Duplex 双层公寓（精讲之五）

影片对白

Kenneth: Hey, who wants to run upstairs and say hello?

Nancy: Well, we shouldget going.

Alex: We should. We have to... we should.

Nancy: Yeah.

Kenneth: Nonsense! You pulled the woman out of a burning building. You'd break her heart if you didn't take a moment to say goodbye. Come on! Mrs. Connelly, I brought you a surprise! Mrs. Connelly!! The hearing on this one. Look who's here. She's asleep. Sweetheart. She's stiff as a board.

Nancy: No. She's just hard-of-hearing. Mrs. Connelly!

Kenneth: She's dead. Oh, poor thing.

Nancy: No. She can't be dead.

Kenneth: I guessit was just her time.Come on, I'll call the Friedman's. You don't have to stay here for this. You've done enough. Come. Come, come, come. Must have been all the excitement.

Alex: I can't believe it.

Nancy: She was sofull of life.

Alex: I mean, for all our differences, that old lady really had a lot of spunk¹.

Nancy: A lot of it. Do you think she's up in heaven?

Alex: Well, I'll tell you something. Wherever she is, she's in a better place.

Kenneth: You should have seen their faces when I said she was a goner.

Policeman: So cheap, though I wish I could have been there.

Connelly: Trust me. It wasn't easy holding my breath all that long. Next time, I want a biggercutof your commission, Kenny.

Kenneth: What are you talking about? We give you everything, Ma. There's barely enough left for Danny and I to have a cruise to the Caribbean.

Connelly: I'm the oneputting my caboose on the line.

Kenneth: Oh, come on. You had it easy with Alex and Nancy.

Connelly: They were a nice couple. I do hope they'll be all right.

Kenneth: Ah, they'll be fine. He's a writer. They thrive on adversity.

Connelly: I hope his next book is better than his last one. Maybe this time he'll write about something he knows.

妙词佳句，活学活用

1. get going

看似很简单的用法，却很少会有人用得很好。为什么会这么讲呢？因为有很多人受到语法的限制，在说“我走了”的时候，总是想：有“了”在应该用过去时，而又是“我将要走了”，到底要怎么说才好呢，是 I went, 还是I'm going? 在这里一定要强调一下，后者是对的。那么除此之外，我们还可以说I get going或者是I'm off。

2. it is somebody's time

每每听到这句话的时候，总会很难过，因为又有个人离开人世了。而在此片断当中，Kenneth指得是Connelly 已经死了。大家在看Forrest Gump 的时候有没有注意到：阿甘的妈妈要离开人世的时候，也曾语重心长地对阿甘说：It is just my time。需要说明的是这句话可比She's dying要文明的多了。

3. be full of life

“身体健康，精力充沛”的意思。

4. cut

这里的cut 和share的意思是一样的，指的是份额，而cut相对来讲又随意一些。在此段中，big cut of your commission是“要更多的佣金”的意思。

5. put... on the line / lay... on the line

意思是“冒着……的风险”的意思，比如说“我冒着生命危险”就可以说：I put my life on the line.

思想火花

 

在第一张图片当中，我们看到中介商、警察、还有一个受着rent control保护的租房者，坐在一起谈话甚欢，而在第二幅图片中又有很多夫妻的照片摆放在桌子上，这到底是为什么呢？其实如果大家仔细去研读我曾经提到过的rent control 政策的话，就会明白很多。

 

 

在美国，像Connelly太太这样的人非常多，而也就是这批人利用政府下发的政策来欺负房东，因为他们知道房东没权赶他们出去。当然不是所有的人都是这样，只是一小部分，所以,与其说这是一部搞笑的美国喜剧，还不如说它是一部反映美国某些现实文化的影片。

1 spunk   

n.勇气，胆量

参考例句：

• After his death,the soldier was cited for spunk.那位士兵死后因作战勇敢而受到表彰。
• I admired her independence and her spunk.我敬佩她的独立精神和勇气。