轻松日记商务职场篇184:拖延时间

 　　核心句型：

　　We should try to buy more time.

　　我们要设法拖延时间。

　　buy more time 字面意思是：“买更多的时间”，这个短语的正确意思是：“争取时间、拖延时间”。因此，当美国人说"We should try to buy more time."时，他/她要表达的意思就是:"We should try to gain more time."、"We should try to stall for time."、"We'd better adopt a stonewalling strategy."。

　　情景对白：

　　Jane: What's the matter with Mike? He is about to make presentation in ten minutes, but where is he?

　　简：麦克怎么回事啊，十分钟后就该他发言了，他哪儿去了啊？

　　Shirley: Call him immediately. And anyway, we should try to buy more time.

　　雪莉：快打电话给他，无论如何我们要设法拖延时间。

　　搭配句积累：

　　①The manager just called that he would arrive in a moment.

　　经理刚刚打来电话说他一会儿就到。

　　②There must be something fishy¹ behind it, and we must check it out here.

　　这其中肯定有什么猫腻儿，我们得在这儿查出真相。

　　③The deadline is coming but we haven't finished this task.

　　截止日期就要到了，但是我们的任务还没完成。

　　④Our computer will be fixed² in no time, but I hate to go back work.

　　我们的电脑马上就要修好了，可我不想回去工作啊。

　　单词：

　　1. stall vi. 拖延

　　The Social Democratic Party has vowed³ to try to stall the bill until the current session ends.

　　社会民主党誓言要将该议案拖到本次议会会议结束之后。

　　Thomas had spent all week stalling over his decision.

　　托马斯磨了整个星期，迟迟不想作出决定。

　　Every time I ask her to set the date she stalls.

　　我每次请她定一个时间，她总是借故拖延。

　　2. stonewall vt. 拖延，阻碍

　　The administration is just stonewalling in an attempt to hide their political embarrassment⁴...

　　政府只是在模棱两可地拖延时间，企图掩盖自己的政治窘态。

　　He did his best this week to stonewall questions and to block even the most modest proposals.

　　他这周竭力避免作出明确答复，甚至连一些最温和的建议都企图阻拦。

1 fishy   

adj. 值得怀疑的

参考例句：

• It all sounds very fishy to me.所有这些在我听起来都很可疑。
• There was definitely something fishy going on.肯定当时有可疑的事情在进行中。

2 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

3 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

4 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。