地道美语
A: Ok... I’ll talk to you later. Bye

B: Carrie, are you ok? You seem a bit down.

A: I just got off the phone with my boyfriend. He is always getting upset and losing his temper over nothing. It’s so hard to talk to him at times.

B: Maybe it’s just that he is stressed out from work or something. He does have a pretty nerve wracking job you know.

A:Yeah but, he is always in a really foul mood. I try to find out what’s bothering him or get him to talk about his day but, he always shuts down and brushes me off.

B: Men are like that you know.They can feel nervous, anxious or on edge and the only way they can express it is by trying to hide it through aggressiveness.

A:I guess you are right. What do you think I should do? He wasn’t always this grouchy you know...

B: Talk to him, try to cheer him up when he is down and if that doesn’t work, I say get rid of him and get a new one!

A: You are something else you know that?

【文章大意】
Carrie和她的男朋友吵架了，因为她的男朋友总是易怒，容易发脾气。另一个人劝她说：可能是她男友因为工作而心情不好，劝Carrie想办法让男友振作起来。
词汇注释 .
down adj. 沮丧的；意气消沉的

stress out 使人感到担忧或焦虑
Studying for exams always stresses me out.
为考试而学习总是让我担忧。

nerve wracking使人十分紧张的, 伤脑筋的
He faced a nerve-racking wait for her test results.
他正在紧张地等待考试结果。

brush off不愿见(或听)，不理睬
She gave me the brush-off.
她不理我。

cheer up (使)高兴起来，(使)振作起来
Try and cheer up a bit; life isn't that bad!
想办法高兴点儿，生活并不是那麽糟！

【拓展词汇】
down in the dumps 感到难过，不高兴

have the blues 感到难过

rattled （rattle过去分词）使惊慌失措

grinds my gears 惹怒我，令我生气

pissed off 十分生气，惹恼的
You get really pissed off applying for jobs all the time.
一直在申请工作，你一定很恼火。