托福流行词之“好友缺失症”

 　　Mal de coucou is a phenomenon in which you have an active social life but very few close friends—people who you can trust, who you can be yourself with, who can help flush out the weird¹ psychological toxins² that tend to accumulate over time—which is a form of acute social malnutrition³ in which even if you devour⁴ an entire buffet⁵ of chitchat, you'll still feel pangs⁶ of hunger.

　　Mal de coucou指社交活动很丰富但是没什么亲近好友的现象，没有你可以信任的人，没有可以展现真实自我的人，没有可以倾诉长期积压的内心苦水的人。这种现象属于严重的社交营养不良，就好像你跟人天南海北聊了一天，仍然渴望有人跟你说说话。

　　This expression is a loan term from French, in which coucou is an informal reference to a close friend, while mal means pain of inadequacy⁷ of something.

　　这个表达来自于法语，coucou是对亲密朋友的非正式称呼，mal则指痛苦或缺失。总体来说，我们可以把mal de coucou理解为“好友缺失症”。

1 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

2 toxins   

n.毒素( toxin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The seas have been used as a receptacle for a range of industrial toxins. 海洋成了各种有毒工业废料的大容器。
• Most toxins are naturally excreted from the body. 大部分毒素被自然排出体外。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

4 devour   

v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷

参考例句：

• Larger fish devour the smaller ones.大鱼吃小鱼。
• Beauty is but a flower which wrinkle will devour.美只不过是一朵，终会被皱纹所吞噬。

5 buffet   

n.自助餐；饮食柜台；餐台

参考例句：

• Are you having a sit-down meal or a buffet at the wedding?你想在婚礼中摆桌宴还是搞自助餐？
• Could you tell me what specialties you have for the buffet?你能告诉我你们的自助餐有什么特色菜吗？

6 pangs   

突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛

参考例句：

• She felt sudden pangs of regret. 她突然感到痛悔不已。
• With touching pathos he described the pangs of hunger. 他以极具感伤力的笔触描述了饥饿的痛苦。

7 inadequacy   

n.无法胜任，信心不足

参考例句：

• the inadequacy of our resources 我们的资源的贫乏
• The failure is due to the inadequacy of preparations. 这次失败是由于准备不足造成的。