PETS－2語法講解(141)

　　Your work is absolutely first-class.
　　對話
　　Greg: Do come in and sit down. How are you?
　　Heather: I'm fine thanks. Have you had a chance to look at my proposal?
　　Greg: Yes, I have, that's what I mainly want to talk about.
　　Heather: I wasn't sure whether it was exactly the kind of thing you wanted.
　　Greg: Oh, have no worries. It's precisely what we need and your work is absolutely first-class.
　　Heather: Well I must say that's a great relief.
　　格雷哥：進來坐坐吧。近來還好嗎？
　　希瑟：很好，謝謝。你有空看我那份建議書了嗎？
　　格雷哥：看過了，我主要就是要談這個。
　　希瑟：我不能確定這份建議書是否符郃你的要求。
　　格雷哥：啊，別擔心，這正是我們要的。你做得好極了。
　　希瑟：嗯，那我就放心了。
　　格雷哥稱贊希瑟：Your work is absolutely first-class。First class、second class、third class本是火車、輪船分頭、二、三等的用語，但second class、third class漸漸有了‘低賤’的含義，於是‘三等’現在往往改稱爲economy class（經濟艙）或tourist class（旅客艙），‘二等’則變成business class（商務艙）、standard class（標準艙）等。此外，first class和second class、third class常引申來說‘優秀的’和‘低賤的’，例如：(1) She took legal action against the company for treating women employees as second-class citizens（她控告公司對待女雇員猶如二等公民）。(2) Service is first-class in that hotel（這家旅館的服務是一流的）。作形容詞，first-class等往往加連字號(hyphen)。稱贊人家的工作，除了說Your work is first-class和八月九日曾介紹過的一些說法，你還可以說：It couldn't be better（不能再好了），例如："How do you like my proposal?""Oh, it couldn't be better."（‘你認爲我的建議書怎樣？’‘啊，好極了。’）‘建議’除了叫proposal，還可叫proposition，例如：They have accepted my proposal/proposition to restructure the personnel department（他們接受了我改組人事部的建議）。但請畱意：男女之間，proposal和proposition的意思完全不同。Proposal是名詞，指‘求婚’；proposition是動詞，指‘求歡’。