【在生活中學習語言】〈 職人英語通〉 收拾殘局 Pick up the pieces
文／Dr.J.J. 圖／老唐

當如玻璃般的易碎品摔到地上而碎裂成一片片時，要把這些碎片一片一片地撿起來（pick up the pieces），是不是相當令人討厭又麻煩呢？也因此，當我們想要表達自己是心不甘情不願地去「收拾殘局」時，就可以用這句英文俚語來做表達。

Amy：Why does it always have to be us to sort things out for him？

Amy：幹嘛老是要我們幫他在後面擦屁股啊？

Todd：Well, he’ s the boss after all.

Todd：誰叫他是老闆。

Amy：I know, but that doesn’t mean he can just do things without thinking carefully first.

Amy：我知道，但那也不代表他就可以沒先仔細想清楚就隨便做啊。

Todd：Nobody likes to be the one to pick up the pieces.

Todd：沒有人喜歡去收拾殘局的。

Amy：I definitely think we should let the top management know about this. It has happened so many times.

Amy：我真的覺得我們應該要讓上層的人知道這件事。已經發生好多次了。.

Todd：Are you sure you want to do this? I heard the manager is well connected. What if he finds out that we revealed the whole thing？

Todd：你確定要這麼做嗎？我聽說經理可是關係很好的。要是他知道是我們講出去的怎麼辦？

Amy：He has only himself to blame then. Why didn’t he try to solve the problem first rather than dumping everything to us like that？

Amy：他只能怪自己。他怎麼沒想過自己要先想辦法處理，而不是就這樣把事情都丟給我們。

Todd：Right! I think we should let the top management know otherwise there’s always gonna be next time.

Todd：沒錯！我們應該讓上層的人知道，不然事情永遠沒完沒了。

Amy：And there will be no end to our suffering!

Amy：然後我們就永無寧日！

自由時報-971016
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