托福词汇之“杞人忧天worrywart”

　　Some people can be especially neurotic or nervous by nature, living outtheir lives in a state of excessive worry. These obsessive concerns may eitherbe global or amazingly minor in scope. Such a person is often said to be a worrywart, also rendered as worrywart or worry-wart in some literary references. Aworry wart's fears are generally viewed by others as irrational or completelyout of proportion to the actual situation.

　　有些人可能天生就特别神经质或者紧张，成天生活在极度忧虑中。这些过度的担忧可能是宏观的大事也可能是芝麻小事。这种极度忧虑的人就被称为是“忧天的岂人”(拼写为worrywart、worrywart或worry-wart都可以)。他们这些人的担忧通常会被别人看作自寻烦恼或者跟现实情况完全不符。

　　A worry wart in an office environment, for example, may spend most of hisor her time fretting over getting laid off or fired. While the actual chances ofa worry wart actually becoming unemployed may be remote at best, a neuroticemployee often seeks out advice from co-workers on how to handle his or herinevitable dismissal. Others may worry excessively about job performance orcustomer complaints or minor conflicts with their superiors.

　　比如说，办公室里杞人忧天的那些人大部分时间可能都在担心会被裁员或解雇。虽然他们真正被裁的几率很小，但是这类有点神经质的员工经常会找同事求教怎样才能避免被裁员。还有一些人可能会对工作表现、客户投诉或者与上司之间的小矛盾而过度担忧。