美国习惯用语 | anyone's guess

我前些日子和大学同学聚会,打听到一个同学的近况。他本来当老板,日子过得不错。可最近霉运不断。先是生意失败,后来妻子大病一场,无法继续工作,也不能照顾孩子。他该怎么办呢?未来生活会怎么样呢?也许只能用我们今天要学的习惯用语来回答:anyone's guess。

anyone的意思是“任何人”。在anyone后面加上撇S, anyone's guess意思是“谁也说不准,任何人都不确定”。

我的这位老同学身处窘境,一时真看不出出路在哪:

  • It's anyone's guess how he'll cover living.
    谁都不知道他要怎样才能负担起生活的各种花销。

经济大环境不好,不仅让个人的生活没有着落,也让很多工程项目下马,前途未卜。

  • The sports arena downtown has been abandoned for years. So far, no developers have made any offers to buy it. Whether it will eventually be renovated or torn down or turned into something completely different like a night club or shopping center is anyone's guess. At this point, nobody has offered any clue as to what might be its future.
    市中心的体育馆已经好多年无人问津。到目前为止,没有任何开发商对其提出过收购计划。到底这个体育馆最后是会被翻修、拆掉还是被改建成夜总会或购物中心等完全不同的东西呢?谁也说不准。现在,谁也不知道它的未来会是什么样。

我觉得,最好的出路是把这个闲置很久的体育场另为它用。这个做法叫repurpose,改变用途。比如:

  • A neglected church was repurposed into a fashionable restaurant.
    一所废弃不用的教堂被改变用途,变成了一家时髦的饭馆。

很多人肯定有过这样的经历: 那就是,匆忙地走到一个地方,却忽然忘了原本是要干嘛来的。这种突然的健忘让人烦恼不已。要是您和下面这个人一样急着要找一个重要的东西,可怎么也找不到,那就更惨了。*

  • I admit I've misplaced things before. But this time I'm in real trouble. I'm leaving tomorrow on an overseas business trip and I can't locate my passport. I've already looked in all the places I'd expect to find it. Then I made an exhaustive search throughout my apartment. It's anyone's guess where that passport is. I wish I could find it.
    我承认,我以前也把东西放错过地方。可这次我真是遇到大麻烦了。我明天要出国旅行,可怎么也找不到护照了。我把所有能想到的地方都找了。然后又把家的每个角落都看了一遍。可是,护照毫无下落。我真希望能把它找出来!

希望这个人能赶在出国前找到护照!另外说一句,我们今天学习的这个anyone's guess也可以被说成anybody's guess,是一个意思。