我们要讲的第一个习惯用语是:give the eye. To give就是:给。Eye就是:眼睛。Give the eye从字面上来解释没有什么意思。作为一个习惯用语,give the eye是指男女之间的眼神。
要是一个年轻男子give the eye, 那就是说,他对某个女孩子感兴趣。Give the eye也同样可以用在女孩子身上。下面就是一个例子。例句里说话的人的名字就算是Don吧。他是一个大学生。现在他正和他的朋友Willy在校园里的咖啡休息。Don对Willy说:
例句-1:Willy, don't look now, but when you get a chance take a look at that girl sitting over there alone. I think she's in my biology class. And, you know something - I think she's trying to give me the eye. Maybe I ought to go over and say hello.
现在我们来讲第二个含同样意义的习惯用语,give the once-over. Once在中文里就是:一次;over有许多解释,例如越过,上面,完了等。但是在学习习惯用语的时候不需要去扣每一个字的含义。Give the once-over, 的意思是:非同一般地对一个人看。Give the once-over这个说法实际上是和give the eye的意思是一样的。也就是说,这两个习惯用语可以换着用。
例句-2:When I GAVE HER THE ONCE-OVER, she finally gave me a nice smile so I went over to tell her: "haven't we met someplace before?" She asked me to sit down and we got acquainted and look at this, Willy - she gave me her phone number!
例句-3:Oh, yeah, I'm settled down all right. I married Barbara about three years ago; as soon as I met her I right away sized her up as the girl I wanted to marry. It took her three more years to agree, but we've been very happy and already have a daughter with more on the way, I'm sure.