名人教你讲英文：看专栏学俗语

名人教英文：看专栏学俗语

早前任志刚又成为新闻人物。立法会雷曼调查小组对他予以谴责，他立即反击，指自己有理据寻求司法复核，只因不敌政治机器而作罢。《南华早报》专栏作者jake van der kamp撰文，在标题开宗明义说：with that sort of pay packet, joe, shut up and cop the flak! 用广东话来说，就是“?咁大份粮，阿任，收声受靶啦！”

标题用了多个口语用词（colloquial expressions）。pay packet是装人工的信封，借代“薪金”一词。shut up当然是俗话。cop the flak即accept the criticism（cop是take或hold的俚俗说法，flak本指炮火，引伸为批评）。

虽然这样说，但作者认为，金管局（hong kong monetary authority, hkma）根本不可能知道雷曼兄弟隐藏致命伤，况且公营机构必须按规矩行事，即使有高人一早猜得到，金管局也不能因为个别人士的臆测而有所行动："...the hkma could never have been able to spot (发现) the fatal (致命的) flaw (缺陷) of lehman brothers' financial difficulties when all official sources of information were ignorant of (没察觉到) it. the hkma is government, and government operates by established (既定的) procedure (程序 ), not by the independent conjectural (推测的) thinking of a few individuals."