美國習慣用語 第869:get wise to

我有個朋友在政府部門工作。他這工作以前可是個“肥缺”，經常用公款吃喝旅遊。可好景不長，這種揮霍公款的行爲被發現了，他被調查機構請去喝茶了。這讓我想到了一個習慣用語，那就是: get wise to.

Wise, 形容詞，是“明智”的意思。Get wise to somebody or something 是“知道，瞭解到”的意思。The investigators began to get wise to the reckless spending of taxpayer money, 調查人員開始察覺到揮霍納稅人錢財的行爲。

在下面的例子中，也有一個人像我的朋友一樣，沒法繼續過舒服日子了。

例句-1：Our department is so big. That's why no one noticed that Fred was often out of the office on Mondays. But then the boss started holding staff meetings at the beginning of the week. Soon, she got wide to Fred and his frequent absences. Since she became aware of the situation, Fred hasn't missed a day of work!!

這段話是說: 我們部門太大了，所以沒人注意到弗萊德經常星期一時不在辦公室。不過後來，老闆開始星期一召開員工會議。很快，她就發現了弗萊德經常不在的情況。從那以後，弗萊德再也沒逃過一天工!

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不來上班？曠工？他膽子還真大。不過說起來，辦公室裏經常有些人偷偷上網買東西，或者網上聊天，then they act shocked when their supervisors have gotten wise to them. 當他們的領導發現他們的這些小動作時，他們往往會嚇一跳。

我一個好朋友交了個新男友，這人看上去隨和幽默，絕對是個好男人。可有一次，我朋友無意間發現這男人手機中有不少曖昧短信，when he knew that she was getting wise to his deception, he stopped calling her. 這個男人知道我朋友已經察覺到他不忠的行爲後，就不在聯絡她了。所以說，看人不能光看外表。

當然，買東西的時候，也不能光聽商家的花言巧語。讓我們來聽聽下面這個句子:

例句-2：My wife is a smart consumer. She's often alert to products that advertise being healthy when they actually contain too much sugar, fat or chemicals. She also notices when products claim to offer more, but actually contain less. When she gets wise those manufacturers, she blogs about them. She simply doesn't want anyone else to be fooled.

這段話的意思是說：我太太是個聰明的消費者。她經常會留意那些把自己標榜得很健康，但其實含有大量糖、脂肪或化學成分的商品，以及那些聲稱很實惠其實很不划算的東西。一旦識破這些商家的把戲，她就會去網上寫博客揭露它們。她不想讓其他消費者上當。

我們要感謝這種熱心人! 我們小區裏也有這樣的人，他們會定期給所有居民寫信，告訴大家社區的最新動態，以及地方政府都做了些什麼事情。Thanks to these people, I've gotten wise to all kinds of recent decisions by my town council. 託他們的福，我對鎮政府近期做出的決定都有所瞭解。