Jerry跟同事Paula和Will打招呼,聊聊彼此周末都干了些什么。
Jerry: Hey, Paula. Hi, Will. Did you have a good weekend?
Paula: Yeah... I checked out that new 3D movie. It's amazing what they can do with technologies these days!
Will: I went mountain biking with a couple of friends. We worked up a good sweat and had a good time. How about you, Jerry?
J: Actually, I spent most of the weekend looking at travel brochures.
Paula周末去看了新出的三維電影,3D movie. Will跟幾個(gè)朋友一起去騎山地車(chē),山地車(chē)在英語(yǔ)里叫 mountain bike,在上面那段話里是做動(dòng)詞用,Will went mountain biking. Will還說(shuō),他們出了一身汗,玩得特別開(kāi)心。work up a sweat是一種習(xí)慣用法,指鍛煉身體或從事體力活動(dòng)很投入,可以是真的出了一身汗,也可以形容特別賣(mài)力。Jerry呢,一個(gè)周末大部分時(shí)間都在看旅游宣傳材料travel brochures. 看來(lái)他是要休假?lài)D?Paula問(wèn):
P: Really? Are you going somewhere?
J: Well, starting on the 20th of this month, I'm taking a fiveweek vacation.
W: Five weeks!! No way!
P: Get out of here! How did you swing that?
J: Actually, the company owes me about four months' worth of vacation time. I've been working here since 2002 and haven't taken a vacation yet. I've got oodles of comp time as well.
W: Sorry, what's comp time?
Jerry要休五個(gè)星期的假,Will和Paula都不敢相信,問(wèn)Jerry, How did you swing that? to swing it是一種口語(yǔ)里非正式的說(shuō)法,意思是說(shuō)服別人,達(dá)到自己的目的。Jerry解釋說(shuō),他從2002年來(lái)這家公司工作,就一直沒(méi)休過(guò)假,現(xiàn)在公司欠他四個(gè)月的假期,Jerry說(shuō),另外,I've got oodles of comp time as well. oodles of something也是一種非正式的說(shuō)法,相當(dāng)于a lot of something,Jerry說(shuō)自己除了四個(gè)月的假期,還攢了很多comp time. Will是新畢業(yè)的大學(xué)生,不知道什么是comp time. Paula解釋說(shuō),
P: The "comp" is short for compensation. Basically he means overtime pay.
J: Yeah, but some companies like ours don't really pay overtime... they give you extra vacation hours instead. If you add up all the vacation time and comp hours I have, I have a lot of time.
P: When I was working for a company in Germany they had super short work weeks and very liberal overtime rules.
Paula解釋說(shuō),comp是compensation的簡(jiǎn)寫(xiě),其實(shí)就是overtime加班,有些公司不發(fā)加班費(fèi),而是把員工加班的時(shí)間折合成假期,補(bǔ)償給員工。另外,歐洲和美國(guó)的情況也有很大的區(qū)別,Paula說(shuō),她以前曾經(jīng)在德國(guó)的一家公司工作過(guò),they had super short work weeks and very liberal overtime rules. 那家公司不僅工作時(shí)間短,而且加班的規(guī)定也very liberal,很松。
J: I have to say I'm looking forward to my long vacation. I think you need at least three or four weeks of doing nothing before you can truly relax.
W: I thought you said you had months and months of vacation time available. Why are you only taking five weeks off?
J: Five weeks was the best I could negotiate with my boss. She says she knows I've earned the time, but she begged me not to take more than five weeks.
P: Five weeks should be long enough! Who knows? Maybe you'll get bored and come back early!
J: (laugh) I doubt it.
Jerry雖然有好幾月的假期,但老板最多只讓他休五個(gè)星期, 看來(lái)他一定是很能干。Paula開(kāi)玩笑說(shuō),五個(gè)星期也足夠了,搞不好用不了五個(gè)星期Jerry就覺(jué)得實(shí)在無(wú)聊,提前回來(lái)上班了呢! |