892 to death

昨天晚上,我和先生一起去他们公司的Party, 席间遇到一位女士,拉着我们聊个没完。我们跟她并不熟,可是她一直在大谈自己的孩子,向我们炫耀她儿子考上了好大学,又是游泳健将,又受女孩子欢迎,blah blah. To death.

Death,大家都知道,是“死亡”,所以,把to death和某个形容词放在一起,就表示“到极点”、“如何如何得要命”。

比如,我在party上遇到的这位女士没完没了地炫耀自己的孩子,她自己可能觉得很享受,可我简直bored to death - 快被烦死了! 不过,我宁愿无聊,也不想经历下面这段话描述的心惊胆战:

例句-1:I remember walking late at night in New York City years ago. A stranger came up behind me and pointed a gun at my back. He told me to hand over my wallet. I said that I didn't have it on me, which was the truth. I was scared to death he was going to shoot. I'd never been so afraid in my life! Fortunately, he ran and disappeared into a crowd.

这段话意思是:我还记得,几年前的一个深夜,我在纽约的街上走路。一个陌生人出现在我身后,用一把枪顶着我的后腰。他让我把钱包交给他,可我真的没带钱包,只好实话实说。我当时真吓死了,怕他会开枪。我这辈子都没那么害怕过! 幸运的是,这个人跑掉了,消失在人群中。

被人用枪指着! 好家伙,听着都害怕! 我没有过这种经历,不过倒是体会过什么叫scared to death, 怕得要死。上个周末,我带我侄女去看了场恐怖电影。在屏幕上,一个变态杀人狂血腥地杀戮。我侄女看得津津有味,可是我坐在电影院里直打冷战,I was frightened to death - 吓死了!

******

在生活中,总是会有一些“要命”的事儿。比如,意外收到大礼包,你会trilled to death, 高兴得要命;遇到暴风雪,天气, freezing to death, 冷得要命; 家人生病住院,你worried to death, 万分担心。再比如下面这位会计师,我们来听听他遇到了什么要命的事儿:

例句-2:A lot of my friends like to get away when the weather starts warming up. But there's no way I can. That's because I'm an accountant. From February through April, I'm busy preparing tax returns for my clients. I'm expected to stay late at the office, come in on weekends...I'm worked to death. It's unbelievably stressful, but that's my job.

这段话的意思是:天气一转暖,我的好多朋友就都出去旅游了。可我却没法这样做,因为我是个会计师。每年二月到四月,我都忙着为客户报税,作退税的准备工作。我晚上得加班,周末也不能休息...简直是精疲力尽。压力之大别人难以想象,可没办法,这就是我的工作。

美国的报税截至日期是4月15号,所以2月到4月是会计师们最忙的时候,他们的工作压力当然很大。不过,即使在自己家里,你也难免要承受一些压力。比如,我女儿前几天把她的几个同学带回家,在地下室里组了个乐队,她们叮当五四,吹拉弹唱,练个没完。我觉得,they're rehearsing some of the songs to death, 她们已经把其中一些歌练得快烂了! 不过,我也不能说什么,不能打击她们的积极性,因为I love my daughter to death, 我女儿就是我的心头肉啊!