从这本爱情小说中学几个好玩又实用的英文

今天和大家分享几个来自小说 Dear John 中实用好玩的表达。

先说两个熟词生义：top 和 peach。

1. top 是啥？

Our relationship, I felt with a heaviness in my chest, was beginnig to feel like the spinning movement of a child's top. When we were together, we had the power to keep it spinning, and the result was beauty and magic and an almost childlike sense of wonder; when we separated, the spinning began inevitably to slow. We became wobbly and unstable, and I knew I had to find a way to keep us from toppling over.

这段话是男主的心理活动，他觉得他和恋人的关系开始变得像"the spinning movement of a child's top"。这里的 child's top 是什么意思？孩子的头顶 

top在这里其实是“陀螺”的意思。记不记得《盗梦空间》中旋转陀螺？那个就是top。

男主说两个人的关系因为异地恋变得像陀螺一样。当两个人在一起的时候，陀螺转啊转，转出美丽和奇迹；然而当两个人分开的时候，陀螺会慢下来，变得 wobbly and unstable，最终难逃 topple over 的命运。

《盗梦空间》电影片段

2. Peach可不只是🍑

故事背景是：女主 Savannah 和男主 John 曾是恋人，不过因为异地恋和 911 事件两个人没能最终走到一起。几年以后 John 又见到了 Savannah，她开了一个牧场，养了几匹马，成了一名“铲manure官”。

当 John 问 Savannah: You do this every day? Savannah 回答说："Life's a peach, isn't it?"

peach 在这里显然不是“桃子”的意思。如果你经常读我的公号的话，你可能立刻会想到我之前在《每天玩5分钟这个游戏来学学英语》的推送：

从游戏截图中我们学到了peachy这个词：我们都知道peach是桃子，peachy有一种“蜜汁微笑”的画面感，美式口语中表示“非常棒！”。peach这个词本身就可以表示“极可爱的人” “非常迷人的人或事物”，例如我们可以造句: Eric is a perfect peach! His articles are peachy! （Eric是个完美的桃子，他的文章也都一股桃子味...）

你看，学过的东西终究都会派上用场的。女主在这里使用调侃的语气说Life's a peach. 生活因为铲屎而精彩，我是铲屎官我骄傲 

接下来再学 4 个实用好玩的口语表达和 1 句鸡汤。

👇听我的语音分享

1. 顺其自然，爱咋咋地吧

Two or three kids, she was never clear on that, but my hunch is that when the time came, she would have suggested that we let nature take its course and allow God to make the decision.

let nature take its course 是个很形象的表达，像是大自然是一艘无人驾驶的船🚢，按照自己的航线航行。let nature take its course 表示 to allow something to happen without trying to control it，也就是我们常说的“顺其自然”。

李小龙同款表达哦

2. 简单实用的句型

I’d be drinking beers and bump into someone I’d known from high school, and they’d ask what I was doing and I’d tell them, and they’d tell me what they were doing, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out we were both on the fast track to nowhere.

it didn’t take a genius to figure out... 字面意思是“不需要是一个天才才能想明白这件事”，也就是说这件事情是显而易见的，白痴都能看出来。

我们在这里学习了 it doesn't take a [ ] to... 这个有趣的句型，可以这样造句：

• It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

• It doesn't take a detective to realize there's only one logical explanation.

• It doesn't take a superman to save the planet.

3. 笨蛋，我喜欢你！

I'm a sucker for honest guys with crew cuts.

suck表示“吸吮”，口语中也可以表示“糟糕透顶”，例如 This article sucks! Eric sucks at writing!  sucker 可以表示“笨蛋” “容易上当的人”，也可以表示“难以抗拒...的人”，和我们中文语境中的“XX控” “XX奴”差不多。例如这本书中还出现了这句：

When I was growing up, our house was kind of like a farm. Dogs, cats, even llama for a while. I was a sucker when it came to strays.

strays是迷路的动物，书中女主看到流浪🐱🐶就忍不住要帮助它们，收留它们在家里，我们就可以说 She is a sucker for strays.

4. 住手啊！

I could feel the adrenaline surge into my bloodstream. "Last chance," I warned.

There's no reason for this! Tim shouted, closer this time. "Just relax, you guys! Knock it off!"

故事的男主是名军人，和女主吵架后，有人惹他，他非常生气，准备要揍这个人一顿。暖男 Tim 跑出来劝架，让他们 knock it off! 也就是“停止做这件事”，类似的表达还有 cut it out。

5. 一句鸡汤

It can be coins or sports or politics or horses or music or faith . . . the saddest people I’ve ever met in life are the ones who don’t care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there’s nothing to make it last.

如果没有激情和满足感，所有的幸福都是短暂的。我们的工作和生活也是如此，找到自己热爱的，然后轰轰烈烈或者细水长流下去。

Dear John 这本书比较简单，也有电影版，娱乐消遣之余可以用来学点英文，刚开始读原版书的朋友可以试试这本书（前提是对这种言情小说类型有兴趣）。希望这篇文章可以对你有一些启发，还是那句话：阅读，顺便学点儿英文。

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