商务礼节美语第72期:权力争夺(1)

　　David在走廊上遇到同事Sandra，Sandra看上去很生气。
David: Hey Sandra, what's wrong? You look furious!
Sandra: I've had it with Tim! I think I'm going to quit!
D: But Sandra...you love your job! You spent months trying to get this position. It's perfect for you!
S: Yeah...I know. But I'm sick and tired of all the office power struggles!
D: What kind of power struggles are you talking about?
David 看见同事 Sandra 怒气冲冲的 you look furious 问她出了什么事。Sandra 说受够了 Tim，I've had it with Tim. 表达受够了某人某事可以说 have had it with someone or something. 比如 I've had it with Jackie. She won't stop complaining. 意思是我真受不了Jackie，她老是抱怨个没完没了。Sandra 说，I'm sick and tired of all the office power struggles. to be sick and tired of something 是受够了的另外一种表达方式。原来，Sandra 是对办公室的争权夺利感到厌倦。她说的 Tim 是个什么样的人呢？
S: Basically, I think Tim is threatened by me. I'm doing a better job than he is so he's trying to sabotage¹ my career!
D: So he talks about you behind your back?
S: Yes. He's all nice and friendly to my face. But the second I turn around he stabs me in the back!
D: You know I had a worker like that once. She was always taking credit for my ideas.
Sandra 觉得，自己比Tim能力强，对Tim构成威胁，所以他才会故意给自己找麻烦，sabotage is spelled s-a-b-o-t-a-g-e, sabotage, sabotage 是故意破坏的意思。David 问，so he talks about you behind your back? to talk about someone behind someone's back 背后说某人坏话。Sandra 说，他当着我的面很友善，我一转身离开，他就背后捅我一刀，He stabs me in the back. David颇有同感，说自己也遇到过这种人，以前就有个女同事总把David想出的好主意说成是自己的，She was always taking credit for my ideas. to take credit for something 意思是把某种成绩归功于自己。
D: After a while I learned to document my work very clearly so the boss knew 100% that this was my work.
S: That's a good idea. I should keep a better record of my correspondence with the clients so if necessary I can prove it was my effort.
D: My co-worker had a whole bunch of bad office habits. She liked to name-drop...we would be in a meeting and she would say, "yesterday I was chatting with Tom." She meant Tom Solomon...our CEO.
David 又说，自己那个讨厌的同事有很多坏毛病，其中之一就是 name-drop, name-drop意思是提起名人，以便提高自己的身价，喜欢这样做的人就是 name-dropper. name-drop为什么是坏习惯呢？我们下次继续听。

1 sabotage   

n.怠工，破坏活动，破坏；v.从事破坏活动，妨害，破坏

参考例句：

• They tried to sabotage my birthday party.他们企图破坏我的生日晚会。
• The fire at the factory was caused by sabotage.那家工厂的火灾是有人蓄意破坏引起的。