职场双语：室友对女老板不忠

 I recently moved to Grand Cayman to avoid London in the recession. I'm house-sharing with a friend of a friend, and came home recently to find him in a compromising position on the sofa with my boss. The problem, besides feeling as if my mum is dating my headteacher, is that my boss has told me she has strong feelings for him – but I know he is seeing at least three other women. I don't feel comfortable discussing it with either of them. Will I be judged by my boss once the truth comes out? Do I risk ruining an otherwise peaceful (and cheap) house-share to protect my boss?

　　不久前我搬到了大开曼岛，以远离经济衰退中的伦敦。我与一位朋友的朋友合住，但最近回家的时候，我发现他和我的老板以暧昧的姿势呆在沙发上。问题是，除了感觉就像我妈妈和我的班主任约会一样，我的老板曾告诉我，她对我的室友非常有感觉——但我知道，他至少还在和其他三个女人约会。和他们之中的任何一人讨论此事，我都感觉不自在。一旦真相大白，我的老板会不会对我有看法？为了保护老板，我是不是有可能毁了这种本来相安无事（且廉价）的合租关系？

　　Consultant¹, male, 25咨询顾问，男，25岁In conventional organisations, knowledge is power. If you know something scurrilous² about your boss, you have a weapon against her. In less conventional ones, knowledge is dangerous. If you have dirt on your boss, your boss can take you out. I fear your outfit³ may fall into the second group.　我要收藏在传统机构里，知识就是力量。如果你知道老板的某些龌龊事儿，你就有了一个对付她的武器。在不那么传统的机构中，知识很危险。如果你给老板泼脏水，老板就能赶走你。恐怕你的情况属于第二种。

　　Your problem is not just that you stumbled on your mother embracing the headteacher. That must have been traumatic, but is now in the past. The difficulty is that your mother has chosen to confide⁴ in you.

　　你的问题不仅在于无意中撞见你的妈妈在拥抱班主任。那必然会令人痛苦，但如今都已过去了。麻烦在于，你的妈妈选择向你吐露真情。

　　Your boss has now breached⁵ all the usual divides between professional and personal life and by treating you like an intimate, she makes you feel you ought to tell her about your lothario flatmate. I beg you not to do this: you would be jeopardising your cheap lodgings⁶ and will make her doubly dislike you.

　　你的老板如今违反了职业与个人生活之间所有的传统分界线，她待你就像一位密友，令你感到有义务告诉她有关那位浪荡合租者的事情。我劝你别这样做：否则你可能会失去廉价住所，还会让她加倍地讨厌你。

　　I dare say she dislikes you already: that she has confided⁷ in you is almost certainly born of distrust more than trust. You burst in on her doing something dubious⁸ and she is trying to neutralise it by involving you. Unless she is a very odd woman indeed, she would not pick the newest hire, and a young man at that, as a confidant on matters of the heart.

　　我敢说，她已经讨厌你了：几乎可以肯定，她向你吐露秘密，不信任的成分要多于信任。你在她做可疑事情的时候突然出现，她是在试图把你卷进来，从而息事宁人。除非她真的是一个非常古怪的女人，否则她不会选择最新的下属——偏偏又是一位年轻男性——作为倾诉衷肠的密友。

　　To prevent further confidences, you must adopt the role of gauche⁹ young Englishman (even if you are not English, this is the best role for you). Next time you must blush and look uncomfortable and give surprised utterances¹⁰ such as “Oh dear me”. This will make these conversations so sticky that she will desist. And when the blow falls on her she will be less likely to take revenge on you.

　　为了避免听到更多秘密，你必须表现得像一个不善交际的年轻英格兰人（即使你不是英国人，这对你也是最好的面具）。下一次，你必须脸红，看上去很扭捏，吃惊地说“噢！我的老天”。这会令对话变得很难进行，从而让她打消念头。当她受到打击的时候，就不太可能报复你了。

　　You could solve the problem by coming back to recession-hit London, where you would be less likely to have such excitements in your life. Though you would also be less likely to have a job.

　　你也可以回到受衰退重创的伦敦，从而解决问题。在伦敦，你的生活中不太可能碰到此类刺激。不过，你也不太可能找到工作。

1 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

2 scurrilous   

adj.下流的，恶意诽谤的

参考例句：

• Scurrilous and untrue stories were being invented.有人正在捏造虚假诽谤的故事。
• She was often quite scurrilous in her references to me.她一提起我,常常骂骂咧咧的。

3 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

4 confide   

v.向某人吐露秘密

参考例句：

• I would never readily confide in anybody.我从不轻易向人吐露秘密。
• He is going to confide the secrets of his heart to us.他将向我们吐露他心里的秘密。

5 breached   

攻破( breach的现在分词 )； 破坏，违反

参考例句：

• These commitments have already been breached. 这些承诺已遭背弃。
• Our tanks have breached the enemy defences. 我方坦克车突破了敌人的防线。

6 lodgings   

n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍

参考例句：

• When he reached his lodgings the sun had set. 他到达公寓房间时，太阳已下山了。
• I'm on the hunt for lodgings. 我正在寻找住所。

7 confided   

v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等）

参考例句：

• She confided all her secrets to her best friend. 她向她最要好的朋友倾吐了自己所有的秘密。
• He confided to me that he had spent five years in prison. 他私下向我透露，他蹲过五年监狱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

9 gauche   

adj.笨拙的，粗鲁的

参考例句：

• He now seems gauche and uninteresting.他显得又笨拙又古板。
• She was a rather gauche,provincial creature.她是个非常不善交际、偏狭守旧的人。

10 utterances   

n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论

参考例句：

• John Maynard Keynes used somewhat gnomic utterances in his General Theory. 约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯在其《通论》中用了许多精辟言辞。 来自辞典例句
• Elsewhere, particularly in his more public utterances, Hawthorne speaks very differently. 在别的地方，特别是在比较公开的谈话里，霍桑讲的话则完全不同。 来自辞典例句