迷你对话:
A;What did he say?
他说什么呢?
B:He said he would tell us the secret of becoming a successful man.
他说会告诉我们成为成功人士的秘诀。
A:It’s too good to be true! If I were there, I would ask him if he himself was a successful man.
哪有这样的好事啊!如果我在场,我会问他自己不是成功人士。
B:Nobody woulddrive him up a wallby asking him such a question, you know.
要知道没有人会问这样的问题把他逼得无可话说。
地道表达:
drive sb. up a wall 把某人逼上绝路
解词释义:
up to a wall是指“到了墙边,已经没路可走了”,比喻人“走投无路”。短语“drive sb up to a wall”则指“把某人逼上绝路”,亦可做“push sb to a wall”。
支持范例:
That guy in the next apartment has been playing his trumpet for four solid hours now and it'sdriving me up the wall! I' about ready to go next door and tell him to stop all the noise.
隔壁那套房间里的人吹喇叭已经吹了整整四个小时了。这简直快把我逼疯了。我真是要跑到他那里去,叫他不要再吹。
Mary and I have been friends more than ten years.She's very nice and I like her a lot. But she likes to criticize me whenever I wear a new suit. Itdrives me up the wallevery time she does it.
这个女孩对她母亲说:玛丽跟我交朋友已经有十多年了。她是一个很好的人;我也非常喜欢她。但是,我一穿新西装,她总是喜欢批评我。每次她挑剔我衣服的时候,我真是非常恼火。
At dinner they sit right next to me staring up with those big, sad eyes like they're starving. Thisdrives me up the wall; they won't stop begging until I sneak a bite of food under the table for them. But they're getting as fat as a pair little pigs.
吃饭的时候它们紧挨我坐着,瞪大了悲伤的眼睛仰望着我,好象块饿死了的样子。这可真让我受不了。我要是不把一口吃的偷偷放到桌下给它们,它们就不罢休。但是它们已经长得越来越胖,简直象一对小肥猪了。
视野拓展:
I know Page is under great pressure. So you’d better treat him with care or he may beputup the wall.
我知道佩奇的压力很大。所以你最好小心对待他,否则会把他逼上绝路的。
Leave him alone and let him work. Quit putting him up the wall.
别管他,由他干去,不要逼他。