英语小达人 251 Grounds for Divorce

 　　Grounds for Divorce

　　离婚的理由

　　A woman goes into her lawyer's office requesting a divorce.

　　一个女人去找律师要求离婚。

　　He is taking all of her background information and asks her, "Do you have grounds for a divorce?"

　　他了解了相关资料后，问她：“你要求离婚有什么理由？”

　　To which she replies, "Well, we have three acres."

　　她答：“我们有3英亩。”

　　"No, ma'am. What I mean is, does he beat you?" asks the attorney.

　　“夫人，我的意思是，他打你吗？”

　　"No, I get up around 6:30 and he sleeps until 7:00," she responds.

　　“不，我大概6点半起床，而他睡到7点，”她说。

　　Feeling a little frustrated¹ the attorney asks, "Lady, tell me, do you have a grudge²?"

　　律师有点儿泄气，又问：“女士，请告诉我，你是否怀有积怨？”

　　Looking very confident she states, "No, we have a carport."

　　女人很确定地说：“不，我们有车棚。”

　　At this point the lawyer has lost his patience and asks, "Look, Lady. Why the heck do you want a divorce?"

　　律师终于失去耐心了，他直截了当地问：“好吧，女士。你到底为什么要离婚？”

　　"Because he can't hold an intelligent conversation!"

　　“因为没法理智地和他说话！”

　　重点讲解：

　　1. grounds for

　　理由；根据；

　　eg. In the interview he gave some grounds for optimism.

　　他接受采访时阐述了持乐观态度的理由。

　　eg. They have reasonable grounds for suspicion.

　　他们有充分的根据产生怀疑。

　　2. lose patience/lose one's patience

　　失去耐心；发脾气；

　　eg. As the minutes ticked away they to lose patience.

　　随着时间一分一分的过去，他们开始变得不耐烦了。

　　eg. If you don't stop making that noise I'm going to lose my patience.

　　你要再不停止发出噪音，我可要火了。

　　3. why the heck

　　（尤在迷惑或恼怒时用于疑问句中表示强调）到底，究竟；

　　eg. Why the heck are you standing³ here?

　　你站在这里做什么？

　　eg. Ask yourself this: If you don’t like who you really are, why the heck should I like you?

　　问问自己：如果你自己都不喜欢真实的自己，那别人怎么会喜欢你呢？

　　4. hold a conversation

　　谈话；

　　eg. It's impossible to hold a conversation with all this noise.

　　噪音这么大，根本没法进行交谈。

　　eg. It remains⁴ to be seen whether I would ever again be able to hold a conversation with John.

　　我能否和约翰再次进行谈话现在还不清楚。

1 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 grudge   

n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做

参考例句：

• I grudge paying so much for such inferior goods.我不愿花这么多钱买次品。
• I do not grudge him his success.我不嫉妒他的成功。

3 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。