人们的情绪是经常变化的。喜、怒、哀、乐我们都体验过。在这一个讲里,我们就给大家介绍四个表达愤怒的习惯用语。第一个习惯用语:是 lose your cool。Lose是失去的意思,cool在这里是名词。意思是“凉爽”或“冷静。” 我们把这几个字连起来得到的直接意思是“失去你的冷静。”人在生气,特别是愤怒的时候,往往都是没有办法控制自己的情绪,失去了冷静,就要发脾气。我们举个例子听听。
例句-1:The first time Joan went to the store, they overcharged her. The second time they charged her double. The third time they did this she lost her cool and made a nasty scene with the manager.
刚才这个例子是描述一般的发怒的情况。还有些时候,人非常愤怒,光说lose your cool就不够劲了。英语里还有一个说法,语气要强烈得多。这就是go ballistic。动词go的本意大家都知道,有“变为、”“成为”的意思,如go mad, go crazy,就是发疯的意思。Ballistic是研究子弹或导弹弹道学问的意思。
例句-2:Our professor went ballistic as soon as he found out at least three people had cheated on the exam. Just for that he made everybody in the class take the exam over again.
例句-3:When the team from New York fouled our player in the final minute of the game, everybody in the stadium went zonkers and started to throw cans and bottles at them.
我们今天最后要讲解的一个表达愤怒的习惯用法是blow a fuse。Blow这儿的意思是“烧断。” Fuse是“保险丝。”如果电线上的电流太大,保险丝就会被“烧断”。一个人理智的保险丝要是被怒火烧断了,就会像保险丝被烧断的情形那样,冒出火花,造成破坏。所以,blow a fuse的意思也是愤怒的情绪超出了理智控制的程度。好,我们来看一个例子。
例句-4:When the restaurant owner found out that his employees were stealing food from the back room, he blew a fuse -- he fired them on the spot and chased them out of the building.