翻譯公司帶你學(xué)雙語(yǔ)知識：憂(yōu)天的“杞人” worry wart

“我今天遲到了30秒，老板會(huì )不會(huì )炒我魷魚(yú)啊？”“剛才老板經(jīng)過(guò)我這里的時(shí)候看了我一眼，我是不是做錯什么事情了啊？”……你身邊有這樣的同事嗎？他們成天有擔不完的心，做不完的惡夢(mèng)，簡(jiǎn)直就是那個(gè)成天擔心天會(huì )掉下來(lái)的“杞人”。

Some people can be especially neurotic or nervous by nature, living out their lives in a state of excessive worry. These obsessive concerns may either be global or amazingly minor in scope. Such a person is often said to be a worry wart, also rendered as worrywart or worry-wart in some literary references. A worry wart's fears are generally viewed by others as irrational or completely out of proportion to the actual situation.

有些人可能天生就特別神經(jīng)質(zhì)或者緊張，成天生活在極度憂(yōu)慮中。這些過(guò)度的擔憂(yōu)可能是宏觀(guān)的大事也可能是芝麻小事。這種極度憂(yōu)慮的人就被稱(chēng)為是“杞人憂(yōu)天”（拼寫(xiě)為worry wart、worrywart或worry-wart都可以）。他們這些人的擔憂(yōu)通常會(huì )被別人看作自尋煩惱或者跟現實(shí)情況完全不符。

A worry wart in an office environment, for example, may spend most of his or her time fretting over getting laid off or fired. While the actual chances of a worry wart actually becoming unemployed may be remote at best, a neurotic employee often seeks out advice from co-workers on how to handle his or her inevitable dismissal. Others may worry excessively about job performance or customer complaints or minor conflicts with their superiors.

比如說(shuō)，辦公室里杞人憂(yōu)天的那些人大部分時(shí)間可能都在擔心會(huì )被裁員或解雇。雖然他們真正被裁的幾率很小，但是這類(lèi)有點(diǎn)神經(jīng)質(zhì)的員工經(jīng)常會(huì )找同事求教怎樣才能避免被裁員。還有一些人可能會(huì )對工作表現、客戶(hù)投訴或者與上司之間的小矛盾而過(guò)度擔憂(yōu)。