今天探討的詞彙是另一個位置詞between。先分享聽到的一個笑話。
有人在西安的華清池向外賓講述西安事變的故事，講到“蔣介石倉皇逃跑”時突然忘記了關鍵詞tail的說法，但他反應很快，急中生智說出了下面的話：Chiang ran away with something between his legs. 聽眾們聽了鬨堂大笑。between意思是“在二者之間”，例如，He stood between his son and daughter. 逃跑很狼狽被形容為“夾著尾巴逃走”，也就是run with tail between his legs。關鍵地方不明確，難怪聽眾想歪了。
between the lines不是排隊，而是指從字裡行間琢磨意思，lines指一行行的字。例如，I could sense some excitement between the lines in his letter.
此外，這個詞還可以這麼用：
This is just between you and me. Don't tell anyone else. 這事就你我知道就行了，別跟別人說。They shared the last bottle of water between the two of them. 他倆分享了最後一瓶水。
我們都會經歷一些困難時刻，左右為難。經典的例子就是老婆問老公的問題“我和你媽掉河裡你救誰？” You are stuck between a rock and a hard place。左邊是懸崖，右邊是峭壁。對這個問題，所有男人恐怕都只能顧左右而言他，才能全身而退。
分享到:
閱讀更多 英語每日談 的文章
