To Nick
Helen: 大家好,欢迎收听地道英语。我是 Helen.
Rob: And Im Rob.
Helen: 我刚才看到你在找你的耳机,后来你找到了吗?
Rob: No, you know, I looked for them everywhere. Someone must have nicked them.
Helen: Nicked them?
Rob: Oh, sorry, what I meant is that someone stole my headphones. To nick something means to steal something .
Helen: Nicked 被人偷走了。Thats terrible. 这个词是怎么拼写的呢?
Rob: Its spelt N.I.C.K. nick. To nick something.
Helen: 哎呀,我儿子的好朋友就叫 Nick, 怎么这么巧。好多人都叫 Nick, 是不是很久以前叫 Nick 的人经常偷东西?才会有现在这个解释呢?
Rob: No, not at all, Nick is a great name. But this is different. Here the word nick is a verb and its British slang too.
Helen: 那就让我们来听两个例子吧,你能听出来什么东西被偷掉了吗?
Example
Man: Someone nicked my bike this morning.
Lady: Oh, no. Did you report it to the police?
Man: Yes, I did.
Man 1: Where are the chocolate biscuits I was saving? I am sure I saw them yesterday.
Man 2: Sorry, I dont know. Blame Dave, hes always nicking things.
Rob: So, one of them lost a bike and the other one lost his chocolate biscuits.
Helen: 自行车和巧克力饼干都被偷了,真倒霉。该请警察们出动破案了。
Rob: Yes. The police can definitely help them by nicking those petty thieves .
Helen: This is confusing. 你说警察也能 nick? 他们能偷东西?这不大可能吧?
Rob: No, no, no, no. The police cant nick things from people. But when they arrest someone, we can say the person is nicked. It means theyre arrested by the police .
Example
Woman: Have you heard from Inspector James?
Man: No. Hes working on a big case. I think they have just nicked the main suspect!
Helen: 我明白了,如果警察抓住了犯罪分子, 那么我们就可以用 nick 这个词来表示警察逮捕了某人。所以 nick 这个词即可以是指东西被偷了,也可以指警察抓住坏人了。
Rob: Helen, youve got it. Just remember its not a formal expression.
Helen: Thanks. Ill keep that in mind. 我记住了 nick 是地道的英国口语。谢谢收听。 Bye for now.
Rob: Bye!
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