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名人教英文 – Dirty look 並非「鹹濕」look

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28/09/2010

名人教英文 – Dirty look 並非「鹹濕」look 毛孟靜

口頭英文，通常淺白，聽起來個個字都識，容易掉以輕心跌入陷阱，產生誤會。像dirty，解骯髒，常常與性掛鈎：Dirty jokes 性笑話Dirty magazines 色情雜誌Dirty old man 類似廣東話的「鹹濕佬」於是， 如果有人說「He gave me a dirty look」，聽上去，意思彷彿是「他髒髒地看我一眼」，那個眼神就構成性騷擾？錯了。這個dirty look， 口語常常是眾數， dirty looks，其實是形容對方面有慍色、包括憤怒、沒好氣及皺眉，用五官尤其是眼神瞅著你，無聲地問你「有完沒有？」、「有無搞錯？」。He is about to say something mean （刻薄）and nasty（惡意、惡毒）, without actually saying it——這個人看著你，想數落你，但話卻沒說出口的狀態。

A dirty look 最傳神的中文意思，該就是廣東話形容眼神的「倔」。He gave me dirty looks， 「佢『倔』住我」。

例句： I got a dirty look from the teacher when I cracked a joke in class.（我在課堂上開個玩笑，老師惡狠狠地瞪我一眼。）另外一些常用語，一個不小心沒聽清楚，或未讀個明白，會以為是相反意思，就構成天大誤會了。像：

1. I can’t agree more.I can’t agree = 我不能同意， 但後面加more，是「我不能同意更多了」，亦即「我再同意沒有了」。

2. You can’t be too careful.字面意思是「你不可能太小心」，但這到底是叫人（A）不必太小心，還是（B）非常小心呢？答案是（B），意思是「人世沒有過分小心這回事」，請你步步為營。

3. He is anything but clever.這句話是說這人聰明抑或不聰明？是不聰明， 兼有「其實蠢」的意思。Anything but = by no means、not at all，一點也不。He is anything but clever = He is not at all

Glossary

He gave me a dirty look 他「倔」住我I can’t agree more 我再同意沒有了You can’t be too careful 你要絕對小心Anything but 一點也不Nothing but 非常肯定

文：毛孟靜作者電郵：[email protected]

網上聲檔：english.mingpao.com/mp3_12.htm

 

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