三九天——这么冷
再过几天就是“三九”了。俗话说:三九四九冰上走。“三九”意味着一年中最冷的日子到了。除了cold,英语中还有哪些词语可以表达“寒冷”呢?
1. The bathroom gets chilly in the winter.
冬天浴室变得很冷。
2. She opened the window and I was hit by an icy blast of air.
她打开窗户,一阵刺骨的寒风向我袭来。
3. He leant forward to protect himself against the biting wind.
他佝偻着身体以避寒风。
4. Wrap up warmly - it's bitter outside.
穿暖和些——外面特别冷。
5. The evening was cold and raw.
那个晚上寒冷刺骨。
6. Walking ?home in the ?snow, we got ?chilled to the ?bone.
我们蹚着雪往家走,快要冻僵了。
7. It was a cold and frosty morning.
那是个天寒地冻的早晨。
8. It's a ?bit parky today, ?love - you'll ?want ?your ?coat!
亲爱的,外面有点冷,你穿件外套吧!
9. I'm frozen - could you ?close the ?window?
我冻僵了都,你可以关下窗吗?
10. It's freezing in here - can I close the window?
这儿冷极了——我把窗户关上可以吗?
庸才当道
当今社会,最看重的就是人才。要想成功经营一家企业,首先就要擦亮眼睛选好雇员,避免出现“庸才当道”的状况。
Bozo explosion is the large number of inept employees that a company ends up with when it hires an incompetent executive, who in turn hires incompetent managers, who then hire incompetent workers.
“庸才当道”是指一家公司启用了一位无能的高管,此高管又聘用了不称职的经理,经理而后雇用了一堆无能的员工,最终导致公司里不称职的雇员为数众多的状况。
Bozo作为美式英语里的俚语,有“笨蛋;傻瓜”的意思。而explosion作名词为“爆炸,激增”的意思。因此这个组合很形象的形容了一个企业被没有能力的员工充斥的状况。除了Bozo explosion,bozo bomber也可以表达类似的意思。
The Bozo Explosion was possibly coined by Steve Jobs at Apple:
“庸才当道”很可能是苹果公司的史蒂夫·乔布斯创造的词语:
"Actually, Steve believed that A players hire A players—that is people who are as good as they are. I refined this slightly—my theory is that A players hire people even better than themselves. It's clear, though, that B players hire C players so they can feel superior to them, and C players hire D players. If you start hiring B players, expect what Steve called 'the bozo explosion' to happen in your organization," said Guy Kawasaki.
盖伊·川崎称:“实际上,史蒂夫认为,一流人才会雇用一流人才——那些和他们一样优秀的人。我稍微完善一下这个理念,我的理论是:一流人才会雇用那些比他们更优秀的人才。那么显而易见,二流员工会雇用三流庸才,这样他们才感觉能驾驭手下人。以此类推,三流庸才雇得是四流雇员。如果你开始雇了二流人才,你的团队就会出现史蒂夫称之为‘庸才当道’的现象。”
Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. Formerly, he was an advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and chief evangelist of Apple.
盖伊·川崎是Canva公司的首席宣传官。Canva是一家经营在线平面设计工具的公司。此前,他曾任谷歌的摩托罗拉业务部顾问和苹果公司的首席宣传官。
For Example:
Years ago, I was trying to figure out how to get my first company off the ground. One concept that stuck with me was "preventing the bozo explosion".
几年前,我正在想办法如何让我开的第一家公司“步入正轨”。一个观念使我印象深刻:防止出现“庸才当道”的状况。
男性回答综合征
一群朋友在一起聊天,无论别人提什么问题,总有一个人抢着回答,虽然,他的回答可能并不是很靠谱。嗯,身边这样“无所不知”的人还真是不少呢!他们是不是都患了“男性回答综合征”啊?
Male answer syndrome(MAS) is the tendency for some men to answer a question even when they don't know the answer.
“男性回答综合征”指部分男性听到有人提问题就想回答,无论是否真的知道答案。
Try an experiment. Ask a male friend a question, something completely outside his sphere of expertise.
来做个试验,问你的男性朋友一个问题,而且是完全在他知识范围以外的问题。
Will you get an answer? Chances are, you will. The male friend is exhibiting behavior known as Male Answer Syndrome. It's the compulsion by many individuals (mostly men, but sometimes women) to answer questions readily, regardless of knowledge.
他会回答吗?很可能会的。这位男性朋友表现出的就是“男性回答综合征”。这是很多人(大部分是男性,有时也有女性)都有的一种强迫性冲动,遇到有人提问题,无论是否了解,都想要要回答一下。
Psychologists tell us it's a form of "male display behavior" and is a subtle method of attracting females. "Men have the courage and inventiveness to try to explain the inexplicable." A man may even start to believe his own baloney. This might account, in part, for the disproportionate number of men over women actively successful in the arts.
心理学家告诉我们,这是“男性表现行为”的一种形式,同时也是吸引女性的一种巧妙手段。心理学家认为,“男性有勇气和创造力去试图解释难以理解的事物。”而且,男性甚至会相信自己的胡扯。这也许可以从某种角度解释为什么在艺术领域获得成功的男性比女性多。
生育时间表
随着“二孩政策”正式实施,以及猴年即将来临,生育高峰已经开始显现。一些能够受益的行业必然是喜不自禁,然而陆续有员工怀孕、备孕,却让用人单位犯了难。因为担心缺乏人手,长春一单位制定了“生育时间表”,要求员工提前报备、排队生育。
Some companies have formulated a "birth time schedule" that stipulates employees should report to their employers one year prior to a planned second child.
一些公司制定了“生育时间表”,计划生二孩的员工应提前一年向公司报告。
“生育时间表”(birth time schedule)是个别公司担心员工扎推怀孕会造成人手短缺而制定的临时措施,要求员工提前报备,排队生育。Schedule一词多用来指有详细时间安排的日程表,比如:bus schedule(公共汽车时刻表)、work schedule(工作日程表)等;这个词也可以直接作动词,指计划在某个时间做某事,比如:The space shuttle is scheduled to blast off at 04:38.(航天飞机计划在凌晨4点38分发射升空。)
二孩放开,社会上方方面面都会受到不同程度的影响。不少企业对此忧心忡忡,因为很多想生二孩、或者是已经在备孕(planning for pregnancy)的职工,可能会造成企业人手短缺(labor shortage)影响到单位的工作运转。
有业内人士预估,“全面二孩”实施后,以每年平均增加100万-200万新生儿的速度计算,预计2018年新生儿有望超2000万人。在这个数字背后,房地产(real estate)、食品玩具、医疗健康、家用汽车(family automobiles)、在线教育(online education)等行业都将受益,但最直接的受益者应该算母婴用品行业(baby, kids & maternity products)。