ACT 3-2 這有可能是任何東西

【故事梗概】

Grandpa在和Arnold和Peggy聊天，他們都對Pete提到的那個“驚喜”感到好奇。這時Pete回來了，他帶來了另一位他們的老朋友Lillian Winters女士。

Arnold: How’s your family? Oh, I was sorry to hear about your wife having passed away.

Grandpa: Yes. About four years ago.

Peggy: And you’re living with your children now? In New York? Pete wrote us and told us.

Grandpa: Yup. Retired and moved to New York to live with my son and his family.

Peggy: By the way, what do you think this big surprise is?

Arnold: It could be most anything, knowing Pete.

[Another car arrives. ]

Grandpa: Hey, that must be Pete! Now we’ll find out about the surprise.

[They go to meet the car.]

Pete: So good to see you all!

Peggy: Oh, Pete, Pete! Oh, it’s so good to see you!

Pete: Remember Lillian?

Lillian: I remember all of you. You haven’t changed a bit.

Peggy: Lillian! Oh, my gosh!

Arnold: Lillian Winters. We were together in the Thursday night drama society.

【語言點精講】

1. Oh, I was sorry to hear about your wife having passed away.

噢，我聽說你夫人已經故去了，感到很難過。

hear about: 聽說；得知。

pass away: 死去，去逝，逝世。pass away是 die的委婉說法。類似的說法還有“pass on”以及“no longer with us”。

2. Yup.

這是Yes的口語表達方式。

3. By the way, what do you think this big surprise is?

我問一下，你認為這叫人意想不到的事是什么？

by the way: 順便說說，順便問一下。by the way是常用的插入語，在提到臨時想到的事，與當時所說的話題無關的事，或對已說的話添加一些說明時使用。

4. It could be most anything, knowing Pete．

知道Pete這個人（的脾氣），就知道這有可能是任何東西。意思是說，Pete這個人點子多，他說的驚喜到底是什么，這很難猜準了。

knowing Pete: 這里的動詞現在分詞短語起狀語作用，表示原因。

5. Oh, my gosh!

啊呀，天哪。

這句話用來表示驚奇。gosh是為了避免直接說God而轉的音。

6. You haven’t changed a bit.

你們一點也沒有變。這也是久別重逢時常用的寒暄語。

7. We were together in the Thursday night drama society.

我們當年一起參加周四晚上的戲劇社。

society: 這里指的是社團，團體。