VOA慢速英語:Words and Their Stories: Money Talks

I’m Susan Clark with WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.

這里是美國之音慢速英語詞匯掌故節(jié)目，我是Susan Clark。

People often say that money talks. They mean that a person with a lot of money can say how he or she wants things done. But it is not easy to earn enough money to gain this kind of power.

人們常說，有錢能使鬼推磨。意思是說富有的人可以讓事情發(fā)展皆如其愿。但要賺到足夠多能夠獲得這種能力的錢，不是那么容易的事。

Ask anyone in a business. They will tell you that it is a jungle out there. The expression probably began because the jungle is filled with wild animals and unknown dangers that threaten people. Sometimes people in business feel competing businesses are as dangerous as wild animals. And they feel that unknown dangers in the business world threaten the survival of their business.

當(dāng)你問到任何商界人士，他們都將會告訴你商場是一片叢林。這句話可能始于叢林中到處是對人們構(gòu)成威脅的野生動物和未知危險。有時候人們覺得競爭對手就像野生動物一樣危險。同時他們認(rèn)為商場上的未知危險會威脅到企業(yè)的生存。

People in business have to be careful if they are to survive the jungle out there. They must not be led into making bogus investments. Bogus means something that is not real.

商界人士如果要在叢林中生存必須非常謹(jǐn)慎。他們必須不被引向進(jìn)行虛假投資。Bogus即虛假的東西。

Nobody is sure how the word got started. But it began to appear in American newspapers in the eighteen hundreds. A newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts said the word came from a criminal whose name was Borghese. The newspaper said Borghese wrote checks to people although he did not have enough money in the bank. After he wrote the checks, he would flee from town. So, people who were paid with his checks received nothing. The newspaper said Americans shortened and changed the criminal’s name Borghese, to bogus.

沒人能夠確認(rèn)這個單詞是如何誕生的。但19世紀(jì)時它開始出現(xiàn)在美國的報紙上。馬薩諸塞州波士頓市的一份報紙稱，這個單詞來源于一個名叫貝佳斯(Borghese)的罪犯。這家報紙說，貝佳斯給人們開空頭支票，然后逃離鎮(zhèn)子。所以，收到他支票的人們什么都得不到。該報稱，美國人把這個罪犯的名字簡寫并做了點改變，就成了bogus。

People trying to earn money also must be aware of being ripped off. A person who is ripped off has had something stolen, or at least has been treated very unfairly.

人們想賺錢還必須要避免被欺詐。被欺詐的人失去了一些東西，或至少遭受了不公平待遇。

A writer for the magazine "American Speech" said he first saw the expression used in nineteen seventy-one. It was on a sign that a student carried during a protest demonstration at a university. The message on the sign was that the student felt ripped off, or cheated.

一位《名人演講》(American Speech)雜志的撰稿人稱，1971年，他第一次看到這種說法。它出現(xiàn)在一所大學(xué)示威活動期間一個學(xué)生舉著的標(biāo)牌上。標(biāo)牌上的信息是，這個學(xué)生覺得被欺騙了。

Perhaps the best way to prevent getting ripped off in business is to not try to get rich quickly. To be successful, a person in business works hard and tries to get down to brass tacks.

也許在商業(yè)上防止欺詐的最好的方法是不要試圖一夜暴富。要取得成功，人們在商業(yè)上要賣力、務(wù)實。

This expression means to get to the bottom or most important part of something. For example, a salesman may talk and talk about his product without saying the price. You get down to brass tacks when you say, "it sounds good, but how much does it cost?"

這個短語(get down to brass tacks)的意思是，觸及事物的底部或最重要的部分。例如，一個推銷員大談特談他的產(chǎn)品卻不說價格。你開門見山地說，“這聽上去不錯，但它售價是多少?”

Word expert Charles Funk thinks the expression comes from sailors on ships. They clean the bottom of a boat. When they have removed all the dirt, they are down to the brass tacks, the copper pieces that hold the boat together.

詞匯專家Charles Funk認(rèn)為，這個短語來自輪船上的水手，他們會清洗船底。當(dāng)他們清理完所有污垢后，他們就能觸及黃銅釘這個將船連接到一起的銅件。

So, if we get down to brass tacks, we can prevent ripoffs and bogus ways of earning money in that jungle out there. And, some good luck will help, too.

所以，如果務(wù)實，我們就能防止商場這片叢林中的各類欺詐或騙錢手段。當(dāng)然，好運氣也會有所幫助。

Money talks：金錢萬能;有錢能使鬼推磨。

It is a jungle out there：直譯為這是一片叢林。形容在做生意時的不安全和危險，處處是陷阱和欺詐。

Bogus：虛假的，偽造的

Ripped off： 欺騙，敲詐，詐騙

Get down to brass tacks：觸及實質(zhì)，開門見山，直擊主題。