英语习惯用语

21.To shake a leg; To pull one's leg

to shake a leg就是赶快行动的意思。

例句-1: "Come on, shake a leg, son, or you're going to be late for school."这个妈妈说：“儿子，你快点儿吧！否则你上学要迟到了！”

例句-2: "Let's shake a leg there, you guys! I got to get this truck unloaded and on the way back to the warehouse before dark."他说：“喂！你们这帮人快点儿吧！我得把这车货卸完，在天黑前赶回仓库去呢。”

To pull one's leg的真正意思是逗别人，开别人玩笑的意思。

例句-3: "My roommate said this girl had told him she wouldn't mind going out with me. But when I invited her to a movie, I learned he was just pulling my leg."这个大学生说：“我的同房间同学说，那个女孩愿意和我一起出去玩。可是，当我请她去看电影的时候，我才发现我那同学是逗我，开我的玩笑。”

例句-4: "Hey, stop pulling my leg, will you! I don't believe that girl really said she likes me and would like me to take her out."这句话的意思是：“喂，你别逗我行不行！我才不信那个女孩真的说了她喜欢我，还要我邀她出去玩。”

To shake one's leg，这是指赶快动作的意思。To pull one's leg，这是指和别人开玩笑。break

a leg的确切意思是祝愿别人成功。

22.To twist someone's arm; To charge someone an arm and a leg

To twist someone's arm是指给某人施加压力，迫使他做你要他做的事。

例句-1: "I didn't want see that movie about Mozart, but my roommate twisted my arm. I'm glad he did -- it was a great show." 他说：“我本来不想去看那个有关莫扎特的电影的。可是，我同房间的同学硬逼着要我去。不过，看了电影后我倒很高兴，因为那个电影太好了。”

例句-2:"My son has been twisting my arm to let him take my car out on a date ever since he got his driver's license. This weekend, I finally let him take it. And now it's in the body shop for a thousand dollars of repairs: he had an accident on the way to pick up his girlfriend." 他说：“自从我儿子拿到驾驶执照以来，他一直闹着要开我的车去赴约会。这个周末，我终于答应了。可是，他在去接女朋友的路上出了车祸，现在我的车正在车库里修，要花一千美元呢。”

to charge someone an arm and a leg的意思就是要价太高。

例句-3: "Don't go to that fancy new restaurant. The food isn't very good and they charge you an arm and a leg for it!" 这个人说：“别上那个新开的高级饭馆去。他们的菜并不好，而价钱倒贵得要命。”

例句-4: "Say, if you need a dentist, you might want to try my brother. He's fresh out of dental school and trying to set up a practice. But he does good work, and he won't charge you an arm and a leg for it like most other dentists." 这个人说：“喂，要是你想找牙大夫，你可以上我弟弟那里去试一下。他刚毕业，正在设法开业。可是，他技术很好，也不会像其他许多牙大夫那样收费很高。”

to twist someone's arm，那是强迫某人做你要他做的事。to charge someone an arm and

a leg，这是指要价太高。

23.To take candy from a baby; A piece of cake

To take candy from a baby意思就是：某件事情很容易办成，就像把孩子手里的糖拿来一样。例句-1: "Getting grandmother to loan me the money was as easy as taking candy from a baby." 这个人说：“要我祖母借我那笔钱那简直是太容易了。”

例句-2: "Louey told us that robbing this bank would be as easy as taking candy from a baby. But somebody told the police and they were waiting for us. We had no choice but to throw down our guns and surrender." 这个犯人说：“洛伊对我们说，要抢那个银行简直太容易了。可是，不知谁去报告了警察。到我们去抢银行时，警察在那里等着我们。我们没办法，只好放下枪投降。”

例句-3: "Honey, I finally asked Old Man Jones for my raise. And it was a piece of cake!" “亲爱的，我终于对老琼斯提了要求增加工资的事。我没有费吹灰之力他一口答应了。”例句-4: "At the briefing before we took off to bomb the Germans, our commander told us it would probably be a tough flight. But it turned out to be a piece of cake: no anti-aircraft fire and no enemy fighters." 这句话的意思是：“在我们起飞去轰炸德国人之前举行的情况介绍会上，我们的司令官告诉我们这次飞行任务可能很艰巨。但是，结果倒是非常容易，既没有高射炮射击，也没有敌机来干扰。”

上面我们讲了两个形容事情很容易办的俗语。一个是To take candy from a baby；第二个俗语是A piece of cake。

24.Top Gun; Bottom line

例句-1: "Read this book by Professor Winter -- he's a top gun in Shakespeare research." “大家看一下温特教授写的这本书，他是在莎士比亚研究方面最优秀的学者。”Top Gun这个习惯用语在美国律师当中用得也很多。

例句-2: "Sorry, I don't handle divorces myself, but if you really want to divorce your husband, I can give you the name of two of the top guns in New York when it comes to getting a good divorce settlement." 这位律师说：“对不起,我本人不处理离婚案这种业务。但是，如果你一定要和你丈夫离婚，那我可以把纽约的两个在处理离婚财产方面最好的律师介绍给你。”

每个公司的会计在财政报告上都要把收入和开支加起来，然后得出一个最关键的数字，也就是这个公司究竟盈利多少，或亏损多少。这就是所谓的bottom line。

例句-3: "I hate to tell you this, but if we don't get more customers the next three months, the bottom line is that we'll go out of business." 他说：“我很不愿意告诉你。但是，要是我们在今后三个月里不能招揽更多的顾客的话，归根结底的问题是我们必然会倒闭的。”例句-4: "Our new cook from Sichuan is bringing in a lot more people. And the bottom line is that last month we made a profit of fifteen thousand dollars." 他说：“我们那个从四川来的新厨师吸引了不少顾客。其结果是上个月我们赚了一万五千美元。”What's the bottom line? 这就是说，在对一个问题讨论结束后，其结果到底是什么。

25.Just for laughs; To laugh up one's sleeve

人们经常会做一些事，纯属为了高兴。这在英文里就是：Just for laughs。Just for laughs 这个俗语在不同情况下，它的意思也就不同。首先，它可以解释为：做某件事纯属为了高兴，就像我们上面讲的那样。

例句-1: "Come on and get your jacket -- let's go out and have a couple of beers just for laughs." 这个人说：“来吧，穿上你的外套，我们到外面去喝两杯啤酒高兴高兴。”

Just for laughs有时也可以指做愚蠢的事，或有害的事。

例句-2: "Just for laughs they tossed Mary in the swimming pool with all her clothes on. Then they found out she didn't know how to swim." 这个人说：“就是为了开玩笑，他们把玛丽连衣服带鞋的整个扔进了游泳池，结果他们发现，玛丽根本不会游泳。”

例句-3: "I really enjoyed that movie last night. It won't win any prizes, but it has two funny guys in it that are worth watching just for laughs." 这个人说：“我很喜欢昨晚看