（1）解雇

The boss kissed his woman secretary off.

kiss off不是“吻别”。在美国俚语中kiss off表示"to dismiss"，“解雇”的意思。解雇有关的表达还有"fire" “give the sack" "give the ax" "give the pink slip"等。

（2）怀孕

My sister is expecting.

我妹妹怀孕了。

expect在这里是“怀孕”的意思，一定要用ing形式才行。If you say that a woman is expecting a baby, or that she is expecting, you mean that she is pregnant.

Jennt was with child when she left Guangzhou.

with child也表示“怀孕了”，注意child前面没有介词。She's with child by him. 的意思是“她因为他而怀孕了”。

It gives him great pleasure that his wife is in the family way.

这里的"in the family way"指的也是“怀孕”的意思，不过字典上已经标注了是一种old-fashioned的用法，了解一下即可。

knock up可以表示“to make a woman pregnant”，例如She was knoecked up. 就是“她怀孕了”。这种用法字典上标注了"offensive"，使用的时候要注意场合。

（3）便秘

I have a hard stool.

我便秘。

hard stool意为“便秘”，和constipation同义，其反义词是soft stool（拉肚子），和diarrhea同义。表示“拉肚子”的表达还有: the runs, Hong Kong dog.

除了知道“这个可以怎么表达”之外，我们还要想一想“这个还可以怎么表达/描述”。

（4）私生子

Thet say Roy is a natural child. It was said that Jon was a love child of Marvin.

natural child和love child都是“私生子”的意思，难听点的说法是bastard（现在常用来表示“混蛋”的意思）。



（5）Sleep late

sleep late不是“睡的迟”，而是“睡到很晚才起床”，和get up late, sleep in意思一样。之所以会造成理解错误是因为对sleep这个词的理解有误。

“我今天晚上会早点睡”不是I'll sleep early tonight. 而是I'll go to bed early tonight. “昨天我很晚才睡”不是I slept late last night. 而是I went to bed late last night.

主要因为sleep并不是“去睡觉”的意思，除了“睡着”的意思外，它表示睡觉的状态。例如“睡得好”就是slept well, “睡得少”就是slept little。

fall asleep和go to sleep的区别在于fall asleep通常含有“不想睡着而睡着”的意思。表示“熟睡的”我们可以说fast asleep, sound asleep, 这里的fast和sound是"completely"的意思。

你可能也会见到My arm is asleep 或者 My foot is asleep这样的表达，这里的asleep是“麻痹”的意思。 If your arm or leg is asleep, it cannot feel anything because it has been in the same position for so long that the blood supply has been cut off.

（6）blue movies

Don't see blue movies.

blue movie/film 是“色情电影”的意思，类似的表达还有exploiter, erotic film, porn。一定不要把“黄色电影”说成是yellow movie。

Yellow pages也不是“色情书刊”之类，而是“电话号码薄”(a large book containing the telephone numbers and addresses of businesses and organizations in a particular area)，类似的表达还有White Pages。

（7）Both…and…

Both the children are not bright.

Both…and的用法我们都很熟悉，both…not的意思不是“两者都不”，而是“并非两者都”。上面这句话的意思是：并非两个小孩都聪明。

关于这个知识点，陈用仪的《英语常用词疑难用法手册》的解释更加具体：

both前面有否定时，是局部否定，即否定一个肯定一个。

【例】I don't want both books.

我两本书不全要（只要一本）。

Both后面否定可能是局部否定，但更多是全部否定。

【例】Both of them are not in good shape.

他们两个人身体都不好。或：他们两个人并不是身体都好。

Both children were not to be found at home.

两个孩子在家里都不见了人。

但是全部否定最好不用both… not…而用neither，例如最好不要说*Both of them did not go swimming. 而说Neither of them went swimming.