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)停機了。Be in service 表示“可供使用的”，那么be out of service的意思就是“無法使用的”。

2. 然后Kelly又給Jim的公司打了電話，但是他們說幾個月前Billy就被解雇了。Give someone the boot這個短語就表示“請某人走路，解雇某人”。一般來說，表示“解雇”這個意義的正式說法是“I was laid off.”

3. 如果要口語化一點，就是“I was fired.” 或者“I was canned.” 對話中的give someone the boot也可以表示“解雇”這個意義，我們一個對話來做例子，比如說：——Have you heard of it? Tom's given the boot! 你聽說了嗎？湯姆被解雇了?！猈ow! It's unbelievable! 哇！真叫人無法想信！

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

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

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

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：You should be ashamed of yourself for telling such lies. 你應該為自己說謊而感到羞恥。He felt ashamed of having done so little work. 他因為只做了這么一點工作而感到慚愧。

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：I finally tracked down the reference in a dictionary of quotations.

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