Friends 1 《老友记》1（精讲之三）-英语点津

4. break up

意思是“（与某人）分手”。例如：Break up peacefully if you're ready to end a relationship.如果你决定要结束一段感情，安静的分手吧。电影中的I've decided to break up with Alan.意思是“我已经决定和艾伦分手”。

5. let one's guard down

意思是“放松警惕，撤消防线”。例如：Once I completely let my guard down with someone and let him get close to me I scared myself a little.有一次我对一个人完全放松了防备，让他靠近我，但我还是有点害怕。电影中的You know... you let your guard down, you start to really care about someone... 意思是“你知道……你撤消了防线，开始真正关心某个人……”

6. come up

意思是“接近，靠近”。例如：With the final exam coming up in a week, I don't really have time to flirt with. 还有一周就期末考试，我真的没时间瞎混了。电影中的I mean, with the holidays coming up, I wanted him to meet my family. 意思是“我的意思是，节日快到了，我还想带他去我家呢”。

文化面面观

Passive/second hand smoking! 被动吸烟（吸二手烟）

Only 15% of smoke from a cigarette is inhaled by the smoker. The other 85% goes directly into the air and is known as second hand smoke. Second hand smoke is a combination of: mainstream smoke, which is the smoke inhaled and then breathed out and sidestream smoke, which is the smoke coming from the cigarette between puffs.

Sidestream smoke has more tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide and other chemicals that cause cancer than the smoke inhaled through the cigarette itself! All second-hand smoke contains cancer-causing chemicals! Passive smoking is the breathing in of the second-hand smoke produced by other people's cigarettes.

In the short-term, exposure to passive smoke leads to immediate problems such as irritation of the nose, eyes or throat, coughs, nausea, dizziness and headaches. Every year in the U.K 17,000 children under five years of age are admitted to hospitals because of illnesses related to passive smoking. The risk of cot death is greatly increased in children who have been exposed to smoke either during pregnancy, or at home if one or both parents smoke.

In the long term, consequences are much more serious --- passive smoking contributes to the development of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. And, as they grow older children are almost 3 times more likely to start smoking if their parents do.

Everyone at times is a passive smoker, and passive smoking is not just an annoyance, it's a health risk! So the next time one of your friends lights up in front of you, fire off these facts: Secondhand smoke can produce six times the pollution of a busy motorway when in a crowded room, kills about 3,000 nonsmokers each year from lung cancer, causes wheezing, coughing, colds, earaches and asthma attacks, fills the air with many of the same poisons found in the air around toxic waste dumps, and makes clothes and hair stink.

本选段中的Chandler是个烟鬼，正如他的扮演者Matthew Perry一样。美国的烟民比例和中国不相上下，但是吸烟，尤其是二手烟，对人体健康有很大的危害。在美国，吸烟不再是个人的行为，而是社会公德的问题。美国在很多公共场所都有严格的禁止吸烟的规定，而且被认为是基本文明的组成部分。近期包括福特汽车公司在内的一系列大型企业都规定禁止在办公室吸烟。