地道英语

Off the cuff 即兴

内容简介

主持人 Beth 的西班牙语老师突然要求大家上台发言，练习口语。Beth 没有事先作准备，所以只好即兴发挥。实用短语 “off the cuff” 的意思就是 “没有准备，即兴地”。“即兴评论” 用英语怎么说？听对话，学习 “地道英语” 短语 “off the cuff” 在日常交流中的正确用法。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Feifei 
大家好，欢迎收听 BBC英语教学的 “地道英语” 节目。在每期节目中，我们都会介绍一个英语母语人士或讲英语流利的人会用到的表达。I'm Feifei. 

Beth                                                                                                     
And I'm Beth. How's it going, Feifei?  

Feifei 
I'm very well. Thank you, Beth. The phrase we're looking at in this programme is 'off the cuff'. It's really interesting because there are lots of phrases in the English language with clothes words in them, but actually, they don't have anything to do with clothes, and 'off the cuff' is one of them. 

Beth 
Yes! So, a cuff is the end of a shirt sleeve. It might have buttons, or you might need cufflinks for it. But 'off the cuff' means that you do or say something with no preparation or very little preparation, so it's got nothing to do with clothes. 

Feifei 
That's right. So, I actually have an example for this. In my last class I had at university, my teacher asked me to give a speech to the class, like a reflection. I had no warning and I just said something really short in front of everyone. I can't actually remember what I said, but there was no preparation, so I said it 'off the cuff'. 

Beth 
That sounds daunting! So, it was completely improvised. You hadn't planned anything because you didn't know it was going to happen. You probably thanked your teachers and classmates.

Feifei                                           
Beth, have you done anything 'off the cuff' recently?

Beth 
Err, let me think, so, yeah. Actually, I go to a Spanish class, and the other day we suddenly had exam practice. The teacher didn't give us any time to prepare, so when I got to my speaking, I just said something off the cuff. I hadn't planned anything. 

Feifei
I bet you did really well.

Beth 
I don't know. Here are some more examples of the expression 'off the cuff'.  

Examples 
I was in a meeting with my boss, and he asked me in this meeting to explain something quite complicated to the people in the meeting, and I hadn't prepared. I had to do it off the cuff. 

I've got to do a speech at my wedding, and I haven't done any preparation, so I guess I'll just do it off the cuff. 

One of my teachers has called in sick and I'm going to have to teach their class. I haven't done any preparation, so I'll have to do it off the cuff. 

Beth 
Now, it's also really common to use 'off the cuff' as an adjective, particularly before the words 'remark' or 'speech'. Now, if someone makes an off-the-cuff remark, it means they say something without thinking about it first.

Feifei 
Yes. And that actually could get someone into trouble. It could be offensive if you say something without thinking about your words first. So, you might have to then apologise, and say "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It was just an off-the-cuff remark".   

Beth 
Exactly. So, to recap, we've learnt the phrase 'off the cuff' which means to say something without preparing first.    

Feifei
是的，“off the cuff” 这个短语很实用，它的意思是 “没有准备，即兴地，未加思索”。比如，我们可以用 “off the cuff” 来描述自己说的话没有经过事先准备或思考 “I said a few words off the cuff.（我随便说了几句。）” “Off-the-cuff” 也可以作形容词使用，但要用连字符把这三个词连起来，组成一个词 “off-the-cuff”。比如，上面我们讲到的 “off-the-cuff remark（即兴评论）”。好了，希望大家可以练习使用 “off the cuff”。

Beth 
We'll be back next week with another useful English phrase. See you next time! 

Feifei
Goodbye.