109The One Where Underdog Gets Away

1. Rachel: It's so that I can spend Thanksgiving with my family. See, every year we go skiing in Vail, and normally my father pays for my ticket, but I sort of started the whole independence thing, you know, which is actually why I took this job.

 

我们都比较熟悉so…that句型,也比较熟悉to do sth so that+从句的形式,这里so that使用方式在口语中也比较常见,也是表达因果关系的联词。Vail,指美国Colorado州的滑雪圣地。

 

关于英美的主要节日,这里也做一个介绍:

 

New Years Day:新年,元旦,1月1日;

St.Valentine's Day:圣瓦伦丁节(情人节)2月14日;

All Fools's Day or April Fools's Day:愚人节4月1日;

Good Friday:耶稣受难日(复活节前的星期五);

Easter:复活节(春分月圆后第一个星期日,4月);

Easter Monday复活节后的星期一;

Holy Thursday:耶稣升天节(复活节后的40天的星期四);

May Day or Labour Day:五一劳动节;

the Spring Bank Holiday:春假(英国5月最后一个星期一);

Mother's Day:母亲节(5月第二个星期日);

Memorial Day:阵亡将士纪念日(美国,5月26日);

Independence Day:美国独立纪念日(7月4日);

the Summer Bank Holiday:夏季公假(英国,8月最后一个星期一);

Columbus Day:哥伦布日(10月12日);

Halloween:万圣节前夕(10月31日);

Hallowmas:万圣节(11月1日);

Armistice day or Veterans Day:第一,二次世界大战的停战纪念日(11月11日);Thanksgiving Day:感恩节(在美国是11月的第二个星期一);

Christmas Eve:圣诞节前夜(12月24日);

Christmas Day:圣诞节(12月25日);

Boxing Day:节礼日(圣诞节次日,如遇星期日,推迟一天)。

 

本集故事就发生在Thanksgiving(感恩节)的大背景下,这个节日始于1621年。那年秋天,远涉重洋来到美洲的英国移民,为了感谢上帝赐予的丰收,举行了3天的狂欢活动。从此,这一习俗就沿续下来,并逐渐风行各地。1863年,美国总统林肯正式宣布感恩节为国定假日。届时,家家团聚,举国同庆,其盛大、热烈的情形,不亚于中国人过春节,在美国甚至比圣诞节还要隆重,这个节日里面,饭桌上火鸡(Turkey)和南瓜饼(Pumpkin Pie)是必不可少的菜肴,因此又叫火鸡节,这些希望能够在观看的时候慢慢体会。

 

2. Ross: Will you make the mashed potatoes with the lumps?

 

感恩节的食品里也少不了土豆的身影,因为父母去了波多黎各(Porto Rico),所以这次的盛宴将由Monica来筹备,Ross就提出了要他喜欢的马铃薯泥、土豆泥(mashed potatoes),没想到后面Joey和Phoebe也先后提出了要求,此乃后话,且不表。Mash,意为捣碎,加上-ed,动词形容词化,修饰potatoes。

 

3. Monica: And I assume, Chandler, you are still boycotting all the pilgrim holidays.

 

英美很多节日都和宗教有关系,所以Monica这里说“pilgrim holidays”,pilgrim意思是朝圣者、旅行者或者清教徒的意思。Boycott本来是一个人名,后来演变成专有名词,意思是“拒绝出席、拒绝参加、抵制反抗、经济制裁”等。

 

4. Ross: Look, if she's talking to it, I just think that I should get some belly time too. Not that I believe any of this.

 

“belly time”,翻译成腹部时间么?现在不可以,还记得以前的那个Alan-bashing么?常有这些表面上看起来莫名其妙的组合词组,这时候需要意译,结合上下文,知道这里Ross想表达的是他也想花点时间去进行胎教。“Not that I believe any of this”,这是一个强调句型,相当于I don’t belive any of this,Ross一方面不想让Susan一个人独享同胎儿亲近的机会,另一方面又非着重强调他是个PHD的身份,不相信这一套。在托福考试听力部分也常有这种用法。比如M:I hear the hocky game was packed. W:Not an empty seat in the house!Just standing room only.第一个人说:“我听说曲棍球比赛爆满了。第二个人回答说:“场地里没有空位置了,只有站的地方。”,这里第二个人说话时也把Not 着重强调。

 

5. Chandler: I'd just like to say that I'm totally behind this experiment. In fact, I'd very much like to butter your head.

 

这里总结一下,表示支持、赞同有哪些表达方法,Chandler用了一个be behind sb/sth,其他的还有:agree with, go along with,back up,on the side of,support等等,当然了还有一个最简单地表达法:be with sb,以及Friedns主题曲中的I’ll be there for you.“'d very much like to butter your head”中,very much又提前了,不同于我们常说的Thank you very much,这里还是表示强调。

 

6. Monica: We all chipped in. chip in

 

除了插嘴的意思之外,还有凑钱、捐款、赞助的意思。比如:I'm very sorry that I can only afford to chip in a few dollars this time.很抱歉这次我只能捐助区区几块钱了。Donate就显得正式多了,书面语中常见。The businessman donated a lot of money to the hospital. 这个商人捐给医院很多钱。论坛上也有号召捐款的帖子,个人以为不如改为凑份儿更合适。

 

7. Monica: (hands Chandler a bag) Chandler, here you go, got your traditional Thanksgiving feast, you got your tomato soup, your grilled cheese fixin's, and your family size bag of Funyuns.

Rachel: Wait, wait, Chandler, this is what you're havin' for Thanksgiving dinner? What, what, what is it with you and this holiday?

 

“fixin's”=fixings配菜,“Funyuns” 1969年百事可乐的菲多利推出的Funyuns牌洋葱味小食品。需要指出的是,百事并不只是生产饮料,在69年就提出了。“你们的生活丰富多彩,百事的产品同样丰富多彩”的广告主题。这点国内的朋友可以了解的要少一些。Chandler因为父母在感恩节那天宣布离婚,从此之后Chandler就对所有的宗教色彩节日反感,于是Monica给他装了西红柿汤、烤奶酪以及一些小食品给他。这其中故事大家都很熟悉了,只有Rachel不清楚,所以她不解地问:你和这节日怎么回事呀?(what is it with you and this holiday),这句话应该熟记,以后有什么觉得好奇的时候,就不用生硬的去问what’s wrong 或者what’s the matter了。

 

8. Chandler: Yes. It's very difficult to appreciate a Thanksgiving dinner once you've seen it in reverse.

 

Reverse可以做形容词,表示颠倒的、反常的或者向后转的,如:a reverse gear.

倒车档,也可以做名词,表示相反、反面以及失败、逆运,比如:suffered financial reverses.遭受财政困难,还可以做动词,表示颠倒、翻转、撤销。无论是什么词性,都可以从“反面的”这一意思推倒而出,这里用了in reverse,表示的是与…相反之意。整句话如下翻译:只要你也体验一次完全颠倒过来了的感恩节,就很难再去喜欢感恩节盛宴了。

 

9. Monica: Ok, three kinds of potatoes coming up.

 

有很多人喜欢Monica的确是有理由的,因为她能够设身处地的为他人着想,先后有Ross、Joey和Phoebe提出了自己的请求,于是她不得不准备三种不同的土豆来满足他们。

 

10. Monica: Ok, right about now the turkey should be crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. Why are we standing here?

 

到楼顶看完热闹,几个人回到门口,Monica美滋滋的设想了Oven里正在烹饪的火鸡状况,大概火鸡的外面应该是脆脆酥酥(crispy)的,里面应该是鲜嫩多汁(juicy)了吧。(适值午餐时间,偶都快流口水了,嗯,还是继续写完再去吃饭吧。)

 

11. Joey: Hey, I got one keyhole and about a zillion keys. You do the math.

 

天啦,原来,Rachel和Monica都没带钥匙,责任推诿也解决不了问题,好在Joey去拿了备用钥匙前来,可是钥匙又太多了,把他催急了,冷不丁冒出上面那句。意思是“钥匙孔只有一个,钥匙却有一大串,你自己去算吧!”言下之意,是怎么可能快的了呢?zillion, 庞大的数字, 无法计算的大数字,和million、billion一起记。

 

12. Chandler: I'd like to propose a toast. Little toast here, ding ding. I know this isn't the kind of Thanksgiving that all of you all planned, but for me, this has been really great, you know, I think because it didn't involve divorce or projectile vomiting. Anyway, I was just thinking, I mean, if you'd gone to Vail, and if you guys'd been with your family, if you didn't have syphilis and stuff, we wouldn't be all together, you know? So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm very thankful that all of your Thanksgivings sucked.

 

祝酒中西方都常见,这里Chandler也来了一段,虽然听起来很搞笑,不过我想Chandler说的是真心的,他的确是高兴的不得了:)。Propose a toase,祝酒。Syphilis:梅毒,其他常见性病(V.D.=venereal disease)还有淋病(gonorrhoea)、尖锐湿疣(Condyloma acuminata)等。另外,这段话很适合复习记忆stuff和suck的口语用法。

 

13. [Scene: The Subway, Joey sees his poster and he peels off the caption on his poster, revealing more posters underneath. The captions read, as follows:

Bladder Control Problem

Stop Wife Beating

Hemorrhoids?

Winner of 3 Tony Awards...

 

这副场景在网路的一个笑话中也有体现,说的是妈妈带女儿去游泳的场景,有兴趣的可以自己去查找一下,这里不赘述,Joey阴差阳错成了性病代言人,终归不是什么光彩的事儿,走在街头看到那张海报很不爽,于是看看四周每人,就上前去撕,结果发现下面的海报标题也不好,第一次是膀胱控制问题(Bladder Control Problem),第二次是停止虐待妻子(Stop Wife Beating),第三次则是痔疮(Hemorrhoids),最后终于露出个让他满意的,原来是三项“托尼奖”( Winner of 3 Tony Awards),这下他高兴了,要知道“托尼奖”可是美国戏剧的最高奖啊!