Exercise 練一練
1. What does fire away mean?:
a) you can ask me anything you want
b) it's safe to fire the gun
c) I think I can smell something burning
2. Which other expression has the same meaning as fire away?
3. Is fire away a friendly or unfriendly thing to say?
Script 文本閱讀
You’re listening to British Council’s English Online Podcast and I’m Nina. Today on Language Snacks we take a look at the expression fire away. Let’s listen to the dialogue.
您現(xiàn)在收聽的是英國領(lǐng)事館英語在線欄目，我是尼娜。今天的語言小點(diǎn)心節(jié)目我們來學(xué)一下fire away 這個(gè)短語，一起來聽下面的對(duì)話。
A: ...so that concludes my presentation today and I will now be happy to answer any questions you may have.
A:...今天我的演講就到這里，歡迎大家有疑問盡管提。
B: Er, thank you for such an interesting talk. Could I just ask one question about the plans for a new building that you mentioned at the beginning?
B:唔，感謝您今天精彩的演說，我想問針對(duì)您開頭提到的新式建筑的一些企劃提一個(gè)問題，不知道我有沒有這個(gè)榮幸？
A: Yes, of course. Fire away.
A：當(dāng)然可以，問吧！
The expression fire away is an invitation to ask questions about anything you want. It's often used as a friendly and informal reply to someone who has said 'can I ask you something?', and is the same as saying 'go ahead'.
Fire away 是邀請(qǐng)對(duì)方問任何想問的問題的意思。通常是當(dāng)別人問你“我能不能問您個(gè)問題？”時(shí)的友好且輕松的回答，也就是相當(dāng)于說“go ahead”，請(qǐng)問吧。
Informal expressions like this can be used occasionally in formal situations, like the presentation example above, to make you sound relaxed, friendly and confident. It's important that your body language matches this message though, so try to smile when you say it!
像這樣的非正式短語informal expressions有時(shí)候也可以用在正式場(chǎng)合，如上例演講中，令人感覺輕松，隨意，也更自信。但重點(diǎn)是此時(shí)你的身體語言要跟這種友好信號(hào)相搭配，說這句話的時(shí)候請(qǐng)面帶微笑??！
And that’s it for now – join us again for some more Language Snacks.
好了，今天的節(jié)目就到這里，歡迎大家繼續(xù)關(guān)注下期語言小點(diǎn)心。
You’ve been listening to English Online – the podcast for English learners in China.
您正在收聽的是英語在線，中國英語學(xué)習(xí)者的英語學(xué)習(xí)播客。
Key 參考答案
1. a
2. go ahead
3. friendly
