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刀如水 LV7

发表于 12-9-2013 12:40:29 | 显示全部楼层

不为稻粱谋 发表于 4-9-2013 17:59
同事转发的帖子,初读不知所云,然后,越读越好笑。不觉得好笑的咱们可以交流交流。

ALERTS TO THREATS IN ...

另: 这个笑话几年前就开始流传于网上了, 最近又被用叙利亚局势重新包装了一下。这个笑话也不是John Cleess写的, 作者是无名氏。

John Cleess在网上最有名的英式幽默小品是《Letter to America》。

Letter to America
("Notice of Revocation of Independence")

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

          Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
         
1. You should look up revocation in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up aluminium. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix ize will be replaced by the suffix ise. You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

          Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up vocabulary. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up interspersed. There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.

          2. There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.

          3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney,upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as Taggart will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is Devon. If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become shires e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

          4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as Men Behaving Badly or Red Dwarf will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

          5. You should relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

          6. You should stop playing American football. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American football is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays American football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders,your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called rounders, which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

          7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

          8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called Indecisive Day.

          9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time,you will go metric with immediate effect and conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

          10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

          11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

          12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer,and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. The substances formerly known as American Beer will henceforth be referred to as Near-Frozen Knat's Urine,with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as Weak Near-Frozen Knat's Urine. This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen,Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

          13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or Gasoline, as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon- get used to it).

          14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

          15. Please tell us who killed JFK.  It's been driving us crazy.

          16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (back dated to 1776).

          Thank you for your co-operation and have a great day.

          John Cleese

不为稻粱谋 LV12

发表于 4-10-2013 16:38:41 | 显示全部楼层

小狮租房
一直想知道节俭过日子该怎么讲,今天终于找到这个词。
We had to scrimp and save to pay the bills. 我们得省吃俭用来付帐。

不为稻粱谋 LV12

发表于 7-10-2013 14:07:36 | 显示全部楼层

This argument is simply not tenable. 这个论点根本站不住脚
He's got a scholarship tenable for four years. 他已得到为期四年的奖学金。

SEBAROK LV4

发表于 15-10-2013 14:37:23 | 显示全部楼层

what means icecream?

不为稻粱谋 LV12

发表于 16-10-2013 12:02:52 | 显示全部楼层

今天想说某个数据对比强烈,看起来很夸张,触目惊心,夺人眼球,甚至惊悚,我实在不知道该怎么表达,就用了amazing。
然后老板说:yes, it's compelling
觉得这个compelling就是我要表达的意思,可是,我居然找不到一个十分match的中文翻译。有高手能说说吗?

kindness LV15

发表于 16-10-2013 13:51:35 | 显示全部楼层

不为稻粱谋 发表于 16-10-2013 12:02
今天想说某个数据对比强烈,看起来很夸张,触目惊心,夺人眼球,甚至惊悚,我实在不知道该怎么表达,就用了 ...

不是高手,我来一起学习一下。
compelling , 不可抗拒地, 引人入胜。
compelling reason, compelling content

小飞猪 LV16

发表于 16-10-2013 14:09:21 | 显示全部楼层

不为稻粱谋 发表于 16-10-2013 12:02
今天想说某个数据对比强烈,看起来很夸张,触目惊心,夺人眼球,甚至惊悚,我实在不知道该怎么表达,就用了 ...

这个词我很熟,因为频繁出现在吸血鬼剧里,哈哈
据说吸血鬼可以洗去人类的记忆,或者强迫他们相信吸血鬼想让他们相信的事物
不过《Vampire diaries》用的是compel,《Ture Blood》用的是glamour.

不为稻粱谋 LV12

发表于 16-10-2013 15:10:23 | 显示全部楼层

再一贴:
平常我只会用power,例如:xxxx could greatly increase sombody’s power when negotiating with xxxxxx.
最近突然发现,其实老美们在这种情况下都爱用leverage。leverage此处做优势,影响力解,和power很接近,但是感觉更加谦和。(不知道我的感觉对不对)
还有:He has some leverage over the politician。此处也是影响力的意思。

kindness LV15

发表于 16-10-2013 15:47:00 | 显示全部楼层

不为稻粱谋 发表于 16-10-2013 15:10
再一贴:
平常我只会用power,例如:xxxx could greatly increase sombody’s power when negotiating with ...

leverage 翻译成中文的解释有两种,一种是杠杆作用、杠杆率;另一种是力量,影响,为达到某一目的而采取的手段。另有同名美国电视剧《leverage》,中文译名为《都市侠盗》。

在这里查到的:-
http://www.iciba.com/leverage

点评

这个美剧的中文译名相差好远啊。看来要看电视才会懂为什么这样翻译。  详情 回复 发表于 16-10-2013 16:26

kindness LV15

发表于 16-10-2013 16:00:43 | 显示全部楼层

http://www.iciba.com/compelling

发现这个网站不错,关于compelling 的解释,和我前面自己悟出来的翻译差不多。
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