ESL杰夫的一天 第71期:工作 休息和吃午饭讲解(9)

 　　"The only trouble is," I say, "it's always so busy during the lunch hour." 我说，“唯一的不便之处是，午饭时间那儿总是非常忙”。

　　The lunch hour, in most American companies, is from noon to one or 1:30, or 11:30 in the morning to maybe one o'clock in the afternoon. 在大多数的美国公司里，午饭时间是从中午十二点到下午一点或一点半，或者是从上午十一点半到下午一点。

　　It's usually longer than an hour, though in some companies, you only get one hour. 午饭时间通常超过一个小时，但是，在有些公司里，你只有一个小时。

　　Some companies, you only get 30 minutes to eat. 还有些公司，你只有三十分钟的吃饭时间。

　　"I always have to stand in line" because it's so busy. “我总是要排队”，因为那儿总是非常忙。

　　To stand in line means to wait behind other people. “排队”是在他人身后等待的意思。

　　In England, they would say to queue; in the US we say to stand in line. 在英国，人们会称之为“queue”；在美国，我们称之为“stand in line”.

　　I say, "That's usually a pain." 我说，“排队通常是件令人头痛的事”。

　　When we say something is a pain, "pain," we mean that it's very inconvenient¹ or uncomfortable — something you do not like. 当我们说某事令人头痛（pain）的时候，我们是指那件事很麻烦或令人不舒服——某件你不喜欢的事。

　　People will also say a pain in the neck or a pain in the butt², "butt." 人们还会用“a pain in the neck”或“a pain in the butt”来形容。

　　Those are the same basic meanings. 那些短语的本意相同。

　　Something that's a pain in the neck or a pain in the butt means it's not something that you like, it's very inconvenient. 某事让人“脖子痛”或“屁股痛”，意味着它不是你喜欢的事，它很麻烦。

1 inconvenient   

adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的

参考例句：

• You have come at a very inconvenient time.你来得最不适时。
• Will it be inconvenient for him to attend that meeting?他参加那次会议会不方便吗？

2 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。