有的人喜欢抽烟有烟瘾,有的人喜欢喝酒有酒瘾。有的人老是在工作,好像对工作上了瘾一样。英文里有一个专门的名词来形容那些人。这就是我们今天要给大家介绍的第一个习惯用语。workaholic 在英文里,alcoholic就是喝酒上瘾的人。根据高克毅写的《通俗美语辞典》,大约二十年前有一个名字叫作韦恩.奥茨的美国教会辅导员。他每天从早到晚忙个不停,是一个典型的工作狂。有一天,他那五岁的儿子要见他,但是他非得通过他爸爸的秘书约好一个时间后才能见到他。这件事使韦恩.奥茨省悟了过来,于是他写了一本书,题目是:《一个工作病狂者的忏悔录》,英文名字是:"Confessions of a Workaholic"。这是workaholic这个字第一次出现。实际上就是把 alcoholic这个字前面的四个字母a-l-c-o改成w-o-r-k。从那时候起,workaholic就开始用来指一个只知道工作,忽视家庭,没有正常生活的人。下面就是一个很好的例子。
My brother Bill designs computers and he's turned into a real workaholic. He works twelve hours a day, talks about nothing else and pays no attention to his wife and three kids, or his old friends.
Don't call me workaholic please! Yes, I spend most of my time in the office and can't go on vacation with you and the kids. But you think I like it? I have to work hard if I want to be promoted and make more money.
我们再来给大家介绍一个和艰苦工作有关的习惯用语。grunt work Grunt就是由于太疲劳,或者是不满意而咕咕哝哝。Grunt work就是会使得人感到非常疲劳的繁重的体力劳动。在越南战争期间,美国人把那些参加战争的美国士兵叫做grunt,特别是那种除了扛枪外还必须挖壕沟或做其他重体力活的士兵。Grunt work就是在这个基础上发展而来的。下面是一个学生在说他暑期打工的情况。
The only job I could find was on a highway work crew. I spent most of my time digging ditches - nothing but grunt work. The good part was that it paid twice as much as work in a hamburger joint.
It's not fair that I'm always assigned to do the grunt work with no chance of getting those juicy jobs like the others on my team. We make the same amount of money and I don't see any reason to be treated this way.