I'm afraid I'm busy all day tomorrow. (恐怕明天一天我都会很忙。)</p>I'm fully booked up next week. (下一星期的日程我都排满了。)- v0 ]$ _8 @, W/ {+ s3 H1 D
或者建议对方改到一个合适的时间:
3 {" _4 {! C2 ^8 }9 x& \Could you make it a little later? (我们稍微晚一点,好吗?): F, ?5 P. w% p2 `
其中make it在口语中是"达成,做好"的意思,常用于询问对方是否能赴约。 因为Susan在周二不能赴约, Mr. Smith就提出了一个替代方案:
6 Y9 X3 r7 ?2 F, z' q1 JWhat about Friday then?! ?* X6 T$ A6 _" {3 R' c
当然,这里还能用:
, `( j$ a" y8 wHow about Friday then?
2 M5 B3 {$ A% t" a1 QWhat about和How about,都用来征求对方意见,表示"(做……)怎么样,(做……)如何?",并且about 后面只能跟名词形式。例如:% u) A% Q$ @: S2 X" S" n' B
What about coming with us?+ ]2 {% ]/ A4 x; y
Susan对于Mr. Smith提出的周五见面的建议,很赞成。她说:
' u( K# C/ }, y0 {3 x- fYes, Friday in the morning would suit me fine.
u" n, E2 h3 L8 e3 ]+ J J9 V+ u& l(好,周五上午,我没问题。)( @1 ~& [# w7 P5 d. \' v6 j! ]6 w
表示同意对方的安排,除了上面的suit me fine之外,还可以更简练地表达成:
: n( ~6 I, _: S" TThat'll be fine with me.
, R% T8 P' ^' G' [# O(那很好。)
$ V% W" v4 E6 z' jMr. Smith: Good, that suits me too. Shall we say 10 o'clock?6 w5 z; @% y: O( f) U0 ?# z0 a
Mrs. Phillips:Fine. So 10 o'clock here then?! Z" t, c) `4 d9 h
Mr. Smith: Yes, that's probably easiest. Right, I look forward to seeing you.0 P% _+ {/ m+ a% W: i
Mrs. Phillips:Bye.( c+ P+ v2 S9 X* b$ T w; p
Mr. Smith: Bye.
$ p+ m P- ~; K' H( wMr.Smith对约会时间提出了进一步建议,他说:; x( B( y/ X5 r. [* X5 O
Shall we say 10 o'clock? (十点钟怎么样?)
: W% u% H6 r) d5 b, Y/ P6 rShall we do ...也是征求意见的一种方式,不过语气非常缓和礼貌。再来看个例子:
4 X# [ k+ J2 d S4 p6 i# \9 aShall we go? (我们出发吧。)
D% {! L% `4 P7 `* @4 {* r- r+ Y# G; q这里,我们遇到了say的"新"用法。Say表示"假定(说),姑且,大约",有时可以不翻译出来,常用于提议或假设。比如我们需要假定一个例子时,就可以用say |