美國習(xí)慣用語：898 treat like dirt 放在眼里

昨天我高高興興地去逛街，想買個名牌包，卻生了一肚子氣回來，因為那家店的服務(wù)態(tài)度太差了! 店員看我不是常客，就愛搭不理的，我說要看看新上市的那種手提包，她們卻說，“如果你只是看看，并不打算真買，就不要浪費我們的時間了!”您說說，這叫什么服務(wù)?! 生氣之余，我想到一個習(xí)慣用語：treat like dirt.

Treat是對待的意思，dirt表示灰塵。Treat someone like dirt, 把某人當(dāng)灰塵一樣對待，意思就是“惡待”，“把別人看得一文不值”。

我在名牌包店受到的待遇就是這樣。They treated me like dirt，那些服務(wù)員根本沒把我放在眼里，so I won't go back to that shop, 我再也不會去那家店了。

服務(wù)員態(tài)度差，你大不了不再光顧他的店，可如果上司對你態(tài)度惡劣，你要怎么辦呢?我們聽聽下面這段話：

例句-1：How did Alan manage to put up with his manager for so long? She gave him the worst assignments. She constantly criticized him in front of co-workers. She even took credit for some of his ideas. Finally, after being treated like dirt for almost a year, he quit. Good for him! He deserves to have a boss who values him.

這段話意思是：真想不通艾倫怎么能忍他的上司這么久。這個上司總是把最難干的工作給他，老當(dāng)著同事的面批評他，甚至偷他的好點子，自己去邀功。在將近一年的時間里，艾倫的上司簡直不把他當(dāng)人。他最后終于辭職了。這么做就對了! 他應(yīng)該有一個器重他的上司。

這段話讓我想到電影《穿普拉達(dá)的惡魔》里那個女上司，She treated her staff like dirt，她對下屬態(tài)度惡劣，又十分苛責(zé)，而且還覺得自己這么做天經(jīng)地義! 我最受不了這樣的人。

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說到別人怎么看待你，美國人有這么一句話："You are what you do," 也就是說，別人對你的看法往往會由你在事業(yè)上的成就所決定。這么說來，如果一個人沒有工作，或者退休了，不就會遭人冷遇么?下面這個人就有這樣的感覺：

例句-2：What is it about society today? When my generation was growing up, we were taught to respect our elders! These days, young people treat us like dirt. They show little interest in the sacrifices we made. They shove us into nursing homes. Most of them won't even offer us a seat on a crowded bus!

這段話的意思是：如今的社會是怎么了?我們這代人小時候，大人總教我們說，要尊敬老人! 可今天的年輕人卻把老人看得一文不值。對于我們這代人作出的犧牲，他們一點也不感興趣。他們把我們?nèi)舆M(jìn)老人院就算完事兒。大部分年輕人甚至不會在擁擠的公車上給老人讓個座位!

中國人總是教育子女要“尊老愛幼”，而西方社會似乎更看重年輕人的價值。不過，輕視和惡待老人的狀況在每個國家都有，這也許是值得所有人反思的現(xiàn)象。