今日课题

各位亲爱的朋友们，非常高兴您如约守候早间课堂，我是Juliet。上回我留给了大家一个悬念：今天要和大家一起来分享一个会让人望文生义的与“make an offer of marriage”意思相同的说法，究竟是什么呢？我们来先听下面的2个句子：

例句-1：He has been trying for weeks to pluck up the courage topop the question to her.

例句-2：Mary has been waithing months for Bob to pop the question, but up to now he hasn't.

在我们刚才听到的2个例句中，我们都可以听到同一个词语：pop the question。这是一条动词性习惯用语。习语中的pop作为动词是“发出短促清脆的爆破声”的意思，question是指“问题，疑问”。Pop the question字面意思就是“迸出个疑问”，引申为“make a proposal of marriag”的意思，意思是“提出结婚”，亦即“求婚”。要表述“向某人求婚”，在短语的后面加上介词to即可，即：pop the question to somebody。

使用这个习语时，注意它适用于口语中，是非正式书面用语。此外，quesiton虽然是可数名词，我们可以加定冠词或者是不定冠词或者是物主代词，但是在这里只能够用定冠词the，不能用其他的冠词或者是物主代词。因为这是一个习语，有的习语是不能用语法来衡量的。再者，pop the question中的question指代婚姻（Marriage），当然要用“the”。

我们再来看四个例句：

例句-1：Betty has set her cap at Jack for many years and in the end she finally gets him to pop the question.

Betty追求Jack很多年了，她终于使Jack来向她求婚了。

注解：set one's cap at sb：追求某人

Eg.As soon as she came to work here, she set her cap at the young man in the office.

她一来这里工作，就追求办公室里的这个年青人。

Eg.She'll set her cap at you, I dare say.

我敢说，她是看上你了。

例句-2：Actually I care for her, so I think I'm going to pop the question to her.

我确实很喜欢她，所以我将要向她求婚。

注解：care for sb/sth：喜欢

Eg.I am wondering whether they will care for us all to go there.

我不知道他们是否喜欢我们都到那里。

Eg.We don't care for these new-fashioned ideas.

我们不喜欢这种新鲜玩意儿。

例句-3：John, supposed to be so cold and so ambitious, formally popped the qeuestion to Miss Bell.

给大家认为冷淡且野心勃勃的John最后Bell小姐正式求婚了。

注解：supposed to be so cold and so ambitious是过去分词短语做后置定语修饰名词John。

例句-4：She's popped the question to him in her rhymes.

她已经在诗行中流露出向他求婚之意了。

现在我们知道我们最初听到的2个例句中的关键词语pop the question的意思，最后我们就回到它们之中来看它们的意思。

例句-1：He has been trying for weeks to pluck up the courage to pop the question to her.

这句话是说：几个星期以来，他一直鼓起勇气向他求婚。

注解：注解1：pluck up：鼓起（勇气），振作精神

Eg.He can't pluck up the courage to leave home.

他鼓不起离开家的勇气。

Eg.He couldn't pluck up enough courage to ask her to go out with him.

他不能鼓起足够的勇气请她一起外出。

例句-2：Mary has been waithing months for Bob to pop the question, but up to now he hasn't.

Mary一直等Bob来向她求婚，但是等了几个月还是没等到Bob开口。

注解：up to now：迄今，直到现在

Eg.Her life has run smoothly up to now.

她的生活到目前仍一帆风顺。

好，各位亲爱的朋友们，我们今天的这招说“Marriage”——pop the question，意思是求婚，pop the question to somebody意思是向某人求婚。那么在我们今天的学习小节目结束之前，我们一起来欣赏一首经典的英文歌曲。It is named Trouble Is A Friend. Enjoy it...

Music:Trouble Is A Friend

温馨贴士：早间课堂家族学友们期待您的加入共同探讨英语学习，QQ群号为：122863543。

特别声明：该节目由可可原创，未经授权请勿转载。

课后习题

请用pop the quesiton将下面的句子翻译成英文。

1. 与她共在一所大学读书的很多男孩拜倒在她的石榴裙下而向她求婚。经过再次考虑之后，她拒绝了所有的求婚，因为他正在攻读博士学位。

2. 一位大腕向她求婚。

3. Smith向她求婚遭因自己贫穷而遭到拒绝。

参考答案

1. Many guys at her company worship the groung she walks on and pop the quesiton to her.

2. But on second thought, she rejected all the marriage proposal because she is studying for a doctor degree.

3. She was popped the quesiton by a big shot.

4. Smith popped the question to her and She turned down Smith because he was poor.