禮節(jié)美語:261 Fear of Flying 1

　　Sean 在走廊上遇到同事 Mimi, 他一副憂心忡忡的樣子。我們聽聽為什么。

　　Sean: Oh, man....I am not looking forward to this upcoming trip to Europe.

　　Mimi: But Europe is amazing! You're going to Frankfurt, right? I've been there twice.... it's a delightful city! You'll love it!

　　S: Oh I'm sure I'll like it when I get there.....that is, if I get there.

　　M: I'm not following you.

　　S: I'm terrified of flying!

　　M: Ah! You have "pteromerhanophobia!"

　　S: What?

　　M: That's the technical term for the fear of flying.

　　Sean準備去歐洲出差。Upcoming is spelled u-p-c-o-m-i-n-g, upcoming 即將到來的。比如，the upcoming vacation 快要來的假期，the upcoming test 馬上要來的考試。Sean 對去歐洲似乎并不開心，Mimi說 I'm not following. 意思是我聽不太懂你的意思。原來，Sean 有飛行恐懼癥，害怕坐飛機。Mimi 說，飛行恐懼癥的術語 technical term 是 pteromerhanophobia. Phobia 是一個很有用的詞根，比如，acrophobia, 就是 a-c-r-o 后邊加上 phobia, acrophobia 恐高癥。我們聽聽 Sean 飛行恐懼癥有哪些癥狀。

　　S: Well whatever it's called....I've got it - bad! Every time I get on a plane my heart starts beating faster, I sweat and every creak and squeak from the airplane makes me sure we are going to crash. It's so exhausting that I arrive at my destination completely unnerved.

　　M: Wow! That doesn't sound like fun. I assume this condition is quite common - I know lots of people who don't like to fly.

　　S: Everyone should be afraid of flying! After all, it's completely unnatural! We are crammed into a metal tube that's flying through the air at hundreds of kilometers an hour!!

　　Sean 告訴 Mimi, 每次只要一上飛機，他就會心跳加速，直冒冷汗，飛機稍有風吹草動，他就覺得是要墜機了。Sean 在這里用的 every creak and squeak. Creak is spelled c-r-e-a-k, creak 是指咯吱咯吱的聲音，and squeak is spelled s-q-u-e-a-k, squeak 是指刺耳的噪音。等到達終點的時候，He is completely unnerved. 他已經(jīng)徹底崩潰了。其實，患有飛行恐懼癥的人很多，Sean 覺得，這是因為坐飛機本來就是一個超自然的行為，那么多人 cram into 擠在一個金屬做的管子里，在天上飛，時速高達幾百公里。

　　M: Yeah sure, if you think about it that way it is scary....but driving isn't natural either. And as I'm sure you know, many more people die every year from car accidents than from plane crashes - in fact, your chances of being in a fatal accident is something like one in 5 million! Those are pretty good odds!

　　S: Yeah, I've read those stats....but I guess when I'm driving at least I feel in control. I feel completely helpless when I'm on an airplane.

　　Mimi 說，要說坐飛機超自然的話，那開車也是超自然的行為，而且每年死于車禍的人要比坐飛機掉下來的人多得多。有統(tǒng)計數(shù)字顯示，致命事件發(fā)生在我們身上的機會只有500萬分之一。Those are pretty good odds. 機率還是滿不錯的。Odds 是機率的意思。比如，Your odds of being struck by lightning is greater than winning the lottery. 一個人被雷電擊中的機率都要高過中彩票。 Sean 說，這些數(shù)據(jù)他也看過，stats is spelled s-t-a-t-s, 是 statistics 數(shù)據(jù)的簡寫，但是他總覺得，開車的時候，方向盤在自己手里，可是坐飛機，命運就完全不在自己的掌握之中了。