迷你對話學地道口語第1361期:白費口舌
第一，迷你對話
A: What should I do?
我該做什麼？
B: What has happened?
發生什麼事情了？
A: My daughter wants to marry Tom, the bad egg.
我女兒想和Tom那個壞蛋結婚。
B: Maybe you can persuade her out of that silly idea.
也許你可以說服她。
A: No use, it only wasts my breath.
沒有用的，那只是白費口舌。
B: Or you may take her along far and apart to spend a holiday.
或許你可以帶她去遠一點的地方度假。
A: That seems a better idea.
這看起來是個更好的主意。
第二，地道表達
waste one's breath
1. 解詞釋義
Waste one's breath的字面意思是“浪費某人的氣息”，比喻爲“白費口舌”的意思，用之來表示人費勁脣色去勸說某人或評說某事而未能奏效。在短語後面用介詞on sb. or sth.或者ing形式。
2. 拓展範例
E.g. Don't waste your breath trying to persuade him.
別白費口舌去勸他了。
用法：waste one's breath doing something
E.g. He was too intent on quitting the lake, and in making his preparations, to waste his breath on a subject of this nature.
他一心想離開湖上，正忙着收拾東西，當然不會爲這些事多費脣舌。
用法：waste one's breath on something
E.g. If you don't listen to me, I've no time to waste my breath on you!
你要是不願意聽我的，我正沒工夫跟你費吐沫玩！
用法：waste one's time on somebody
E.g. He won't take the exam, so don't waste your breath trying to persuade him.
他不會應試的，所以不要白費脣舌地試圖勸他了。
用法：waste one's breath doing something
E.g. They won't listen, so don't waste your breath telling them.
他們聽不進去, 不必和他們白費脣舌了。
用法：waste one's breath doing something
第三，視野拓展
1. bad egg：壞蛋，不可信任的人
E.g. He's been in prison several times for all sorts of crimes; he's a bad egg.
他因各種罪行入獄多次，他是個壞蛋。
E.g. The bad egg tried to nip away but was caught on the spot.
壞蛋想趕緊溜掉，但被當場抓。
2. persuade sb. out of：說服某人放棄......，規勸某人不要做某事
E.g. Can you persuade him out of his foolish plans?
你能說服他放棄他愚蠢的計劃嗎？
E.g. None of us could persuade him out of lending his money to that untrustworthy man.
我們誰都不能說服他不要借錢給那個不可靠的人。
3. take along：隨身攜帶，隨身帶上
E.g. The students will take along pens and notebooks on their visit to the factory.
學生們將帶筆和筆記本去參觀工廠。
E.g. He always take along with him a mini english dictionary in order to look up new words whenever possible.
