The english we speak(BBC教學)第302期:Bust a gut 拼命努力

Neil's wearing a vest, shorts and sweatbands in the recording studio. It's because he's in training for a marathon — but he has less than a month to prepare. He uses an expression that means 'to make a great effort'.

尼爾穿着背心短褲、頭戴吸汗帶來到演播室錄節目。這是因爲他正在進行馬拉松訓練，但是他的準備時間只剩不到一個月了。他用了一個表達方式來表示“付出巨大努力”。

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，今天和我一起主持節目的是菲菲。

Feifei: Hi everyone.

菲菲：大家好。

Neil: In this programme we have an expression which means 'to make a great effort to achieve something'.

尼爾：本期節目我們要講一個表示“付出巨大努力去實現目標”的表達方式。

Feifei: Neil, why are you wearing that running gear in the studio? I'm not sure that shorts and a vest are appropriate for the workplace! As for those sweatbands...

菲菲：尼爾，你爲什麼在演播室裏穿着跑步裝備？我不確定短褲和背心在工作場所是否合適！至於那個吸汗帶……

Neil: Well, Feifei, it's because I'm desperate to get fit. You see, I'm running a marathon at the end of the month and I've barely started training. I'm really going to have to bust a gut to be ready on time.

尼爾：菲菲，因爲我極需要進行健身。你看，我月底要參加馬拉松，可是我剛剛開始訓練。爲了能及時做好準備，我必須要拼命努力。

Feifei: Yes, you really do need to start training but surely busting a gut is not going to help!

菲菲：對，你確實要開始訓練了，但是毀了腸子肯定沒有用！

Neil: I'm not going to bust my gut literally! To bust a gut means 'to make a huge effort to achieve something'. Imagine working so hard that your stomach — or gut — actually breaks!

尼爾：我不會照字面意思毀了我的腸子的！bust a gut這個短語的意思是“爲了達到目標付出巨大努力”。想象一下，因爲工作太拼命，你的胃或是腸子確實可能會壞掉的！

Feifei: Urgh! Here are some examples of the expression 'to bust a gut':

菲菲：呃！下面來聽幾個例句：

Examples

例句

We're going to have to bust a gut to get this report done by tomorrow. We're only half-way through and it's already 7pm.

要在明天完成這份報告，我們必須要拼命努力。現在已經7點了，而我們只完成了一半。

The problem with today's millionaire footballers is they're not prepared to bust a gut for their national team.

問題是現在的百萬富翁球員並不準備爲國家隊拼盡全力。

There are train strikes and the traffic is terrible. I had to bust a gut to get here on time today.

因爲發生了火車相撞事故，交通狀況非常糟糕。所以爲了今天能按時到達這裏，我不得不拼命努力。

Neil: To bust a gut — to make a great effort to achieve something.

尼爾：bust a gut就是拼命努力去實現目標。

Feifei: As you can see from the examples, we can use 'to bust a gut' to talk about non-physical activities as well.

菲菲：從例句中可以看出來，我們也可以用這個短語來談論非體育活動。

Neil: Yes so come on Feifei. We need to bust a gut to get this programme finished so I can go out for a training run.

尼爾：沒錯，菲菲，快點吧。我們要拼命努力把這期節目做完，然後我就可以去進行馬拉松訓練了。

Feifei: Alright, alright, we're done now — go and bust a gut.

菲菲：好吧，好吧，我們現在已經做完節目了，去拼命訓練吧。

Neil: I'm off — bye!

尼爾：我走了，再見！

譯文屬僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載

重點講解：
1. as for 至於…；
例句：As for my past, I'm not telling you anything.
關於我的過去，我什麼都不會告訴你。
2. bust a gut 努力（做…)；
例句：You can bust a gut sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, but if your product is lousy, you've wasted your time.
你可以一週7天、一天16小時地拼命勞作，但是如果產品質量低劣，你就白費時間了。
3. on time 準時；按時；
例句：The lazy student never do his homework on time.
這個懶惰的學生從沒有按時做他的家庭作業。
4. be prepared to do sth. 願意（做…）的；
例句：He's prepared to match against all comers.
他已準備好和所有前來比賽的人進行較量。