VOA流行美语第106课：whatchamacallit

第106课：whatchamacallit

今天Larry和李华在一家电脑商店买东西，李华会学到两个常用语：whatchamacallit和mooch。

(Computer Store SFX)

LH: Larry, 你想买什么呀？

LL: I need to get one of those whatchamacallits that add memory. The memory on my laptop computer is almost full. What do you need to get?

LH: 我想买一些磁盘。Larry, 什么是whatchamacallit？这个词听起来好怪啊！它能帮你增加laptop的内存？那是电脑的部件吗？

LL: No, no, it's not a part of the computer. Whatchamacallit actually, it is the combination of the words "what you might call it" joined together and said very fast.

LH: 噢，原来whatchamacallit是what-you-might-call-it这几个词合在一起的啊。那whatchamacallit这又是什么意思呢？

LL：When you don't remember the real name of the thing you are talking about, you might say whatchamacallit. I forget what the thing I need is called, so I just call it a whatchamacallit.

LH: Oh, 原来是你叫不出一样东西的名字时候你就可以说它是whatchamacallit。哎，在这种情况下，不就像我们在中文里说的"那个叫什么来啦"？

LL: Exactly. But you cannot tell a shop clerk "I want to buy whatchamacallit".

LH: 那当然哟，要是你对店员说你想买那个叫什么来啦，他怎么知道你要什么呢？Hey, Larry, 你看这是什么？Look at this whatchamacallit!

LL: That's a zip drive. You can use it to save things on disks.

LH: 噢，原来这就是我们平时常说的zip drive啊！What about that whatchamacallit?

LL: That's a digital music player. Li Hua, you can't just start calling everything a whatchamacallit!

LL: 怎么啦？我不知道这个东西叫digital music player，所以我就用你教我的这个词whatchamacallit 。

LL: I guess you're right, but don't use that as an excuse not to learn the real names of things.

LH: 你放心，你没看见吗？我学了就用啊，每次都是你教什么我就用什么！