畅谈股票之二

　　Jim: And?

　　Kelly: His number is no longer in service. Then I called his company...

　　Jim: What did they say?

　　Kelly: They said they gave him the boot months ago.

　　Jim: Holy smokes! What's he doing, then? I hope he's OK.

　　Kelly: You know his girlfriend... try giving her a call.

　　(A day later.)

　　Jim: Guess what, Kelly? Linda and Billy broke up.

　　Kelly: Does she know where he is?

　　Jim: It sounds like she never wants to hear his name again, that wench!

　　Kelly: I thought they were in love.

　　Jim: I think she loved his promises of the easy life. Maybe Billy's too ashamed now to contact us.

　　Kelly: Let's keep trying his other friends to try to track him down.

　　Notes：

　　1. 对话中Kelly 和Jim在四处打探Billy的下落，Kelly给Billy家打电话，但是他家的电话已经停机了。Be in service 表示“可供使用的”，那么be out of service的意思就是“无法使用的”。

　　2. 然后Kelly又给Jim的公司打了电话，但是他们说几个月前Billy就被解雇了。Give someone the boot这个短语就表示“请某人走路，解雇某人”。一般来说，表示“解雇”这个意义的正式说法是“I was laid off.”

　　3. 如果要口语化一点，就是“I was fired.” 或者“I was canned.” 对话中的give someone the boot也可以表示“解雇”这个意义，我们一个对话来做例子，比如说：---Have you heard of it? Tom's given the boot! 你听说了吗？汤姆被解雇了。---Wow! It's unbelievable! 哇！真叫人无法想信！

　　4. 除了“解雇”这个意思之外，give someone the boot也可以表示“和某人断绝关系”，不过这里的关系通常是指男女关系。比如说：---Hey, Julie. Where's Peter? I thought he was coming. 嘿，Julie，Peter呢？我以为他也会来呢。---No, I gave him the boot. He was too possessive.没有，我把他甩了。他的占有欲太强了。

　　5. Jim对这个消息感到很吃惊，他说“Holy smokes!”，在口语中表示“天哪！”，跟“Oh, God!”差不多。Kelly让Jim打电话给Billy的女朋友，问问她知不知道Billy的下落。但是Jim带回来的消息却是，Billy和女朋友Linda已经分手了。她根本不知道Billy在哪，而且再也不想听到这个倒霉的人的名字了。Jim很气愤，说Linda是wench，wench在口语中表示“可恶的女人”，就跟bitch差不多。

　　6. Kelly还以为他们两个人是相爱的，没想到却大难临头各自飞，因为Linda看重的只是Billy承诺的轻松优越的生活。爱情事业都不得意，也许现在Billy没有脸跟朋友们联系了。Too ashamed to do something 表示“感到很羞愧而不能做某事”，比如说：He felt too ashamed to ask for help. 他不好意思请求帮助。

　　7. be ashamed of someone / something / oneself，表示“为某人/某事/为自己感到惭愧，感到羞耻”，比如说：You should be ashamed of yourself for telling such lies. 你应该为自己说谎而感到羞耻。He felt ashamed of having done so little work. 他因为只做了这么一点工作而感到惭愧。

　　8. Kelly还是不放弃希望，要继续打探Billy的消息。Track something /someone down，表示“经追踪或搜索而发现某人或某物”，比如说：I finally tracked down the reference¹ in a dictionary of quotations².

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