古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事,古德明,香港英语教育作家,他开了一个《征服英语专栏》,在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事,用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
美军「四过」
by the end of 1942, there were almost 250,000 gis in britain. every gi was reminded that the british public were on short rations, but few of them realised what this really meant. a british woman who helped out at an american red cross club recalled:"i saw'boys' help themselves to what would have been a week's ration for me, eat a few mouthfuls and then--horror of horrors--stub out a half-smoked cigarette in the middle of the plate."
and though the gis were issued with a glossary to try to prevent linguistic misunderstandings, misunderstandings still arose. one british girl working on a us base recalled how embarrassing it was when she asked for a"rubber" to correct a mistake. her american boss thought she wanted a contraceptive.
a common joke in britain at that time was that the yanks were"over-paid, over-sexed, over-fed and over here."