PETS二级考试语法复习精讲（99）
发布时间：2010/12/3 20:44:25 来源：城市学习网 编辑：admin
It was a snafu from beginning to end.
Dan: That's the last time I go on anything that John organizes.
Ally: What happened?
Dan: He arranged a trip to the races for a group of his friends.
Ally: So?
Dan: The coach had a puncture, so we arrived an hour late, our tickets were for the wrong day and the picnic food was terrible.
Ally: Not an ideal day out.
Dan: It was a snafu from beginning to end.
丹：我以后都不会再参加约翰筹办的任何活动。
阿利：为什么？
丹：他安排了一群朋友去看赛马。
阿利：那又怎样？
丹：我们乘坐的客运汽车在路上爆胎，于是迟到了一小时，而我们入场券的日期原来不是那一天。带去野餐的食物也难吃极了。
阿利：这可不是很理想的一日游。
丹：简直自始至终都一团糟。
约翰筹办活动，弄得一团糟。他的朋友说：It was a snafu。Snafu本是第二次大战时美军俚语，指‘一团糟’或‘弄糟了的事’。这个字其实是个头字词（acronym），即取几个字的第一个字母而成：Situation Normal: All Fouled Up（情况正常：一切乱七八糟）。以‘乱七八糟’为‘正常’，当然有戏谑意味。Foul（弄脏）up是脏话fuck up的替代说法，听起来‘文雅’一点，和snafu一样，可作动词，例如：（1）Look, you have fouled up / snafued everything （瞧，你把什么都弄糟了！）（2）Our plan was fouled up / snafued by his clumsiness（我们的计划，因他处事笨拙而失败了）。
Snafu、foul-up还可作名词，例如：（1）You have made a foul-up / snafu of the election campaign（你把竞选活动弄得一团糟）。（2）The government’s educational reforms turned out to be a big political foul-up / snafu（政府的教育改革，成为政治上一大败笔）。
留意今天那段对话阿利说的So？。So作连接词，常用来带出一段话的下文，例如：So, I missed the plane （就这样，我赶不上搭飞机了）。叫人家把故事说下去，也常用这个字，例如："I was late for school this morning." "So?"（‘我今早上学迟到了。’‘那又怎样？’） [NextPage] He was making rather heavy weather of it .
Andy: Why are you looking so pleased with yourself?
Paul: I've just helped my boss with a problem on his computer.
Andy: Was it serious?
Paul: Not particularly, it just involved changing some of the settings in his e-mail software.
Andy: Why couldn't he do it himself then?
Paul: Well he did have a go but I noticed he was making rather heavy weather of it so I helped him out.
Andy: Mr Help Desk in person!
安迪：为什么你一副沾沾自喜的样子？
保罗：我刚帮助上司解决了一个计算机问题。
安迪：问题严重吗？
保罗：不怎么严重，只须更改电邮软件的一些设定。
安迪：那么，他自己为什么不动手？
保罗：他不是不动手，是我见他手忙脚乱，就助他一臂之力。
安迪：咨询台先生亲自出马！
保罗说上司被计算机问题弄得手忙脚乱：He was making rather heavy weather of it。这句英文的弦外之音，是那问题其实并不复杂。Heavy weather是‘阴沉的恶劣天气’。也许是因为航海最怕遇上恶劣天气，to make heavy weather of something有‘视为畏途’含义，现在一般解作‘难以应付（某些不困难的事）’或‘小题大作’，例如：(1) As I was only beginning to learn English, I made very heavy weather of a very simple comprehension exercise（我当时初学英文时，做一个很简单的理解练习，也觉得很困难）。(2) He made heavy weather of repairing the roof, but it took him no more than three hours when he finally attended to the job（他把修理屋顶当作天大难事，后来真正着手工作，却只花了三小时）。
把复杂或严重的事当作小事，则叫to make light of something，这个light是形容词，指‘轻松’，例如：(1) To keep up his army's morale, the commander made light of his wound（司令官要维持军队士气，即使受了伤，也当作没有大碍）。(2) You must not make light of his threats（你不可忽视他的恐吓）。今天那段对话里的have a go和in person也值得谈谈。Go作名词，是‘尝试’的意思；in person则是‘亲自’，例如：(1) He had several goes without any success（他试了几次，都不成功）。(2) You must come in person to collect the letter（你必须亲自前来领取信件）。
