Jerry: Hey, Paula. Hi, Will. Did you have a good weekend?

　　Paula: Yeah... I checked out that new 3D movie. It's amazing what they can do with technologies these days!

　　Will: I went mountain biking with a couple of friends. We worked up a good sweat and had a good time. How about you, Jerry?

　　J: Actually, I spent most of the weekend looking at travel brochures.

　　Paula周末去看了新出的三维电影，3D movie. Will跟几个朋友一起去骑山地车，山地车在英语里叫 mountain bike，在上面那段话里是做动词用，Will went mountain biking. Will还说，他们出了一身汗，玩得特别开心。work up a sweat是一种习惯用法，指锻炼身体或从事体力活动很投入，可以是真的出了一身汗，也可以形容特别卖力。Jerry呢，一个周末大部分时间都在看旅游宣传材料travel brochures. 看来他是要休假喽？Paula问：

　　P: Really? Are you going somewhere?

　　J: Well, starting on the 20th of this month, I'm taking a fiveweek vacation.

　　W: Five weeks!! No way!

　　P: Get out of here! How did you swing that?

　　J: Actually, the company owes me about four months' worth of vacation time. I've been working here since 2002 and haven't taken a vacation yet. I've got oodles of comp time as well.

　　W: Sorry, what's comp time?

　　Jerry要休五个星期的假，Will和Paula都不敢相信，问Jerry, How did you swing that? to swing it是一种口语里非正式的说法，意思是说服别人，达到自己的目的。Jerry解释说，他从2002年来这家公司工作，就一直没休过假，现在公司欠他四个月的假期，Jerry说，另外，I've got oodles of comp time as well. oodles of something也是一种非正式的说法，相当于a lot of something，Jerry说自己除了四个月的假期，还攒了很多comp time. Will是新毕业的大学生，不知道什么是comp time. Paula解释说，

　　P: The "comp" is short for compensation. Basically he means overtime pay.

　　J: Yeah, but some companies like ours don't really pay overtime... they give you extra vacation hours instead. If you add up all the vacation time and comp hours I have, I have a lot of time.

　　P: When I was working for a company in Germany they had super short work weeks and very liberal overtime rules.

　　Paula解释说，comp是compensation的简写，其实就是overtime加班，有些公司不发加班费，而是把员工加班的时间折合成假期，补偿给员工。另外，欧洲和美国的情况也有很大的区别，Paula说，她以前曾经在德国的一家公司工作过，they had super short work weeks and very liberal overtime rules. 那家公司不仅工作时间短，而且加班的规定也very liberal，很松。

　　J: I have to say I'm looking forward to my long vacation. I think you need at least three or four weeks of doing nothing before you can truly relax.

　　W: I thought you said you had months and months of vacation time available. Why are you only taking five weeks off?

　　J: Five weeks was the best I could negotiate with my boss. She says she knows I've earned the time, but she begged me not to take more than five weeks.

　　P: Five weeks should be long enough! Who knows? Maybe you'll get bored and come back early!

　　J: (laugh) I doubt it.

　　Jerry虽然有好几月的假期，但老板最多只让他休五个星期， 看来他一定是很能干。Paula开玩笑说，五个星期也足够了，搞不好用不了五个星期Jerry就觉得实在无聊，提前回来上班了呢！

 

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