盛夏里的“降温”词汇

    阴雨天气结束，气温迅速回升。大热天的，讲几个和冷的东西有关的俗语也许会让大家感到舒服一些。下面我们就来讲由“雪”和“冰”组成的常用语。

　　1 snowball

听到snowball这个字，我们脑子里就会出现孩子们冬天在雪地里扔雪球玩的情景。除了雪球的本意，snowball 也可以当动词用来形容某一样东西像滚雪球那样很快就变得越来越大。

下面的这个例句就是用snowball来形容一家餐馆的生意在最近几个月变得越来越好。

Sally's happy about how her new seafood restaurant is doing. Business was slow at first but it's really snowballed the last couple of months: now you have to wait in line to get a table.

莎莉对她新开的海鲜饭馆很满意。一开始，生意很清淡，但是最近两个月来生意越来越好。现在你要座位还得排队等。

又如：The latest polls show that public opinion is starting to snowball in favor of our opponent. We need to find some more good things to say about our candidate and find them quick.

最近民意调查显示，选民越来越倾向于我们的对手了。我们必须再找些有利于我们候选人的内容来加以宣扬，而且还要尽快地行动。

2 snow job

Snow job 就是用拍马屁、夸张等手法来欺骗或说服别人。在美国，人人都要买各种各样的保险，包括健康、房子、汽车保险等等。那些保险公司的推销员靠着他们的三寸不烂之舌向顾客推销，说得天花乱坠，你一不小心就会上当。

例如：This guy kept telling me how much I'd save with his company. But when I read the policy he was selling, I realized he was giving me a snow job. So I told him thanks but no thanks.

这个人一再对我说，要是买他们公司的保险我会省多少钱。但是，当我看了他推销的保险政策后，我才明白他是在骗我。所以我告诉他，谢谢，我不要。

几乎在生活的各个方面，你都得十分小心不要上当。例如：

That new man who's running for Congress makes a lot of promises what he'll do for the people. But I keep having this uneasy feeling that he's only giving us a snow job.

那个刚参加竞选国会议员的人做了许多保证，说他以后要为公众做些什么事。但是，我总感到不安，觉得他只不过是在欺骗我们。

3 to break the ice

To break 就是打破的意思，ice 就是冰的意思。To break the ice 作为俗语是指：缓和紧张气氛，使在场的人放松一些。例如，一个公司举行会议，参加会议的人都互不相识。那么，会议主席怎么来缓和一下气氛呢？

He started the meeting with a couple of jokes to get people to relax. Then he went around the table and asked everybody to stand up and tell a little about themselves and that broke the ice in a hurry.

他(指会议主席)一开始就讲了两个笑话，让大家放松一些。然后，他围着桌子让每个人站起来简单地自我介绍，这样很快就使气氛缓和了。

又如：It's hard to break the ice at a party for adults where everybody is a stranger. But you put a bunch of young kids together and the noise tells you they break the ice in five minutes.

一群互不相识的成人聚在一起，要缓和气氛可不容易。但是，要是一群孩子在一起，只要五分钟他们就很融洽了，从他们的吵闹声中你就可以知道这一点。

4 iceberg

Iceberg的原意是：在南北极附近海面上飘动的大冰山。但是，在当做俗语用的时候，iceberg是指一个冷漠无情，缺乏正常人热情的人，就像下面例子里说的这个人。

My boss is the smartest man I know. But he's a real iceberg: he acts like he has no feelings for other people. In fact you can almost feel the chill when he walks into the office.

我的老板是我所认识的人当中最聪敏的一个。但是，他真是个冷漠无情的人。他好像对别人毫无感情。当他走进办公室的时候，你几乎会感到一股冷气。

又如：We thought our neighbor next door was a real iceberg, cold and aloof to us all. But at his daughter's wedding he wore a big smile and was so friendly I couldn't believe he was the same man.

我们都认为隔壁的邻居是个很冷漠的人，对我们都很冷淡。但是，在他女儿的婚礼上，他笑容满面，非常友好。我真是难以相信看到的是同一个人。