大家好，欢迎再次来到“布朗尼加分”口语课堂。今天我们要讲的是一个浪漫但不太寻常的故事。从订婚之日到大婚之日，其间跨越了整整四十年。让我们边听故事，边学短语。

Victoria and Sebastio live in a small village in Sicily. They are in love. One day, Sebastio gives Victoria an engagement ring and asks her to marry him. Victoria accepts, but she adds, "Let's wait to get married until we can afford the perfect wedding! We don't have enough money now."
Victoria begins to shop for a wedding dress, and she soon finds the perfect one. It's long, lacy, and beautiful. But it costs an arm and a leg! So Victoria starts to save her money. She makes a small payment every year. She saves up for 40 years!
At long last, after a 40-year engagement, Victoria can buy the wedding dress. She and Sebastio decide to tie the knot. At the wedding, Victoria looks beautiful in her dress. The newlyweds are in seventh heaven. They dance and drink champagne. Afterward, they ride off in a horse-drawn carriage. Their friends watch them and think, "It's about time!"

cost an arm and a leg: 不用说，一件耗时40年去支付的婚纱，价格一定是不菲的。Cost an arm and a leg，就意为 extremly expensive。再来看一个例子。
A: Why don't you drive your car?
B: It's broken. It will cost an arm and a leg to get it repaired. 车坏掉了。修车的费用实在太高了。

我们再来看一下 tie the knot. Knot 结。Tie the knot 打结，原本是婚礼中的一个仪式之一，后来可以用于指代“结婚”。再比如：Kate and her longtime boyfriend tie the knot at a private ceremony in England. 她与她恋爱了很长时间的男友在私人典礼上喜结连理。

一说结婚总是感觉喜气洋洋，其中最快乐的人当属新娘新郎了，快乐到什么程度呢。Be in seventh heaven. 这样的表达法和我们中国人常说的某人幸福的都快飞到天上去了还真有同工之妙。

再来看一个例子吧：爸爸下班后不见孩子们，问道：Where're the kids? 妈妈无可奈何的回答：In the garden. They are in the seventh heaven with their new toys. 孩子们在花园里乐不可支的玩儿新玩具呢。

在文章的最后，宾客们望着这对新人远去的时候都发出了不一样的感慨“It's about time.”这里，it's about time和it's about the time to do something （差不多是做……的时间了。）意思不同。经过如此漫长的等待，大家由衷要说的是“总算盼来了”也就是 "it's later than expected"，比大家预期的晚了太久。例如，某款游戏，历经很久的等待终于面世之际，会有网友发帖，用"Hell，it's about time"来抒发终于盼到的感慨。

本次学习告一段落，我们下期再见。