}  Pumas are large, cat-like animals which are found in America. When reports came into London Zoo that a wild puma had been spotted forty-five miles south of London, they were not taken seriously. However, as the evidence began to accumulate, experts from the Zoo felt obliged to investigate, for the descriptions given by people who claimed to have seen the puma were extraordinarily similar.

}  Take…seriously:

    很多人把它讲作是固定结构，其实不是。让我们来看一下例子：take it pretty well.

I told Mum and Dad last night, they seemed to

    我昨天告诉爸爸妈妈了，他们好像对这个事情也不是很吃惊。take this the wrong way.

Please don’t

     这两句话，一个用的是pretty well, 一个用 the wrong way, 不同的副词而已。take 后面跟了不同的副词，意思就不一样了，所以它不是固定搭配。Please don’t take this the wrong way. 意思是我现在要说点什么，希望你不要介意。首先告诉你，你不要误解。那么下面两句话是同样的表达方式：
Please don’t get me wrong.
Please don’t misunderstand me.

}  Accumulate:

     累积
accumulated  depreciation    
accumulated  amortization

   这两个指的金融会计上的值，它是指累积折旧。在做帐的时候，假如说公司的房子价值是100万，一年是10万，那么第二年累积的折旧就是20万。累积的折旧即算在花销里边，就是accumulated depreciation或者说 amortization.

}  The hunt for the puma began in a small village where a woman picking blackberries saw ‘a large cat’ only five yards away from her. It immediately ran away when she saw it, and experts confirmed that a puma will not attack a human being unless it is cornered. The search proved difficult, for the puma was often observed at one place in the morning and at another place twenty miles away in the evening. Wherever it went, it left behind it a trail of dead deer and small animals like rabbits.

}  Hunt:
job-hunt /job search    

     找工作
Peter’s job search was unsuccessful.

}  Confirmed :

    可以用这个词替代，比较口语化的一个词 Double-check 意思是再次确认。

}  Cornered:

   本课的unless it is cornered 是说，puma 一般不会伤人，除非被逼得没有办法。电视剧上也有见过这个词在口语中被运用：有一个问她说，你为什么要说实话呢？这时那个女生说：
She cornered me!

    意思是我被逼得没办法了，只能这样说了。可见，corner有把人逼到墙角里面这样的意思
The winter is around the corner.
The bus is around the corner.

     around the corner在口语中，是 coming 的意思。

}  Paw prints were seen in a number of places and puma fur was found clinging to bushes. Several people complained of “cat-like noises’ at night and a businessman on a fishing trip saw the puma up a tree. The experts were now fully convinced that the animal was a puma, but where had it come from?As no pumas had been reported missing from any zoo in the country, this one must have been in the possession of a private collector and somehow managed to escape. The hunt went on for several weeks, but the puma was not caught. It is disturbing to think that a dangerous wild animal is still at large in the quiet countryside.

}  he caught me smoking.

他逮到我抽烟了
catch me if you can .

    汤姆汉克斯演的电影一句台词，挺好看的。

}  Is your finger caught in that chair?

     catch 在美国口语里边还有这样的一个用法，如上例句。指的是，你的手是不是被椅子夹到了？

Most Commented Posts

• Lesson 42 Modern cavemen
• More about “fashion”
• Lesson 11 Not guilty
• 如何简要阐述公司产品
• 名人的雷人话语
• 如何讲，写流利的英语