电影对白中有一些和time,也就是时间有关系的表达法。
我们先来看看英文里in the nick of time是什么意思。看下面的例子。
【精彩对白】
Del:Is there something I can help you with?
Cop:What the hell (are) you driving?
Del:We had a small fire last night, but we caught it in the nick of time.
Cop:Do you have any idea how fast you were going?
Del:Well,oddly enough,I was just talking to my friend about that.Our Speedometer melted and as a result, it’s very hard to say with any degree of accuracy exactly how fast we were going.
Cop:78 miles per hour.
【译文】
德尔:有什么可以效劳的吗?
科普:告诉我你开的是什么(该死的)车?
德尔:我们的车昨天晚上起了一场小火,不过我们还是在最后时刻把它给扑灭了。
科普:你知道你开得有多快吗?
德尔:很凑巧,我也正和我的朋友谈这个。我们的速度计熔化了,所以很难精准说出我们的速度到底有多快。
科普:时速78英里。
这个例子来自电影《一路疯狂》。因为是喜剧片,所以导演有意让故事人物所开的车起火燃烧,这有利于造成喜剧效果。
我们看到在这个例子里,为向警察辩解自己的清白,主人公德尔在解释中用到了短语in the nick of time.它的意思是“在最后一刻”。
另一个含“time”的短语 I had the time of my life是用来表达一个人生活得很满意,很高兴。
我们来看一个例子。
【精彩对白】
Lucy:Yesterday was a very special day for me.
Jack:Why is that?
Lucy:Because we had a class reunion.It’s pretty strange we haven’t seen most of each other for ten years though,we were still able to recognize each other immediately.
Jack:It is amazing,isn’t it?
Lucy:You bet.All the old memories just came back.we laughed a lot,we drank a lot and we told old stories and missed the old,innocent days of our college life.The time of my life.
【译文】
露西:昨天对我来说是一个很特殊的日子。
杰克:为什么呢?
露西:因为昨天我们同学聚会了。很神奇,虽然我们多数人有十年没见面了,但我们却可以一眼就认出对方。
杰克:真的是很令人惊讶啊!
露西:是啊。当年的往事都历历在目啊。我们一起大声欢笑,杯来盏往,讲述当年往事,怀念上大学时的纯真年代。真是令人高兴难忘啊。
我们看到,人生中高兴的事情是很多的,而老同学见面,当然是其中之一了。因此,“The time of my life”就很好地表达了这种喜悦的心情。
现学现用
1.昨天我被提拔为办公室经理,真是叫人高兴啊。
I was promoted as assistant manager of office yesterday, and I had the time of my life.
2.上周,我终于如愿去尼泊尔旅行了。那里真是美丽,我度过了生命中最美好的时光。
Last week,I went to Nepal for a journey.It was so beautiful and I had the best time of my life.
文章来源:《高中生》杂志