| 歡迎光臨 Ez Working Skills |
請用瀏覽器之退后(back) 鍵返回前頁 |
Health insurance is the sticking
point.
健康保險成為談判絆腳石。
|
對話 Wensley:Haven't you completed negotiations yet? You're into the second day already. 文斯利:你們談判還未結束嗎？這已是談判的第二天了。 Marnie:I know. I thought they would be over by now, but we've run into a problem. 馬尼:是啊。我當初也沒想到會談到現在，但談判遇上問題。 Wensley:Is it price? 文斯利:是價錢問題嗎？ Marnie:No, they want health insurance included in the deal and that's something our managing director is very much against. 馬尼:不是。他們希望這宗交易包括健康保險，而我們的總經理卻很不贊成。 Wensley:So health insurance is the sticking point. How are you going to get round it? 文斯利:現在健康保險成為談判絆腳石。你們會怎麼解決這問題？ Marnie:We're working on that right now. 馬尼:我們正在研究。 |
| 多學一點點
遇上障礙，繼續談判 文斯利談判遇到了障礙：We've run into a problem。甚麼障礙呢？Health insurance is the sticking point。Run into是動詞片語(phrasal verb)，本來指「無意遇上」，例如：He ran into an old classmate from his college days（他偶然碰到大學時期的同學）。引伸其義，run into也可以指遇上問題、困難、麻煩、反抗、危險(run into problems/difficulties/trouble/opposition/danger)等，例如：In trying to expand its business, the company has run into trouble（公司要擴展業務，結果陷入困境）。 Sticking point是個固定詞語。Stick本有「黏著」、「無法動彈」含義，The door was stuck and I could not open it即「那道門卡住了，我無法打開」。取這「無法動彈」的意思，sticking point就是商談的障礙或癥結，例如：The sticking point in the negotiations proved to be the money question（使談判陷於僵局的，是金錢問題）。這一句的proved是不及物動詞(intransitive verb，其後沒有受詞或object)，不可解作「證明」，只是「是」的意思。留意You're into the second day already這說法。Into可以用來說事情持續至某一段時間開始之後，例如：(1) The discussion continued far into the night（討論持續到深夜）。(2) The epidemic raged all through the autumn and into the winter（那疫病肆虐了整個秋天，持續到冬天）。The negotiations are into the second day是說「談判進入第二天」，The negotiations are ten hours into the second day則是說「第二天的談判已過了十小時」。 |