge\" thing is kind of a joke, you know? She makes me lunch from time to time because she sees that I rarely give myself time to eat properly during the day.
Lily: I'm sorry, Xiao Qiang, I don't buy it. Someone who cooks you lunch all the time and calls you in the morning about it does not have purely platonic feelings about you! How can you not see that?!
Xiao Qiang: Oh, I'm sure you're reading too much into it. She's just a young, enthusiastic secretary.She's fresh out of college, and this is her first real job, and she's just trying to make a good impression, you know? Don't you remember being that way at your first job? Besides, there's no way there's an attraction there on her part – I'm so much older than her!
Lily: How can you be so naiuml;ve?! She's just playing you? You want to know what girls fresh out of college are like these days?! They don't know what they want to do in life, they have no direction, and the only thing they can think about it hooking up with a successful guy who they can marry so that they never have money worries for the rest of their lives!
Xiao Qiang: That's not true at all…
Lily: Oh course it is! And look at you! You would be such an easy target. Successful, not bad looking, but completely clueless when it comes to women and their ways. There is no way that your secretary is just an enthusiastic employee trying to make a good impression. It definitely did not sound that way on the phone, let me tell you that.
Xiao Qiang: Oh sweetheart, you know you have nothing to worry about. I mean really, you should feel lucky – you've clearly got one great piece of ass for a husband! (Giving Lily a quick kiss on the cheek) Anyway, I really have to go, its crazy busy at the office this morning. I'll call you later, ok?
Part Two: Big Lie 彌天大謊
(小強(qiáng)匆匆忙忙地趕去上班,留下Lily一個(gè)人生悶氣。她抓起電話撥打Elena的號(hào)碼。)
Elena: Hellooo.
Lily: (glumly) It's me.
Elena: Hey you. You don't sound so good, is something wrong?
Lily: You won't believe this. There's some little tramp at Xiao Qiang's work hitting on him.
Elena: What?! How do you know this?
Lily: Xiao Qiang left his phone at home this morning, and she called him.
Elena: What for? What did she say?
Lily: She was all like, oh big brother, I've made you your favorite dish for lunch and I'll be waiting for you at the office.
Elena: Whaaaat? That is bizarre.
Lily: Right?! And Xiao Qiang just came back to get his phone, and I confronted him about it, and he was acting like none of it means anything.
Elena: Well it probably doesn't for him, but I can understand why you'd be pissed about it.
Lily: You know how annoying it is when there's someone behaving inappropriately towards your guy and he doesn't even seem to realize?
Elena: Do I! It's a constant problem with Casanova.
Lily: Well, I wish he'd wise up to it and understand that it makes me really unhappy and uncomfortable.
Elena: Hmmm.
Lily: And I couldn't believe how ballsy this girl was, she must have realized that I'm his wife, right?I mean, everyone at the office knows he's married. She's got some nerve talking to me like I'm that.
Elena: Like how?
Lily: Like she doesn't even care what I think. She's his secretary, for god's sake, she should show me some respect as her boss's wife.
Elena: Oh, she works directly under him?
Lily: I guess so.
Elena: You know, hon, I really don't think you have anything to worry about. I mean, obviously Xiao Qiang is not the kind of guy who's going to take advantage of a situation like that. He is completely devoted to you. And as long as he behaves completely professionally, the girl will eventually lose interest.
Lily: I know, but… it's not that I don't trust him, but I wish he'd deal with this girl a bit more firmly, you know? My problem is that I don't even think he realizes that it's inappropriate!
Elena: Look, maybe part of what's making you so mad is that this girl is trying to look after your man. And when was the last time that you looked after Xiao Qiang, instead of him just looking after you?
Lily: Ouch. Geez, Elena, way to go making me feel bad about myself.
Elena: You know I'm only saying this because I love you and I want your marriage to work. And I know you know you can be a little selfish sometimes.
Lily: You're right. Dammit, I can look after my man too! I'm going to cook him all his favorite dishes for dinner tonight and I won't even make him do the dishes after!
Elena: Attagirl.
(Later in the evening, Lily has spent the best part of the afternoon cooking and cleaning the apartment to really impress Xiao Qiang. She is putting the finishing touches on the food when Xaio Qiang calls.)
Lily: Hi baby! What's up? You on your way home?
Xiao Qiang: Unfortunately, no. It looks like I'm going to have to work a little late tonight.
Lily: Oh no! I spent all day cooking a really special meal for you.
Xiao Qiang: Oh sweetie, you did?
Lily: Well, I know I wasn't very nice to you this morning, and I wanted to make it up to you…
Xiao Qiang: (smiling) Oh Lily, you know you have nothing to worry about.
Lily: So will you be able to make it home for dinner? Maybe later?
Xiao Qiang: Well, not really. I think it's going to be a really late one, so we'll just order something here.
Lily: We? (She hears a familiar female voice in the background) Xiao Qiang, who are you doing overtime with?
Xiao Qiang: Oh, the whole team, really. It's crunch time on this project, and we're all going to have to make some sacrifices tonight! Anyway, I'll text you when I'm on my way home, but don't feel like you have to wait up – it'll probably be really late.
Lily: Ok.
(She hangs up the phone and dials a separate number.)
Lily: Mandy, hi! Listen, where are you right now? Out at dinner? You're not having to work overtime? Oh. Do you know who else is working late tonight with Xiao Qiang? Oh. I see.Thanks, Mandy.
(Lily throws down the phone in anger.)
Lily: Liar! I bet it's just him and the girl in the office tonight!
(She snatches the dishes of food off the table and, one by one, scrapes the contents into the trash can.)
(It's 2am, and Xiao Qiang finally staggers in the door. Exhausted, he is nevertheless pleasantly surprised to see that Lily has waited up for him on the sofa.)
Xiao Qiang: Sweetie! (He grabs her in a bear hug) I can't believe you stayed up.
Lily: (coolly) So how was work? Did you get everything done?
Xiao Qiang: Oh yeah, it went well. Everyone really pulled together this time, and we managed to get everything done much faster than I expected.
(Lily roughly pushes him away.)
Lily: I can't believe you're still lying to me!! I called Mandy, you know. She told me that she was out at dinner, that the whole team wasn't doing overtime. Were you with that girl?! The one that called this morning?!
Xiao Qiang: Well, uh…look, Lily. The truth is, I had to work late because there were some issues with the layout of the documents, and… well, it was actually just my secretary and I. But I didn't want you to get upset about nothing, so… I thought it would be better to tell you that we were all there, so that you wouldn't think… I'm sorry, baby, I shouldn't have lied.
Lily: You thought it would be better to lie to me?! To lie to your wife?! I can't believe this! And you expect me to trust you?! I'm here all day, working my ass off preparing a great meal for you, to apologize for my behavior this morning which you said was ridiculous, and there you are, messing around with your secretary after all!
Xiao Qiang: We weren't messing around! I swear! We were just working, I have no interest in her whatsoever!
Lily: And how do you expect me to believe you now?! Obviously, you wouldn't have lied in the first place if you had nothing to hide! I didn't think you had it in you, Xiao Qiang! Maybe you're not the person I thought you were!
Xiao Qiang: Lily, please…
Lily: (holding up her hand) No, I'm finished. I don't want to see your face anymore.
(Lily promptly turns around and slams the bedroom door, locking it behind her.)
Xiao Qiang: Lily, please! Let's talk about this!
(Xiao Qiang spends the next hour trying to coax Lily out from the other side of the door. Finally, exhausted, he curls up on the couch and falls asleep.)
【Language Focus / 語言點(diǎn)】
1. look out for
這個(gè)短語和look after的意思相似,“照顧,看護(hù)”的意思。
2. I don't buy it.
口語中常見的表達(dá)方式,相當(dāng)于中文中的“我不吃這套”或者“我不相信”,要根據(jù)具體語境分析意思。
3. platonic
意思是“柏拉圖式的、理想的、不切實(shí)際的”。實(shí)際上,柏拉圖并沒有發(fā)明這個(gè)單詞,但是他的確認(rèn)為性在兩性關(guān)系中是種病菌。文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期,一個(gè)叫Marsilio Ficino的柏拉圖的信徒用“amor platonicus/ amor socraticus”來形容兩性中純凈的愛。此后,“platonic”這個(gè)單詞就逐漸在英語中被運(yùn)用,用以指兩性之間的精神戀愛。
4. hooking up with
“hook up with”是個(gè)常用詞組,意思是“形成某種關(guān)系或者紐帶”,另外“hook up”是個(gè)習(xí)慣用語,意思是“裝配或者接通”。
5. …you've clearly got one great piece of ass for a husband!
“great piece of ass”是個(gè)固定短語,意思是“非常有魅力的、棒的”。
6. There's some little tramp at Xiao Qiang's work hitting on him.
“tramp”意思很多,但在對(duì)話中,它的意思相當(dāng)于“prostitute”,這是Lily在憤怒中對(duì)小強(qiáng)的秘書的蔑稱;而“hit on”的意思是“向某人求愛”。
7. be pissed about
這個(gè)短語跟“piss off”的意思一樣,“惱怒、生氣”的意思。
8. ballsy
俚語,意思是“有膽量的”,通常有不顧后果或放肆地的意味。
9. Attagirl
口語表達(dá)方式,(對(duì)女性的)鼓勵(lì),可以翻譯為“棒極了,非常好”。相對(duì)地,對(duì)男性的鼓勵(lì)就可以說“attaboy”。
10. crunch
基本意是“嘎扎嘎扎的咬嚼, 壓碎, 扎扎地踏過”,但它也有“危機(jī)時(shí)刻”的意思,在對(duì)話中的意思是后者。
11. pulled together
固定搭配,“齊心協(xié)力”的意思。
12. messing around
“mess around”的意思是“虛度時(shí)光、胡亂打發(fā)時(shí)間”。
【下期預(yù)告】
連續(xù)幾天都睡沙發(fā)的小強(qiáng)心情糟糕透頂,到了公司還惹來同事異樣的目光,惱怒之下,他決定和Lily說清楚;而Lily在回想了很久后覺得自己過分了,她希望和小強(qiáng)和好如初。兩個(gè)人各懷心思,結(jié)局會(huì)如何呢?