【在生活中學習語言】〈 職人英語通〉膨風大王Name-dropper! 

文／Dr.J.J. 圖／老唐

「吹牛」，或者是口語裡常說的「膨風」，其實可區分為好幾種類型。有些人喜歡吹噓自己有多少財富，有些人則喜歡在言談間表現出自己「人面」很廣，各種政商名人、三教九流通通都認識，例如：「某某某」是我的好朋友，「某某某」常跟我吃飯……之類的，這種常常喜歡把「某某某（name）」脫口而出（drop）的人，英文裡有個貼切有趣的名詞可以用來形容他們，就叫”name-dropper”！

Mark：Do you think we should invite some politicians or celebrities to come to our charity dinner auction?

Mark：你覺得我是不是該邀些政治人物或名人來參加我們的慈善拍賣晚宴呢？

Celine：It sounds like a good idea.

Celine：聽起來是個不錯的主意。

Mark：This will help us get more publicity and better results.

Mark：這樣我們會有更多的媒體曝光度，成效也會更好。

Celine：I think so, too. The only problem is we don’t know any of those people.

Celine：我也這麼想。但問題是那些名人我們一個也不認識啊。

Mark：Why don’t we ask Jessica to help with this? She certainly knows a lot of famous people around.

Mark：我們何不找Jessica幫忙呢？她一定認識很多名人。

Celine：You can’t be serious.

Celine：你不會是認真的吧。

Mark：I AM! She’s always talking about “bumping into” somebody the other day….

Mark：我是啊！她老是說自己前幾天「碰到」誰誰誰的。

Celine：Come on, I know her better than anyone else. She’s just a name-dropper. She likes to mention all those big names in her conversations so people think she’s really well-connected.

Celine：算了吧，我比誰都了解她。她就是愛膨風，老喜歡在言談間提到一些大人物的名字，好讓大家以為她人面多廣。

Mark：I didn’t know that at all.

Mark：是喔，我一點都不知道呢。

Celine：For instance, I went to a colleague’s wedding last month with her. The mayor showed up for like 5 minutes. But she kept talking about this like the mayor was sitting next to her and only talking to her for the whole night.

Celine：譬如我上個月跟她去一個同事的婚禮。市長不過才露面5分鐘吧。之後呢，她就老提這檔事，講的好像市長整晚都只坐在她旁邊跟她閒聊呢。

自由時報-970605
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