身临其境练一练

The Big Bang Theory,《生活大爆炸》

A:So you're a little behind on your bills.

甲:你手头有点紧。

B:Everybody gets behind on their bills. Yeah, I know, it's just, this wasn't the plan. It wasn't supposed to go this way.

乙:付不起账单嘛。人人都有这样的时候。是，我知道。只是…计划不是这样的，本来不该这样的嘛。

A:Well, what was the plan?

甲:你的计划是什么样的？

B:Um, waitress for six months, and then become a movie star.

乙:做6个月服务员，然后成为电影明星。

A:Was there a plan B?

甲:有没有备选计划呢？

B:TV star.

乙:电视明星。

A:It's probably not as bad as you think. Let's take a look. Maybe we can find some comers to cut.Oh, here's something. If you don't have electricity, then you probably don't need cable. Just a suggestion. $170 dollars for acting classes?

甲:或许没你想的那么糟。我们来看看，也许能找出可以省钱的地方呢。哦，比如这个，你要是不通电的话，也就用不上有线电视了。我只是提议而已。170美元的表演课？

B:Oh，no, I can't give up my acting classes. I'm a professional actress.

乙:噢，不行，表演课绝对不能省。我是一名职业演员。

A:You've had an acting job where you got paid?

甲:你有进账的表演工作了？

B:That is not the definition of professional.

乙:职业不是这么定义的。

生活口语

Oh, my gosh,I can't believe it's our credit card bill.

哦，天哪,真不敢相信这是我们的信用卡账单。

Yes. We have to cut back on expenses.

是啊。我们得缩减开支了。

重点讲解:

We have to stop spending so much.

We have to cut back on expenses.

月底看到账单意识到自己需要缩减开支，英文中表达“我们得缩减开支了”可以说：We have to stop spending so much.但是更地道的说法是We have to cut back on expenses.短语cut back on表示“缩减，消减。”