今天我们要给大家介绍两个以"嘴巴"这个字为主的习惯用语- mouth。大家可能还记得上次我们讲过,to bad-mouth and to shoot one's mouth off. To bad-mouth就是说别人坏话; to shoot one's mouth off是指一个人在某种场合滔滔不绝地说一些不适时宜或者不该讲的话。今天我们要讲的第一个习惯用语是: Motor mouth. Motor就是发动机。现在,你可以猜到什么是motor mouth了。Motor mouth就是那种滔滔不绝,除了喘气之外,说话没完的人。这种人的嘴巴就像一部机器,或汽车一样,发动了以后就好象停不下来了。不过,虽然这样的人有时会使得亲戚朋友感到难受,但是,除了这个不太好的习惯以外,他们也可能是很好相处的人。下面这个例子就是在说一个说话没完的人。
例句-1: Dick is a nice guy. But he's such a motor mouth that people avoid talking to him. He just can't stop talking, and nobody else has a chance to get a word in the conversation.
例句-2: The Rosens' friend David is a real motor mouth. I never go to any event when he's invited. He talks on forever, jumping from topic to topic like he knows everything. But for some reason the Rosens seem to like him.
滔滔不绝,说话像机器那样的人固然不讨人喜欢,但是,更严重的是有的人老是在不合时宜的情况下说不恰当的话。美国人说这种人有毛病,而且还有一个特殊的说法。这就是我们要讲的第二个习惯用语。 Foot in mouth disease. Foot就是一只脚,disease就是病。Foot in mouth disease从字面上来解释,它的意思就是,把脚放在嘴巴里的病。当一个小娃娃把自己的小脚放到嘴巴里去的时候,人们会觉得很好玩。但是,要是一个大人想这么做的话,他就会显得很傻,很愚蠢,就像你意识到自己说错了话一样。下面是一个典型的出言不当的例子。
例句-3: Well, Pete did it again! He asked Mister Jones what his wife was doing these days. I guess he'd forgotten Missus Jones died last fall. Poor Pete: I have never seen a worse case of foot in mouth disease.
例句-4: David is trying very hard to make up with his wife. But his sister said at the party last night that she would never live under the same roof with her husband if he had an affair like David. She has a real case of foot in mouth disease!