流行美语 第154课:copycat; wacky

Larry和李华刚刚看完电影。李华在问Larry她没看懂的地方。今天李华会学到两个常用语：copycat和wacky。

LH: Larry，我特别喜欢看这种侦探片，最后把坏人抓住，特痛快。对了，刚才那电影里的侦探说，那杀人凶手是个copycat。那是什么意思啊？

LL: A copycat is someone who imitates someone else. The murderer in the movie imitated other famous murderers, so he was copycat killer.

LH: 嗯，copycat就是指模仿别人的人。噢，现在我懂了。那个侦探是说那个杀人犯是模仿其他杀人犯的作案方法。哎呀，怪不得我看电影的时候有些地方弄不懂。对了，Larry，这个copycat还可以用在其他的地方吗？

LL: Sure. For instance, my younger sister used to imitate me a lot when she was a kid. She would repeat whatever I said, so I caller her my little copycat.

LH: 你叫你小妹妹little copycat。你妹妹一定很可爱。她一定很崇拜你，所以才模仿你的一举一动，重复你说的话！

LL: Yeah, it was kind of cute, but it got annoying after a while.

LH: 小妹妹学你的样有什么讨厌的？

LL: Kids are great copycats and they always manage to copy things that they shouldn't. If I said a bad word, my sister always repeated. My mother thought I was teaching her bad words on purpose.

LH: 所以大人要给小孩树立好的榜样嘛！ 你不要你妹妹说粗话，那你就不该说粗话。不过，你妈妈以为你故意教坏妹妹，那肯定让你很不好受。对不对？

LL: That's right. It got me into a lot of trouble. Hey, I also remember that when I was a kid, it was common for kids to accuse each other of being a "copycat."

LH: 没错，小孩子最喜欢说别人学自己，好象自己很聪敏，别人就只会模仿。

LL: You're right. To call someone a copycat means that the other person isn't original and was just imitating what someone else was doing.

LH: Larry，你说的这句话不是跟我刚才说的意思一样吗？ You're a copycat!

LL: Not entirely the same!

******

LL: Hey, Li Hua, did you ever do any wacky things when you were a kid?

LH: 对不起，Larry，你刚才说什么。我没听懂，你问我小时候做过什么wacky的事，那是什么意思啊？

LL: Wacky means crazy or silly. Kids tend to do wacky things. For instance, when I was a kid, I tried to play Tarzan with our living room curtains.

LH: Wacky就是指疯疯颠颠或犯傻。对，小孩子往往会做一些傻事。不过，像你小时候想学泰山而把窗帘当树枝爬上去，这也太危险了。

LL: Yeah, I had just seen the movie, Tarzan, and I decided to climb the curtains and swing from them the way Tarzan swung from the vines. Pretty wacky, huh?

LH: 我想也是，你肯定是看了泰山这电影后才那么wacky的。 不过说到wacky，我小时候也不见得比你差，也做了不少wacky的事呢！

LL: Such as?

LH: 嗯，比方说，我8岁那年，我爬上邻居家的一棵树，上去了，却不知道该怎么下来呢。

LL: That's wacky! So what did you do?

LH: 我挂在树上，还能怎么办？只好大叫，请人来救我喽！后来有人拿了张梯子，把我给救下来了。

LL: That's funny. Hey, how's your cat doing? Has she done anything wacky lately?

LH: 嗨，说到我的猫小雪球，它做的wacky 事那才多呢！昨天我在看电视上一个介绍大自然的节目，小雪球看到银幕里的小鸟就一直想扑上去和它玩。那个模样真逗！

今天李华学到两个常用语。第一个是copycat，是指模仿别人的人。另一个常用语是wacky，意思就是疯疯颠颠，犯傻的。