Today, let's change our taste and watch a hardcore version of "Longing for Life". Clarkson, a famous British car maker, bought a piece of land 11 years ago and leased it to someone else. After the contract expired, he chose to run his farm by himself, and was sponsored by Amazon to make this documentary.
Years of quiet rural life? No, the catastrophic weather in the UK at the end of 2019, the protagonist who has no agricultural knowledge but is full of ideas, loves reading and is good at swearing, a young local landlord who is not inferior, but is very concerned about the opinions of passers-by on the main road, the subtitles can't follow In the local dialect, this kind of pastoral life is really laughable , and it will definitely not make money .
In the first episode you'll see "Clarkson's Lamborghini Tractor Can't Stop in the Garage", "Clarkson Admires the Beauty of the Morning in the Fields", "Clarkson Fucks the Mother", "Cheerful Charlie Brings Bad News Again", "UK" Reasons for Brexit found", etc.
Is this the life you long for? Of course, maybe we can't afford a Lamborghini tractor, but we can -- learn English:
1. rip off
The first step in running a modern farm is to prepare all kinds of big guys. Although Clarkson and Amazon are not short of money, because Lamborghini does not produce other agricultural equipment (not), Clarkson still followed the advice, fired up the checkbook and went to farm sales to bid on secondhand machinery. His farm manager told him the approximate price to prevent him from being ripped off -- be ripped off.
Rip means tearing, rip off sb / rip sb off means stealing, defrauding, exploiting, just like when we see the price of something and say "it's just robbing money", rip off also often means slaughtering and ripping off. It can also be used directly as a noun, sth is a rip-off means xx is very expensive.
- Somebody ripped off my bike. Someone stole my bike.
- I thought it was a good deal, turns out I got ripped off. I thought I got a good deal, but got ripped off.
- The latest Adidas is a total rip-off. Don't buy it. Don't buy it.
2. Something is rubbish
If you are in the UK, please be confident and remove the "if"! It seems that "rubbish" is used in both Chinese and English, except for the weather, it can also be used to "scold" anything bad and useless. E.g:
- Stop taiking rubbish! Stop talking nonsense!
- the usual Hollywood rubbish
3. Red tape
In order to prevent fires, the British Ministry of Agriculture stipulated that fertilizers should not be piled in warehouses with hay, and the knowledge of life saving has increased. But is this just some "red tape" in Clarkson's view? It turns out that British officials used red tapes to bind stacks of documents in history, and red tapes were gradually used to symbolize various official documents, government regulations or red tape.
We need to go through lots of red tape first.
There are a lot of "inexplicable" referential pronouns in both Chinese and English. I know every word, but I don't know what you are talking about. . For example, there is this blue stocking blue stockings, referring to "women scholars, talented women" (from the 18th century cultural salon). This is also the interesting part of language learning. To learn one more word like this is to know a little more about the culture behind it.
4. loom over, oppression
The noun loom is "the loom", and the verb loom over means "something with a threatening meaning hangs over...". This word is used consistently in news headlines.
5. jack sth in to give up doing something
It turns out that "Jack classmate" has many unknown aspects when the first letter is not capitalized (not used as a name). Jack as a noun means "jack", as a verb it can mean to steal, and jack sth in means to give up doing something (the British use it), and jack in/into sth means to connect (the Internet).
- It got so depressing that I thought of jacking the whole thing in. It was so frustrating, I thought about giving up everything.
- I'm jacking in the Internet now.
6. faff about/around
faff about/around is also a British expression, and Americans may not have heard of this word at all. It means that he is in a hurry, and he hits a hammer in the east and a stick in the west, but nothing can be done.
- Stop faffing about and get on with it! Stop messing around and get down to business!
7. born and bred
born, born. bred grow up. The habit combination of born and bred is home-grown, and bred can also be replaced by raised, because both have the meaning of "grew up". The placement of this expression in spoken language is quite arbitrary:
- To put it well: I am born and bred in Chippy.
- Like the little brother, it is easy to follow the place name directly: Chippy born and bred. Adding the subject is: I am Chippy born and bred.
- You can also say where I am from: He is a Londoner, born and bred. He is a Londoner, born and bred.
8. be pushing 60 years
There are two vividly used "push" in this episode. The first place I'm pushing 60 means I'm almost 60 years old, maybe 58 or 59. And more often heard such as: I'm turning 60. Will be closer to 60 years old, maybe 59 years old or just turning 60 today.
Another is that the local guy said that he didn't like to go out, so he had to go to the town. Here at a push is used to express reluctance. E.g:
- We can fit five people in the car, six at a push.
9. make hay while the sun shines
After two days of work and half a month of rain, there is no hope of planting seeds on time. Clarkson understood the proverb at the source, make hay while the shines, and make hay while the weather is fine. Used to persuade people to strike while the iron is hot and seize the opportunity. You can also use make hay directly after omitting:
- Some oil companies are really making hay out of the Gulf crisis.
This episode has been driving a tractor, so I've put together some expressions for "driving" that you can use when driving a Lamborghini--
First, fasten/put on your seatbelt and take off/ release the handbreak.
It's much easier if you are driving an automatic car, but for a manual car , you need to shift/change gears manually , like put it into drive/reverse/park (gear into start/reverse/park) , or drop it into 2rd gear .
If you want to overtake some other car , you may need to honk the horn and step on the gas/accelerator a little more.
You may also need to slow down, step/hit on the break (on the brakes) to avoid rear-ending (rear-ending) someone else.
If you miss an exit, you should go on full lock and make a U-turn
Finally, try to find a parking lot/garage space , and do a parallel parking or back up into the parking lot
I really recommend this drama, you can smell the fragrance of the fields in the morning.
｜The author of this article: Jing Bawu
｜Reviewer: Juliet
｜Typesetting: Anita
｜Editor-in-Chief: Brother Dafeng Wind
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