迷你对话学地道口语第365期:在困难中,走投无路

　　第一、迷你对话
A: I met Mark yesterday. He looked blue.
我昨天遇到马克，他看起来很忧郁。
B: He’s been on the gravy¹ train these years, hasn’t he?
这几年他一直在做很挣钱的工作呀，不是吗？
A: It belongs to the past. He lost his job the other day, and he’s up a tree now.
那是过去的事情了，前几天他失业了，他现在正处于困难中。
B: It seems that nobody can always expect things to pan out well each time.
看来每个人都期望自己总是一帆风顺呀。
第二、 对话精讲
1. 地道表达
地道短语】up a tree
解词释义】up a tree源于up a gum-tree，字面意思是“在橡胶树上”，用来比喻“无论如何都不能逃脱”，意即：一筹莫展，走投无路，陷入困境，进退维谷等等意思。
支持范例1】With the failure of the experiment, we are up a tree now.
试验失败了，我们一筹莫展。
支持范例2】In fine, she had been up a tree and committed the matter to me.
最后她走投无路，把这件事委托我了。
2. 词海拾贝
gravy train：轻易发大财的工作
例句-1】Many government officials in America are on the gravy train .
美国政府很多官员工作清闲却薪水很高。
例句-2】He’ll never leave his job. It’s a real gravy train.
他是绝对不会辞职的，那可是个肥缺。
the other day：前几天，不久前的一天
例句-1】She looked at the vendor² who cheated her the other day with distaste.
她厌恶地望着那个前几天曾经欺骗过她的小贩。
例句-2】I chanced to see our old headmaster in the street the other day.
前几天我碰巧在街上看到了我们的老校长.
pan out：成功，结果
例句-1】We hope things will pan out as we expect.
我们希望事情的结果正如所料。
例句-2】My plan to study at Harvard didn't pan out.
我进哈佛大学就读的计划没成功。

1 gravy   

n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快

参考例句：

• You have spilled gravy on the tablecloth.你把肉汁泼到台布上了。
• The meat was swimming in gravy.肉泡在浓汁之中。

2 vendor   

n.卖主；小贩

参考例句：

• She looked at the vendor who cheated her the other day with distaste.她厌恶地望着那个前几天曾经欺骗过她的小贩。
• He must inform the vendor immediately.他必须立即通知卖方。