"布朗尼加分"口語課堂第3期:一場四十年後的婚禮
大家好，歡迎再次來到“布朗尼加分”口語課堂。今天我們要講的是一個浪漫但不太尋常的故事。從訂婚之日到大婚之日，其間跨越了整整四十年。讓我們邊聽故事，邊學短語。
Victoria and Sebastio live in a small village in Sicily. They are in love. One day, Sebastio gives Victoria an engagement ring and asks her to marry him. Victoria accepts, but she adds, "Let's wait to get married until we can afford the perfect wedding! We don't have enough money now."
Victoria begins to shop for a wedding dress, and she soon finds the perfect one. It's long, lacy, and beautiful. But it costs an arm and a leg! So Victoria starts to save her money. She makes a small payment every year. She saves up for 40 years!
At long last, after a 40-year engagement, Victoria can buy the wedding dress. She and Sebastio decide to tie the knot. At the wedding, Victoria looks beautiful in her dress. The newlyweds are in seventh heaven. They dance and drink champagne. Afterward, they ride off in a horse-drawn carriage. Their friends watch them and think, "It's about time!"
cost an arm and a leg: 不用說，一件耗時40年去支付的婚紗，價格一定是不菲的。Cost an arm and a leg，就意爲 extremly expensive。再來看一個例子。
A: Why don't you drive your car?
B: It's broken. It will cost an arm and a leg to get it repaired. 車壞掉了。修車的費用實在太高了。
我們再來看一下 tie the knot. Knot 結。Tie the knot 打結，原本是婚禮中的一個儀式之一，後來可以用於指代“結婚”。再比如：Kate and her longtime boyfriend tie the knot at a private ceremony in England. 她與她戀愛了很長時間的男友在私人典禮上喜結連理。
一說結婚總是感覺喜氣洋洋，其中最快樂的人當屬新娘新郎了，快樂到什麼程度呢。Be in seventh heaven. 這樣的表達法和我們中國人常說的某人幸福的都快飛到天上去了還真有同工之妙。
再來看一個例子吧：爸爸下班後不見孩子們，問道：Where're the kids? 媽媽無可奈何的回答：In the garden. They are in the seventh heaven with their new toys. 孩子們在花園裏樂不可支的玩兒新玩具呢。
在文章的最後，賓客們望着這對新人遠去的時候都發出了不一樣的感慨“It's about time.”這裏，it's about time和it's about the time to do something （差不多是做……的時間了。）意思不同。經過如此漫長的等待，大家由衷要說的是“總算盼來了”也就是 "it's later than expected"，比大家預期的晚了太久。例如，某款遊戲，歷經很久的等待終於面世之際，會有網友發帖，用"Hell，it's about time"來抒發終於盼到的感慨。
本次學習告一段落，我們下期再見。
