时髦英语口语词汇讲解第42期:Thirty-something

恒星英语学习网 2015年01月05日

      Source: 恒星英语学习网我要投稿   论坛   Favorite  

      迅雷高速下载    音频下载[点击右键另存为]

      This phrase, 'thirty-something', it came in in the 1980s referring to people of an unspecified age between 30 and 40.
      这个短语thirty-something来自上个世纪80年代,指的是大概30-40岁的人,但是并不清楚具体的年龄。

      These were members of the baby boom, the people who were born 20, 30 years before and entering their 30s now and not knowing how to cope - or at least, that was the idea.
      这些人都是‘ 婴儿潮 ’时期出生的人——都是20、30年前出生的人。这些人正步入三十岁,但是并不知道怎么处理这个年龄,所以……这就是背后表达的意思。

      It was the name of a television series.
      这是个电视连续剧的名字——《thirty-something》。

      It also became the name of a film.
      它也变成了一部电影的名字。

      People who had lost their freedom, was the idea.
      电影的主题描写了关于一群失去自由的人。

      Children, they'd got now, demanding jobs, approach of middle-age, gloom!
      他们现在有孩子、压力重重的工作,还要应对中年危机——郁闷呢!

      There's a website which says it's 'personal growth for thirty-somethings'.
      有个网站还声明它‘专为三十多岁的人个人成长’而设计。

      It's used both as an adjective - 'she's a thirty-something career woman'.
      这个表达同时也有形容词性:她是个三十多岁的事业女性。

      And it's also used as a noun, as I just did - 'the thirty-somethings'.
      它还被当作名词使用,就像我这样:三十多岁的人/物。

      And then, the ending got applied to others.
      然后,这个表达的后缀又被适用于其它的东西。

      We started to hear 'twenty-somethings'.
      我们开始听到人们说这样的话‘twenty-somethings'。

      And now we've got 'forty-somethings' - that was a television show in 2003, 'Forty-Something'.
      我们现在有‘forty-somethings'——2003年的一部电视节目。

      Well, it can be any age.
      嗯,这可以是指任何年龄。

      The implication is always that there's a set of values or problems associated with that age.
      而这背后其实是在暗示着这个年龄里,会有相应的一套价值观或者面对其它问题。

      Me? I'm sixty-something!
      我?我六十多岁了!

      本栏目更多同类内容