Archive for September, 2005

Loot

Tuesday, September 6th, 2005

上个周末NBC举办了一台赈灾晚会,众多明星齐上阵,为Hurricane Katrina地区的灾民募捐。黑人歌星Kanye West拒绝读大会事先安排给他的台词,即兴发表了一段语惊四座的话:
I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they are looting. If you see a white family, it says they are looking for food. (…) George Bush doesn’t care about black people!
这番话自然引起了激烈的争论。毫不夸张地讲一句:在美国,种族歧视永远是热门话题。
也难怪Kanye West借题发挥。巧合也好,故意也好,媒体的确用loot来描述灾区的黑人,而用look for/find来描述白人。

看看loot的定义:to steal valuables from a place during a time of […]

Keep your eye on the ball

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

US Open正如火如荼地进行着,身在美国的朋友又可以天天听到Cliff Drysdale的精彩解说了。他特别喜欢说的一句话就是:Always keep your eye on the ball!
这句话乍一听似乎是在讲打网球的要领:眼睛要紧盯着球,人要随着球的路线迅速移位。这样理解固然没错,但如果仅此而已,那这句忠告不成了废话(所谓的“stating the obvious”)?眼睛不盯着球怎么打啊?
所以,这句话其实是有更深一层含义的。Keep one’s eye on the ball指remain alert and attentive,也就是保持高度专注、不分神,可以泛指球类运动以外的其他事情。比如:
Boss: You’ve made four egregious errors today. What the hell is going on? You’d better start keeping your eye on the ball, or you’ll be fired real soon! (你今天已经犯了四个离谱的错误了。到底怎么回事?再不集中注意力的话,你很快就要被炒了!)
请特别注意,是keep your eye on the ball,而不是eyes。这是一个比较容易犯的错误。至于为什么不用复数,这是固定词组,我们只有接受的份儿。 […]