今天我們要講的美國習慣用語是:over the moon. Over是在上面的意思,moon是月亮的意思。over the moon連在一起,不是登月,而是高興萬分的意思。不管遇到什么好事,比如說是漲工資、生寶寶、或是自己支持的球隊贏了比賽的冠軍,都可以說over the moon, 來表達興奮的心情。下面我們來看一個例子。
這名男子多年來一直暗戀一名女友,讓我們看看什么能讓他over the moon:
例句-1:You can imagine how nervous I was when I finally told her how I felt. I didn't know what to expect. She could have gotten angry or acted like I was joking or even felt sorry for me. But, when she said she felt the same way, I was just over the moon.
他說:你可以想象,我向她表白的時候心里有多緊張。我不知道她會有什么樣的反應。她可能會生氣、也可能會覺得我是在開玩笑,甚至可能會同情我。可是她竟然說,她也喜歡我,這簡直讓我喜出望外。
這個片段不由得讓我們想起愛情影片的最后一幕。在生活中,最大的快樂往往會在最意想不到的時刻出現(xiàn)。
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Over the moon這個習慣用語來源于一個古老的童謠。
童謠: Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle/The cow jumped over the moon./The little dog laughed to see such fun/ And the dish ran away with the spoon.
這個童謠本身并沒有什么具體意思,但是童謠里的over the moon卻被作為習慣用語,一直沿用至今。在下面這個例子中,一名老人回憶他第一次被提升的時候說,
例句-2:It was two weeks after I married your mother. We were living in a tiny apartment and we had no idea how we were going to afford a family. So when I heard I was being promoted to sales manager, I was just over the moon.
他說:當時我娶你媽媽剛剛兩個星期,我們住在一個小小的公寓里,不知道怎么能養(yǎng)得起孩子。因此,當我聽說自己被提升為銷售經(jīng)理時,簡直高興極了。
這讓我想起自己當年申請來美國留學,又考托福,又考GRE,還要申請獎學金,最后得到入學通知和獎學金時,恐怕也只有over the moon 才能形容了。最讓人高興的事情,往往是付出努力最多,最終有所收獲的事情。