参考词典:Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's Dictionary,Collins Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary 。
今日学习单词:trouble 。
关于 trouble,我们常见的用法基本都是名词,比如 cause troubles,be in trouble,have trouble with something等等。但其实trouble 的动词形式用途更广泛,今天查字典仔细研究一下 trouble 的动词用法。
1 : to make (someone) feel worried or upset : worry 使某人感到担心,沮丧,忧虑,苦恼,烦恼等。等同于 worry。
The accusations troubled him deeply.
指控深深地困扰着他。
I'm troubled by his strange behavior.
他奇特的举动令我很担心。
2 formal : to disturb or bother (someone) 【正式用法】干扰,打扰
I don't mean to trouble you, but I have a question.
我不是故意打扰你,只是我有个问题想问。
Could I trouble you for the time? [=can you tell me what time it is?]
打扰一下,请问现在几点了?
Don't trouble yourself [=I don't need your help], I can handle it.
不需要你帮忙,我自己能搞定。
3 : to cause (someone) to feel pain 使(某人)感到疼痛
My back has been troubling [=bothering] me again.
我的背部又开始疼了。
4 : to make an effort to do something 劳神,费心
I wish you'd at least troubled [=bothered] to call.
我希望你至少能费心打个电话。
Collins 中关于 trouble 的短语用法做了更详细的解释:
1. be in trouble: If someone is in trouble, they are in a situation in which a person in authority is angry with them or is likely to punish them because they have done something wrong. 出于困境;惹麻烦;将受惩罚。
He was in trouble with his teachers...
老师们都想好好教训他。
The person who loaned them to me got into terrible trouble for it.
把那笔钱借给我的那个人因此倒霉了。
2. take trouble to do something: If you take the trouble to do something, you do something which requires a small amount of additional effort. 费力,费神。注意柯林斯词典中费力,费神对应的英文解释与韦伯不同,是requires a small amount of additional effort 些许努力,也就是稍稍用心,稍稍关注,也就是费心,费神。
It is worth taking the trouble to sieve the fruit by hand…
值得费点劲用手挑挑果子。
He did not take the trouble to see the film before he attacked it.
他在批评那部电影之前都懒得费神欣赏。
3. If you say that someone or something is more trouble than they are worth, you mean that they cause you a lot of problems or take a lot of time and effort and you do not achieve or gain very much in return. 得不偿失,费时又费力,付出与回报不成正比。
Some grumbled that Johnson was more trouble than he was worth...
有人抱怨说根本不值得为约翰逊浪费精力。
Learning more about it always seemed more trouble than it was worth.
似乎总是觉得没必要为进一步了解它而大费工夫。
今日造句作业:
1. 最困扰很多二线城市的是人才的短缺。
The shortage of human resources mostly troubles many second-tier cities.
(参考翻译:What troubles many second-tier cities the most is a shortage of talent.)
对比老师给出的翻译,我自己的翻译有一点平铺直叙。尽管使用了被动语态,强调了人才短缺才是需要关注的,但是感觉句子不够灵动。而且 mostly 的位置一开始是犹豫的,如果放在句尾读起来很怪异,所以就放前面了。反观参考翻译,What 引导的主语从句,一下子就抓住了读者的眼球。从句中的 the most反映出问题的严重性,is 后面简单清晰的说明了原因。另外,talent 也用得很巧妙,比human resources更能激发人的想象,甚至引起共情。
2. 最近家庭的一些事情着实令我很困扰,分身乏术,但又不得不做。下一代的成长真是一件大工程。模仿上一句参考翻译造个句子吧。
What troubles me the most lately is that my kid could’t deal with the separation anxiety very well.