美国婚礼风俗（上）

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本片段剧情：Jane弄丢了记录自己参加婚礼的笔记本，却不料这个记事本落入了Kevin的手中。Kevin找到老板，想以Jane的经历为素材，写一篇有关婚礼的报道。经过一番唇枪舌剑之后，老板终于答应了他的请求。但这篇报道会给Jane带来怎样的经历呢？“职业伴娘”的经历曝光对她是喜还是忧呢？

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精彩对白：

Jane: Good morning, Gina.

Gina: Hi.

Jane: You haven't seen my Filofax anywhere, have you?

Gina: No.

Jane: No. Okay. I'll go look for it. Did you get those catalog pages in for George?

Gina: No.

Jane: Okay. No worries. I'll get them from production.

Casey: Attagirl. Show her who's boss.

Jane: I'm not her boss.

Casey: You're the boss's assistant. Same diff. What's the good of your job if you can't abuse the power?

Jane: Casey, go to Accounting.

Casey: Now you're bossy.

Jane: Where the hell did I put that thing?

Kevin: That is a great idea for the front page of the section.

Maureen: Oh, come on, Doyle. How many times have I heard this from you?

Kevin: I'm telling you, Maureen: It's a great idea.

Maureen: Really? As great as your last great idea, an expose on price-fixing at wedding bakeries?

Kevin: Yes! Yes! They're ripping people off. Flour costs pennies per ounce. That's an 800% markup. It's outrageous.

Maureen: Yes, it is. Also, no one cares.

Kevin: What about the piece I wanted to do on the exploitation of workers in lace factories? That is a killer piece.

Maureen: Oh, right. That's what people really wanna read about in the Style section. Kevin, this section practically pays for the entire paper: Our advertisers want fun, upbeat, colorful human-interest stories... opposite their products.

Kevin: So that's what we're about now? Making money?

Maureen: Get out.

Kevin: All right. Listen. That was not right. I get it. But this one is. Look, this woman has been in seven weddings-

Maureen: So?

Kevin: This year. She was in two on Saturday alone. But it won't just be about her. It'll be an incisive look at how the wedding industry has transformed something: That should be an important rite of passage into nothing more than a corporate revenue stream. In a fun, upbeat, you know, cheerful way. Look, Maureen, I am dying back there in Commitments. If I have to write another sentence about baby's breath, I'm gonna shoot myself. This is a real story. This is what I wanna do.

Maureen: I need you covering weddings. That's what you're good at. And that's what I need you to do.

Kevin: If you don't start giving me feature stories, I'm gonna have to quit.

Maureen: All right. One chance. If I don't like it, you go back to Commitments for the rest of your life with a big smile on that ridiculously handsome face of yours.

Kevin: Deal.

妙语佳句，活学活用

1. Filofax: 备忘记事本。Filofax是一种商标的名称，指一种轻便的活页文件夹，用来装日记本、文件、信用卡等，80年代雅皮士族经常备带。

2. Attagirl: 好啊，好棒，an informal expression of encouragement or admiration to a woman or girl（表达对女性的赞叹，非正式用语）。

如果赞叹的对象是一位男性，我们可以用attaboy来表达。

3. Same diff: 一回事。Same diff是一种 oxymoron（矛盾修辞法），用来形容something as being the same as something else（两件事其实是一回事），常在说错话时用来做借口。

例如："You said jackflap, not flapjack" "Same-diff"）“你刚才说的是jackflap，而不是flapjack。”“那不是一回事嘛。”

4. bossy: 专横的，盛气凌人的。

例如：No, she is stingy, narrow-minded and bossy.（不，她小气，心胸狭窄，又拔扈。）

5. front page: 头版。

例如：The news got a front-page splash.（该消息在头版醒目地登出），而排front page的版面，我们就可以说：to make up the front page。

6. price-fixing: 限定价格，指一种价格垄断行为。Maureen在这里是说，Kevin上次报道了婚礼蛋糕店“开天杀价”的行为。

7. rip off: 宰客，敲诈。

The used car advertisement is a big rip-off.（这个二手汽车广告是个大骗局），我们从不刊登这样的广告to rip off the customers（宰客）。

8. rite of passage: （标志人生重要阶段的）通过仪式，重大事件，a ceremony or an event that marks an important stage in sb's life. 比如出生、成人、结婚等等，所以有时也用复数rites of passages。

9. die back: 枯死，枝叶枯萎。Kevin在这里的意思是说，“我写《承诺》专栏写到闷”。

10.baby's breath: 水香花菜，满天星，这里泛指婚礼上的花束。

11:deal: 一言为定。这个词现在常单独使用，用来表示答应对方提出的条件。

美国婚礼风俗（上）

考考你 小试牛刀