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実践ビジネス英語 2008.07.24
2008年7月第4週分 Lesson 9 Career Activist (5)
《ディクテーション・ノート》
== Key Phrases to Remember ==
● I can’t believe my ears! 耳を疑ってしまう。信じられない。
● for a change たまには
People often do things for a change as well, to refresh themselves, to look at their lives a little bit differently. But on the other hand, people also say that you shouldn’t change just for change’s sake.
● quality time （家族などと過ごす）上質の時，充実した時間
quality time ということばは80年代頃から広まってきたという発言を受けて
Yeah, I think because both husbands and wives were spending more time at work, they felt sort of guilty about how much time they were spending with their kids or even how much time they were spending together. So to try to help themselves feel less guilty, the idea of quality time, really paying attention to each other in a shorter amount of time, became popular. I’ve heard, though, on the other hand, many people would say, "Oh, if you think back to the time when mother tended to stay home with their kids, they didn’t stay that much time directly together, having quality time." Usually, their kids were playing or doing something in their bedrooms and the mother was doing whatever she always did at home. So some people say, "Well, the idea of quality time is really to help working people’s guilt for not being home as much as they used to be."
・ quality time = the time that you spend giving someone your full attention, especially time that you spend with your children when you are not busy: Do you spend enough quality time with your children? (LDOCE)
● no wonder that … ．．．であるのも不思議ではない
In fact, I think if people begin with "No wonder," they’d almost always drop the "that." If they make the full sentence "It’s no wonder," then, depending on the person, they might use "that," they might not.
・ It is no wonder that S + V と完全に言うか，No wonder S + V と副詞的に使うかのどちらかで，後者ではあまりthat入れないということです。
● take a break 休みを取る
Hmm. There’s another phrase in English with a different verb — "Give me a break" — which means "Lay off," "Stop it," "Don’t pester me."
And because we also use that phrase rather idiomatically, it could easily be misunderstood, if you walked up to your boss, your supervisor, and said "Give me a break?" If you want to take a break, you’d probably have to ask your supervisor, "Can I take a break?"
・ You can say ‘give me a break’ to show that you are annoyed by what someone has said or done. (INFORMAL) : ‘I’m a real intellectual-type guy, Tracy,’ James joked. ‘Oh, give me a break,’ Tracy moaned. (COBUILD)
・ "Lay off." やめてくれ。
● The trend is toward … ・・・の傾向にある
・ The current trend is towards more part-time employment.
== Key Phrases to Remember ==
「信じられない！」という時の表現
● You can’t fool me. だまされないよ。
● I’ll believe it when I see it. 証拠を見るまで信じない。
● Hey, I’m from Missouri. 証拠を見るまで信じない。
もともとミズーリ州は鈍臭いというイメージから，"Show Me State"という愛称をつけられていたが，ミズーリ人たちはそれを人にだまされない慎重さ・利発さの意味で受け取っていたという。 1899年，ミズーリ選出の下院議員Willard Duncan Vandiver はパーティで（一説では議会で），"I’m from Missouri, you’ve got to show me." （私はミズーリ出身です。証拠を挙げてください。）と言ったというのが，語源らしい。
● You can’t pull the wool over my eyes.
・ pull the wool over somebody’s eyes to deceive someone by not telling the truth
● I wasn’t born yesterday.
・ I wasn’t born yesterday <spoken> used to tell someone you think is lying to you that you are not stupid enough to believe them
「ばかにすんな。昨日や今日生まれたガキではない。」ということでしょう。
● That blows my mind.
・ blow somebody’s mind <spoken> to make you feel very surprised and excited by something: Seeing her again really blew my mind.
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rickie
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