书城外语笑死你的英文书:英语幽默笑话
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第35章 How Much Is It

It was winter,and Mrs。Hermann wanted to do a lot of shopping,so she waited until it was Saturday,when her husband was free,and she took him to the shops with her to pay for everything and to carry her parcels。They went to a lot of shops,and Mrs。Hermann bought a lot of things。She often stopped and said,“Look,Joe!Isn’t that beautiful?”

He then answered,“All right,dear,how much is it?”and took his money out to pay for it。

It was dark when they came out of the last shop,and Mr。Hermann was tired and thinking about other things,like a nice drink by the side of a warm fire at home。Suddenly his wife looked up at the sky and said,“Look at that beautiful moon,Joe!”

Without stopping,Mr。Hermann answered,“All right,dear,how much is it?”

多少钱

严冬来临,荷曼太太想采购一大批东西,所以她就一直等到周六丈夫有空的时候,她拖着他去商店付钱连带拎包。他们去了许多商店,荷曼太太买了一大堆东西。她经常停下脚步说道:“看,乔伊!那个多漂亮!”

他总是回答:“好吧!亲爱的,多少钱?”然后掏钱去付款。

他们从最后一家商店出来的时候夜幕已经降临,荷曼先生已精疲力尽了。他心里想着其他事情,比如在家里暖暖的火炉边呷口美酒。突然他太太仰望天空,说道:“看那月亮多美,乔伊!”

荷曼先生不假思索地答道:“好吧,亲爱的,多少钱?”

parcel[p?:sl]n。包裹

例:I am going to take the parcel to the post office this afternoon。今天下午我打算去邮局寄包裹。

by the side of adv。在……附近,和……一起比较

例:By the side of sickness health becomes sweet。和疾病相比较,才显得健康的可贵。

once in a blue moon千载难逢

现代天文学意义上的blue moon(蓝月亮)指“一个月中的第二次满月”,由于月运周期(月亮绕地球一周)是29.5天,而根据日历,每个月大多都有至少30天,因此,大约每32个月左右会出现一次“一个月两次圆月”现象。不过,一个月中第二次满月时,月亮未必一定是蓝色的。blue moon(一个月中的第二次满月)的说法始于1946年。1946年5月,Sky and Telescope(《天空和望远镜》)杂志刊登了一篇文章,该文误认为“蓝月亮”和“一个月的第二次满月”之间必然存在着必然联系。自此,人们常用blue moon来形容这种相隔至少32个月才发生一次的天文现象。抛开天文学,在日常生活中,自19世纪末,人们开始用blue moon来形容“罕见、不常发生的事情”,如:I haven’t seen you in a blue moon。(我好久没有看到你了。)与blue moon相关的短语还有once in a blue moon(千载难逢地),如:This is a chance in a blue moon。(这可是个千载难逢的好机会。)

口语中all right的几点用法

all right的第一个用法和OK,Yes一样,比如一位母亲在向孩子交待任务:

Mom:Walk the dog after finishing your homework,OK?你写完作业后去遛狗,行吗?

Kid:All right,I will do it。好吧,我会去的。

在这个对话里,walk the dog的意思就是“遛狗”。

all right的另一个意思是for sure(肯定)。比如在一次审讯中,一个疑犯对警察说,He was the one who did it,all right。他的意思就是“是他干的,我肯定。”

all right还可以当“还行”,“不错”讲,当它修饰名词时,all right之间要用一个连字符连接起来,变成allright。我们可以看看下面两段对话:

―I heard you had a car accident。Are you OK?我听说你发生车祸了。你还好吗?

―I am all right now。我现在还行。

―How do you like that man?你觉得那个人怎么样?

―Well,he is an allright guy。嗯,他还可以吧。

all right的最后一个用法就是作为感叹词,表示赞许,意思是“好啊!”“太棒了!”,通常你会在演出的时候听到。比如说在下面的例句里:

When the guitarist began his solo,the entire audience exploded into a roaring,“All right!”(当吉他手开始他的独奏时,全场轰鸣,观众高喊“太棒了!”)