Kelly: Hey, Jim. Listen to this: I called Billy's home……

Jim: And?

Kelly: His number is no longer in service. Then I called his company……

Jim: What did they say?

Kelly: They said they gave him the boot months ago.

Jim: Holy smokes! What's he doing, then? I hope he's OK.

Kelly: You know his girlfriend…… try giving her a call.

（A day later.）

Jim: Guess what, Kelly? Linda and Billy broke up.

Kelly: Does she know where he is?

Jim: It sounds like she never wants to hear his name again, that wench!

Kelly: I thought they were in love.

Jim: I think she loved his promises of the easy life. Maybe Billy's too ashamed now to contact us.

Kelly: Let's keep trying his other friends to try to track him down.

Notes：

1. 對(duì)話中Kelly 和Jim在四處打探Billy的下落，Kelly給Billy家打電話，但是他家的電話已經(jīng)停機(jī)了。Be in service 表示“可供使用的”，那么be out of service的意思就是“無(wú)法使用的”。

2. 然后Kelly又給Jim的公司打了電話，但是他們說(shuō)幾個(gè)月前Billy就被解雇了。Give someone the boot這個(gè)短語(yǔ)就表示“請(qǐng)某人走路，解雇某人”。一般來(lái)說(shuō)，表示“解雇”這個(gè)意義的正式說(shuō)法是“I was laid off.”

3. 如果要口語(yǔ)化一點(diǎn)，就是“I was fired.” 或者“I was canned.” 對(duì)話中的give someone the boot也可以表示“解雇”這個(gè)意義，我們一個(gè)對(duì)話來(lái)做例子，比如說(shuō)：——Have you heard of it? Tom's given the boot! 你聽(tīng)說(shuō)了嗎？湯姆被解雇了。——Wow! It's unbelievable! 哇！真叫人無(wú)法想信！

4. 除了“解雇”這個(gè)意思之外，give someone the boot也可以表示“和某人斷絕關(guān)系”，不過(guò)這里的關(guān)系通常是指男女關(guān)系。比如說(shuō)：——Hey, Julie. Where's Peter? I thought he was coming. 嘿，Julie，Peter呢？我以為他也會(huì)來(lái)呢?！狽o, I gave him the boot. He was too possessive.沒(méi)有，我把他甩了。他的占有欲太強(qiáng)了。

5. Jim對(duì)這個(gè)消息感到很吃驚，他說(shuō)“Holy smokes!”，在口語(yǔ)中表示“天哪！”，跟“Oh, God!”差不多。Kelly讓Jim打電話給Billy的女朋友，問(wèn)問(wèn)她知不知道Billy的下落。但是Jim帶回來(lái)的消息卻是，Billy和女朋友Linda已經(jīng)分手了。她根本不知道Billy在哪，而且再也不想聽(tīng)到這個(gè)倒霉的人的名字了。Jim很氣憤，說(shuō)Linda是wench，wench在口語(yǔ)中表示“可惡的女人”，就跟bitch差不多。

6. Kelly還以為他們兩個(gè)人是相愛(ài)的，沒(méi)想到卻大難臨頭各自飛，因?yàn)長(zhǎng)inda看重的只是Billy承諾的輕松優(yōu)越的生活。愛(ài)情事業(yè)都不得意，也許現(xiàn)在Billy沒(méi)有臉跟朋友們聯(lián)系了。Too ashamed to do something 表示“感到很羞愧而不能做某事”，比如說(shuō)：He felt too ashamed to ask for help. 他不好意思請(qǐng)求幫助。

7. be ashamed of someone / something / oneself，表示“為某人/某事/為自己感到慚愧，感到羞恥”，比如說(shuō)：You should be ashamed of yourself for telling such lies. 你應(yīng)該為自己說(shuō)謊而感到羞恥。He felt ashamed of having done so little work. 他因?yàn)橹蛔隽诉@么一點(diǎn)工作而感到慚愧。

8. Kelly還是不放棄希望，要繼續(xù)打探Billy的消息。Track something /someone down，表示“經(jīng)追蹤或搜索而發(fā)現(xiàn)某人或某物”，比如說(shuō)：I finally tracked down the reference in a dictionary of quotations.

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