VOA慢速英语:Words and Their Stories: Get Your Act Together

A woman from Japan was telling a friend about her trip to the United States. The woman had visited major businesses and investment companies in New York City and Chicago.
一位日本妇女在向朋友讲述她的美国之行。她参观了纽约和芝加哥重要的商业和投资公司。

"I studied English before I left home," she said. "But I still was not sure that people were speaking English."
“虽然我去之前学过英语，”她说，“但是我还是不确定他们说的真的是英语。”

Her problem is easy to understand. Americans in business are like people who are in business anywhere. They have a language of their own. Some of the words and expressions deal with the special areas of their work. Other expressions are borrowed from different kinds of work such as the theater and movie industry.
她的问题很容易理解。美国的商人和其他地方的商人一样，他们有自己的语言。一些词语和表达方式和他们特殊的工作领域有关。而其他的一些表达方式则是从不同的行业借鉴而来，如戏剧和电影行业。

One such saying is get your act together.
其中有一个说法是get your act together.

When things go wrong in a business, an employer may get angry. He may shout, "Stop making mistakes. Get your act together."
当生意出了问题，雇主可能会很愤怒。他会大吼：“机灵点儿（Get your act together），别犯错。”

Or, if the employer is calmer, he may say, "Let us get our act together."
或者，如果雇主脾气好点儿，他会说：“我们要集中精神做事（Let us get our act together）。”

Either way, the meaning is the same. Getting your act together is getting organized. In business, it usually means to develop a calm and orderly plan of action.
不管怎么说，意思都是一样的。Getting your act together就是要好好筹划。在商业运营中，它就意味着行动要稳健有序。

It is difficult to tell exactly where the saying began. But, it is probable that it was in the theater or movie industry. Perhaps one of the actors was nervous and made a lot of mistakes. The director may have said, "Calm down, now. Get your act together."
我们很难追溯这种表达的起源。但它很有可能是起源于戏剧或电影行业。也许当时有一个演员很紧张，总是犯错误，导演就安慰说：“别紧张，仔细想想你的角色该怎么演。”

Word expert James Rogers says the expression was common by the late nineteen seventies. Mister Rogers says the Manchester Guardian newspaper used it in nineteen seventy-eight. The newspaper said a reform policy required that the British government get its act together.
词汇专家詹姆斯．罗杰斯说该表达方式在20世纪70年代后期相当常见。罗杰斯说《曼彻斯特卫报》曾在1987年使用过这个短语，该报称英国政府应当“有条不紊地”实行一项改革政策。

Now, this expression is heard often when officials of a company meet. One company even called its yearly report, "Getting Our Act Together."
如今，这种表达方式经常在公司官员会面时听到。一家公司甚至将其年度报告命名为“让我们有条不紊”。

The Japanese visitor was confused by another expression used by American business people. It is cut to the chase.
这名日本游客还对美国商人的另一种专用表达感到困惑。那就是cut to the chase。

She heard that expression when she attended an important meeting of one company. One official was giving a very long report. It was not very interesting. In fact, some people at the meeting were falling asleep.
她在参加某公司的重要会议时听到了这种用法。一位官员做的报告冗长而乏味，事实上一些与会者甚至昏昏欲睡。

Finally, the president of the company said, "Cut to the chase."
终于，公司总裁说“别兜圈子了，快切入正题（cut to the chase）”。

Cut to the chase means to stop spending so much time on details or unimportant material. Hurry and get to the good part.
切入正题的意思就是，不要在细枝末节或是次要信息上花太多时间，直接切中要害。

Naturally, this saying was started by people who make movies. Hollywood movie producers believe that most Americans want to see action movies. Many of their movies show scenes in which the actors chase each other in cars, or in airplanes or on foot.
这种说法自然是源自电影制片人。好莱坞的电影制片人认为美国人大多喜欢看动作片，于是许多电影便充斥着演员开车，开飞机，或徒步追逐的场面。

Cut is the director's word for stop. The director means to stop filming, leave out some material, and get to the chase scene now.
“切”是电影导演暂停拍片的说法。导演的意思是暂停拍摄，将一些戏分剪切，随后直接进入追逐场面。

So, if your employer tells you to cut to the chase, be sure to get to the main point of your story quickly.
因此，如果你的雇主叫你切入正题，那就赶快进入谈话的主要内容吧。