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CNN: Michael J. Fox’s new role

Michael J. Fox是我最喜欢的演员之一。小屏幕上的Family Ties、Spin City，大屏幕上的Back to the Future系列，都是绝对的经典。他从2000年开始就淡出演艺圈了，能看到他上镜的机会越来越少，所以我怀着极大的热诚把CNN的这篇报道仔细读了一遍。

文章的最后一部分（Devoted to family）有这么一句话：

Because Fox doesn’t know how extreme the symptoms of his illness will be on any given day, he had to wing it in suggesting Post’s own health problems.

句中的wing it是一个比较口语化的词组，它的意思是： To say or do something without preparation, forethought, or sufficient information or experience; improvise（即兴，临时拼凑）。

Wing it在生活中最常用的例子就是考试没准备、硬着头皮上：

Daniel: You ready for the exam? （Daniel：考试准备好了吗？）
Edward: Exam? What exam? （Edward：考试？什么考试？）
Daniel: Hello? Biology exam this afternoon! Ms. Johnson told us last week. （Daniel：有没有搞错？当然是今天下午的生物考试！Ms. Johnson上个礼拜通知我们的啊。）
Edward: Crap! I completely forgot about it. I’ll just have to wing it, I guess. （Edward：该死！我完全不记得了。没法子，只好硬着头皮上了。）

说起wing it，顺便提一下wing。曾经有人问我，the west/east wing里的wing和the left/right wing里的wing是否同一个意思。我猜这位朋友可能是受了电视剧The West Wing的影响。剧集是以白宫为题材的，所以很容易联想到the left/right wing（左、右派）上去。其实两者没有关系。

Wing作名词，如果涉及建筑物，它的意思是：one of the parts of a large building that sticks out from the main part（侧厅，耳房，厢房）。如果涉及政党组织，它的意思是：one section of an organization that has a particular function or whose members share the same opinions（派，翼）。

所以，east/west wing指的是“东/西边的侧房”，而left/right wing指的是“左/右派（即激进/保守派）政党成员”。

再回到CNN那篇文章上。最后一段是作者引用Michael J. Fox的话：

“I’m exploring the idea of optimism in all it’s forms … What is optimism all about? It’s kind of something I’ve been playing with.”

All it’s forms?

AP也会犯这样的错。唉。

Bonus video: Melissa O’Neil - Let It Go (Yep, she’s partially Chinese!)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 at 11:56 pm and is filed under Culture, Slang, Common Mistake. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.