◆    pain in the ass

這個(gè)短語(yǔ)等于pain in the neck, 表示極其討厭的人或事，記得讀書的時(shí)候還學(xué)過(guò)一個(gè)nuisance,也是一樣的意思。不過(guò)美國(guó)人似乎對(duì)pain in the ass情有獨(dú)鐘。他們不常說(shuō)pain in the neck, 而nuisance更是幾乎不用，說(shuō)來(lái)說(shuō)去都是pain in the ass。舉例如下：

  　Martina: Good grief. It’s April already! Time to file tax return again!!! (Martina: 哎呀。已經(jīng)４月了。又到了報(bào)稅的時(shí)間了！)

Walter: I know! Talk about a pain in the ass! (Walter: 就是啊！　報(bào)稅最麻煩了。討厭得要命！)

注釋每年４月１５日是美國(guó)的申報(bào)稅收截止日。　報(bào)稅的過(guò)程相當(dāng)煩瑣。據(jù)調(diào)查，大部分美國(guó)人覺(jué)得交錢并沒(méi)什么了不起，花在報(bào)稅上的精力和時(shí)間才可怕。

 

◆    動(dòng)詞+one’s ass off

這種組合最常見的用法是work one’s ass off（非常努力地工作）和laugh one’s ass off（笑破肚皮

比如：

Derek has been working his ass off lately. It’s pretty obvious that he’s trying to keep himself as busy as possible so that he has no time to think about sara.　(Derek最近非常努力地工作。很明顯，他想讓自己盡可能地忙碌，這樣就沒(méi)時(shí)間去Sara了。)

That joke was incredibly funny. I laughed my ass off! （那個(gè)笑話太好笑了。我簡(jiǎn)直笑翻了！）

美國(guó)人比較有創(chuàng)造力，他們?cè)谶@兩個(gè)常用短語(yǔ)的基礎(chǔ)上進(jìn)行了擴(kuò)充。只要某人做一件事很投入，程度很深，就呆以用“動(dòng)詞+one’s ass off”來(lái)形容，褒貶不限。比如：

You are impossible! You lied your ass off yesterday, and now you are giving me a lesson on integrity. Do you have no shame? （你真是太夸張了！昨天撒謊得起勁兒，現(xiàn)在卻教育我要誠(chéng)實(shí)、正直。你有沒(méi)有羞恥之心啊？）

Cecilia: Hey, you want to hang out this weekend? (Cecilia: 嘿，周末想聚聚嗎？)

Elsie: Sorry, no can do. Spanish class. (Elsie:抱歉，不行。要上西班牙語(yǔ)課。)

Cecilia: Wow, you sure have been learning your ass off! （Ｃecilia:哇,你學(xué)得太投入了！）

Elsie: What do you expect?My family is moving to Spain next month! (Elsie:不然還能怎么樣？我們家下個(gè)月就要搬去西班牙了！)

注釋no can do 是非常口語(yǔ)化的表達(dá)方式，類似于long time no see(好久不見)，　不符合通常的語(yǔ)法規(guī)則。