中国学生在抱怨自己的口语水平不佳时，常将其归因于单词量的缺乏这其实是不准确的。笔者从事大学英语教学达二十几年，发现其主要原因在于思想的缺乏和对俗成的英语口词词组的把握不足等方面。为了解决这一问题，我们在数本《口词词典》中一次又一次地筛迭，最终确定出500个最为常用的口语表示法。为了使大家更好地掌握并能准确运用这些表示法，我们在每一词条的下面加上了汉英对照的例句以及简要的用法说明，并提供了简短的对话。每一个Section中的15个对话基本上是顺着一个思路编写下来的。我们深信这样的编排一定有助于读者对每一词条用法的理解和掌握。

001  one's brain child某人的主意，某人想出来的

002  have a chip on one's shoulder叫阵，叫板

003  clam up守口如瓶，拒不开口，沉默不语

004  take someone to the cleaners使人囊中如洗，一贫如洗

005  a cliff-hanger扣人心弦的事情

006  fight the clock争分夺秒，与时间赛跑

007  a clotheshorse讲究穿戴的人

008  get hot under the collar发怒，怒气冲天

009  come through with flying colors干得出色，大获成功

010  show(reveal)one's true colors露出真实面目，原形毕露

011  come up with找出，想出，弄出，提出

012  jump to comclusions 仓促地下结论

013  to one's heart's content心满意足

014  lose one's cool沉不住气

015  play it cool不露声色，沉着冷静

016  be rotten to the core坏透了，烂透了

017  cut corners偷工减料，走捷径，图省事，节约

018  have a crush on someone迷恋上某人

019  be a far cry from ……与……相差甚远

020  chew the cud 好好琢磨琢磨

Mary:You seem to be upset these days. There must be something that worries you a lot.

Nancy:It's about our son,Dick.He gets on our nerves by splashing his money about.

 You see,he spends most of the money we give him on drinks and that sort of things.

Mary:Every family has a black sheep. They really bring dirt to the family . What we seem to be able to do is prvevnt them from going too far.

Nancy: Prevent them?They have already gone too far. They are out of our hands ,you know.

注：a black sheep 意指“败家子”，“害群之马”或“败类”。 the black sheep of the family 意指“家族，家庭或某个组织里的“败类”。

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