The english we speak(BBC教學)第306期:Knee jerk reaction 本能反應

Neil's performing medical experiments on Feifei. Why's he hitting her with a hammer? To teach you a useful English expression!

尼爾在菲菲身上做起了醫學試驗。他爲什麼要用錘子敲菲菲？是爲了教大家一個有用的英語表達！

Neil: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, I'm Neil and joining me is Feifei...

尼爾：大家好，歡迎收聽地道英語節目。我是尼爾，今天和我一起主持的是菲菲。

Feifei: Hello.

菲菲：大家好。

Neil: I've got a medical experiment to perform on you in this programme, Feifei.

尼爾：菲菲，在這期節目裏，我想在你身上做個醫學試驗。

Feifei: Righhhhht...

菲菲：啊……

Neil: Come on — it's for our listeners. We've got an expression which means to react to something without thinking about it carefully first. So, cross one leg over the other, like that.

尼爾：來吧，這都是爲了聽衆。有個表達方式的意思是不經仔細思考就對某事做出反應。所以，把你的這條腿放在另一條腿上，就像這樣。

Feifei: What are you doing with that hammer?

菲菲：你拿着那個錘子要幹什麼？

Neil: Keep calm — it's OK, I'm not going to hurt you. And I'll just tap your knee... And... it worked!

尼爾：冷靜，沒事的，我不會傷害你的。我只是要輕輕地敲一下你的膝蓋……有效果了！

Feifei: Yes Neil, well done. You've just tested my reflexes. When you hit my knee with the hammer, my leg kicked automatically. I didn't even think about it.

菲菲：尼爾，做的好。你剛剛是在測試我的條件反射。你用錘子輕敲我的膝蓋時，我的腿會自動地踢一下。我甚至都沒有思考。

Neil: It was a knee-jerk reaction. And in English we can say that someone has a knee-jerk reaction when they act after an event without thinking carefully.

尼爾：這就是本能反應。在英語中，當有人沒有仔細思考就對一個事件做出反應時，我們可以說這個人做出了本能的第一反應。

Feifei: Let's hear some examples of 'knee-jerk reaction'.

菲菲：下面我們來聽幾個例句。

Examples

例句

After the terrorist attack, the government should be careful to avoid a knee-jerk reaction. A declaration of war could lead to even bigger problems later.

恐怖襲擊發生之後，政府應小心避免本能的第一反應。宣戰可能會引發更大的問題。

He left his wife after he saw her having a drink with another man but it was a knee-jerk reaction. He'll be back.

他看到妻子和另一個男人一起喝酒以後離開了她，不過這只是他的本能反應。他會回來的。

Putting up interest rates because of inflation is a knee-jerk reaction. They haven't thought of the other consequences.

因爲通貨膨脹而提高利率是一種本能反應。他們沒有考慮過其他後果。

Feifei: A knee-jerk reaction. Acting automatically, without thinking about the consequences.

菲菲：本能的第一反應。沒有考慮後果而做出地自動的動作。

Neil: Let's try that again with the other knee. Here we go... (Smacking sfx) Argh — you kicked me in the face!

尼爾：我們在另一個膝蓋上再試驗一下吧。開始了。（敲打音效）你踢到我的臉了！

Feifei: Sorry Neil — it was just a knee-jerk reaction.

菲菲：抱歉，尼爾，這只是本能反應。

Neil: Ow...

尼爾：哎呦…

Feifei: Bye!

菲菲：再見！

Neil: Bye!

尼爾：再見！

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