我们在生活种经常听到有人说: "我最近很忙,来/去不了了。”有时候这是表述事实,但有时候就是借口了。而说到英语里的忙,很多人只会“busy“这一种表达。但是忙也分不同性质,也对应不同的说法。快来了解一下吧!
Busy作为形容词的同义表达
01Occupied 已占用的,无空闲的
指的是这段某段时间被某事占用了,即没有空闲的。
Tom was occupied with meetings all day, so he could not come to lunch with us.
汤姆整天忙于开会,所以他不能和我们一起吃午饭。
02Engaged 繁忙的,有约的
To be engaged是指忙于某事;常用于短语“to be otherwise engaged”
I wanted to invite Daniel, but his assistant said he would be otherwise engaged.
我想邀请丹尼尔,但他的助手说他已经有约。
03Involved 参与涉及的,有牵扯的
无论是作为领头人或只是做些后勤工作,当你参与到某件工作中时,都可以用这个单词。
There are 20 people involved in this project, so the scheduling will be difficult.
这个项目涉及到20个人,所以日程安排很困难。
At noon tomorrow, Ms. Carter will be involved in lunch with the Director of National Intelligence and Minister of Defense, so she is not available.
明天中午,卡特女士将与国家情报局长和国防部长共进午餐,因此她没空。
04Employed 被录用
这个单词并不是指某一个时间点的忙碌,而是指长期被某些事务占用时间。
Steven was finally employed and seemed to never have time to do the chores around the house again.
史蒂文终于被录用了,他似乎再也没有时间做家务了。
Since Margaret became employed, she has not been to any of our book club meetings.
自从玛格丽特受雇以来,她就没有参加过我们的读书俱乐部会议。
05Working on 致力于
这个单词意味着你正为某件事做出贡献,特别是作为一个长期的有意义的项目。
I am sorry I have not been able to have dinner with you as often as before, but I want to show you this new invention I have been working on!
很抱歉我不能像以前那样经常和你共进晚餐,但我想向你展示我一直在致力于的这项新发明!
06Toiling away 辛苦工作,兢兢业业
这个词给人的感觉是,你正在用尽全力做某事。
但无论是由于自身压力还是他人强加的压力,这件事给你带来了很多困难。
Jackie has been absolutely toiling away at work every night, but her boss still treats her so poorly!
杰基每天晚上都不辞劳苦,兢兢业业地工作,但她的老板仍然对她很不好!
07Preoccupied with 全神贯注的
这个单词一般强调的是精神力而非体力。当使用这个词时,一般指大脑里想的都是某件事。
Paul has been so preoccupied lately – I wonder if everything is okay with his family.
保罗最近忙得不可开交——我想知道他的家人是否一切都好。
Lisa spend the whole day preoccupied with arranging the private tour for the VIP clients, so she did not get a chance to contact her superiors about the other issue.
丽萨花了一整天的时间为贵宾客户安排私人旅行,所以她没有机会就另一个问题与上级联系。
08Tireless 不知疲倦的
不知疲倦意味着你有很多工作要做,但你不会感到疲倦。完成了大量工作后还能轻松地恢复元气。
Marie works so tirelessly for her patients, so they nominated her for Doctor of the Year.
玛丽不辞劳苦地为她的病人工作,所以他们提名她为年度最佳医生。
09Busy as a bee 忙的不可开交
我们都知道,蜜蜂(尤其是工蜂)都是非常忙碌的。
而“像蜜蜂一样忙碌”,意味着需要不断地奔波,同时处理许多任务。
Laura was always busy as a bee at work, but none of her coworkers ever knew what it was she was actually doing.
劳拉工作时总是忙得不可开交,但她的同事都不知道她到底在干什么。
10On the go 非常活跃,忙个不停
在去别的地方的路上做点什么;在交通工具上(在汽车、出租车、飞机上;在自行车或地铁上等)忙于某事。
The protein bars are great for moms on the go, because they do not need any preparation and still provide a number of necessary nutrients.
蛋白质棒对外出忙碌的妈妈来说是很好的,因为它们不需要任何准备,还仍然提供许多必需的营养。