英語口語練習小對話 第818期:認輸而投降

Subject : I want to throw the towel.

第一， 迷你對話

A: It is said that there is big crush in the ticket office right now.

聽說現在買票的人把售票處擠得水泄不通。

B: I want to throw in the towel.

我不想買了。

第二，地道表達

throw in the towel

1. 解詞釋義

Towel 是“毛巾”的意思。Throw in the towel的字面意思是“扔毛巾”，比喻爲“認輸”“投降”。用它表示“承認失敗”了的意思。在俚語詞典中解釋如下： (From boxing, where this is done by a boxer's trainer to stop the fight.) to signal that one is going to quit; to quit. 從英文解釋中，我們可以看到這個俚語來自於拳擊比賽中，教練看到自己的選手必輸無疑，就會向地上扔毛巾，表示認輸了。

2. 拓展範例

e.g. He vowed he would never throw in the towel.

他發誓決不認輸。

e.g. We're never going to persuade them so we might as well throw in the towel now.

我們決不會說服他們,因此我們不妨現在就認輸。

e.g. The game is not over yet! Don't throw in the towel so soon!

比賽還沒結束呢! 別這麼快就認輸!

e.g. When John could stand no more of Mary's bad temper, he threw in the towel and left.

當約翰實在無法忍受Mary的暴躁脾氣時，他放棄和她的感情了，和她分手了。

第三，視野拓展

同意短語：throw in the sponge

e.g. Don't give up now! It's too soon to throw in the sponge.

不要這麼早放棄！這樣太早認輸了。

e.g. The union was forced to throw in the towel and settle their bitter dispute with the company.

公會被迫放棄，只能和公司解決他們之間激烈的爭端。

第四，咬文嚼字

1. 表示某處人非常擁擠，擁擠得水泄不通，可以用到情景劇中的句式：There is a big crush somewhere. Crush 在這裏是“擁擠的人羣”的，a big crush的意思則是描繪出人山人海，擠得個水泄不通的場景。

2. Right now在這裏的確切意思是此時此刻，現在。例如：

I'll lay odds that Dean is at your office right now.

我敢打賭迪安現在就在你辦公室。

Here, listen, they're talking about it on Radio-Paris right now.

嘿，聽，巴黎電臺正在談論這事呢。