最近感冒很盛行,不要說The flu is very popular!
最近得流感的人很多,Michael看到他外國同事在咳嗽,關心的上前問候。順帶說了一句:
“The flu is very popular lately.”
他想表達的意思是最近感冒很盛行。但這麼說有問題嗎?
• The flu is very popular lately.
(X)流感很盛行。
(O)流感很受歡迎。
"The flu is very popular."並不正確。 "popular"是用來指一個人或一件事物受歡迎、被喜愛,或者成為
一種趨勢。例如:
• She's the most popular teacher in school. 她是學校裡最受歡迎的老師。
• Walking is a popular form of exercise in Britain. 在英國,走路是很流行的運動方式。
用popular來形容流感會讓句子聽起來奇怪,因為疾病並不是受人喜愛的東西。
「感冒最近很流行」,可以怎麼說呢?
• "The flu has been going around lately."
• "There's a lot of flu going around these days."
在這裡,"going around" 是常用的口語表達,用來指某種疾病正在廣泛傳播。這和「流行病」的概念有點
相似。今天就來談談go around這個片語,它看起來很簡單,就是太簡單了以致於我們經常忽視它的存在。
1. You can't go round being rude to people.
(X)你不能跑來跑去,對別人不禮貌。
(O)你不能老是對人這樣粗魯。
“Go around”是美國人說法,英國人用"go round",就字面上意思來說,是繞著圈子,或走來走去。
例如:
• She is going around looking for a job. 她四處奔走找工作。
Go around引申出「習慣於做一件事」,也就就是我們口語中的「老是」,例如:
• I had got in the habit of going around with bare feet. 我習慣光著腳。
• He was going round looking for a fight. 他到處找麻煩,想打架。
2. Are there enough pencils to go round?
(X)有足夠的鉛筆可以帶走嗎?
(O)鉛筆夠分嗎?
這個句子中,"go around" 的意思是「足夠分配給每個人」或「分配到每個人」,它經常用在日常對話:
• There aren't enough chairs to go round. 椅子不夠坐。
也常常用在商業情境當中,像預算分配、時間分配等。例如:
• We don’t have enough budget to go around for everyone’s project requests.
我們的預算不夠,無法滿足每個人的專案需求。