第389期：as good as dead 死定了

今天我们要讲的是一个英语成语 as good as dead. 看起来很简单，但其实不是字面看上去那么简单的。

来看一个例句先：

Trump’s wall is as good as dead.

猜猜看这句话什么意思。

到底是说川普的“墙”好还是不好？

As good as dead 这个短语其实意思很微妙。用英语解释就是：Being in a very bad situation with no way out.

所以上面那句话可以翻译成：川普的墙濒临绝境。或者川普的墙“生不如死”。

再看一个例句：

I’m as good as dead after crashing my parents’ car! 我把我爸妈的车给撞了，我死定了。

在上面这个句子里，as good as dead可以翻译成汉语口语的“死定了，完蛋了”。

为什么会这样呢？

诀窍在于你千万不要被这个词组里的”good”误导，因为as good as这个词组的意思跟“good”没有关系。

As good as这个固定搭配才是关键，意思是almost.

所以，as good as dead约等于almost dead.

举一反三:

as good as finished约等于almost finished.

例如：

The winter is as good as over = The winter is almost over.

They as good as refused my proposal. 约等于They almost refused my proposal.

They’ve as good as admitted it was their fault. 约等于 They’ve almost admitted it was their fault. 意思是“他们虽然没直说，但基本上等于承认错在他们了。” （这句话如果你不知道as good as的意思就无法理解）

怎么样，理解这个意思了吗？

小结一下今天学的内容：

as good as dead = almost dead，根据上下文，可以翻译成“生不如死、死定了，完蛋了，糟了”等等不同语气。

这个成语的关键是as good as这个固定搭配，跟good没有关系，不表示好，而是表示“接近……的程度“，约等于almost.

Ok, today’s topic is as good as over. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.

学会了今天的内容，大家看看下面这句名言应该怎么翻译。欢迎留言你的译文。

英语中还有一个习惯用法 as good as it gets，意思跟上面讲的as good as dead不一样。

As good as it gets的意思是：nothing better is possible or available，或者 something is very good and cannot be improved.

看两个例句就明白了：

• It’s not a great restaurant, but in this part of the city, it’s as good as it gets. 这家饭店不算太好，但在这一片找不到比它更好的了。
• There’s nothing I enjoy more than spending time at home with my dog. That’s as good as it gets. 没什么事比跟我的狗宅在家更让我开心了。