English Intensive Reading 吉林大学远程教育学院
Introduction Text Language Points Grammar
				Lesson 8   Language Points  ( Page 3)
			It can be used for patching up differences, apologizing, saying “no,” criticizing, getting the other fellow to do what you want without his losing face. Meaning: Humor can be used for settling or smoothing over differences, quarrels, disagreements … 幽默可以用来消除分歧、表示歉意、表示拒绝、进行批评。它还能使对方在保全个人面子的情 况下按你的意愿做事。 patch up: to settle (a quarrel or disagreement) 平息（争吵）；解决（争端、分歧等） 1. We managed to patch up our quarrel. 我们终于和解不吵了。 2. He helped patching up Linda’s relationship with her mother. 他帮助调节琳达与她母亲的关系。 losing face: 丢脸。 For example, many believe that comedians on television are doing more today for racial and religious tolerance than are people in any other forum. Meaning: By treating the problem with humor, television comedians are working more effectively to reduce people’s unfavorable feelings toward the racial and religious differences than others. 许多人认为当今电视喜剧演员对于促进种族和宗教宽容方面的宣传比其他人在其他任何专题节目里的宣传更为有效。 Humor is often the best way to keep a small misunderstanding from escalating into a big deal. Meaning: Humor prevents the small misunderstanding from growing into a serious one. 幽默经常是使小误会免于升级为大麻烦的最好方式。 keep sth. / sb. from doing sth. : prevent … from 阻止…发生；使…免于… 1. We thought it best to keep the bad news from him. 我们认为，这坏消息最好不让他知道。 2. I could hardly keep from laughing. 我简直忍不住大笑起来。 a big deal : (informal) a very important thing 重要的事情，这里指大麻烦。 Airborne, he felt miserable, … Meaning: After the plane had taken off, he felt bad about it. 飞机起飞后，他觉得心理很别扭。 “Person-to-person for Mrs. I. A. Pologize,” intoned the operator. Meaning: 此处丈夫以幽默的方式，即在长途电话上通过接线员找“我道歉夫人”向妻子道歉，轻松地化解了两人之间的矛盾。 “That’s spelled ‘p’ as in …” Meaning: When spelling out a word, to avoid confusion the letter are expressed this way: “P” as in “Peter”, “O” as in “orange” … 拼写单词时，为避免字母的混乱，表述为“P”， “Peter”的“P”，“O” “orange” 的“O”