直率坦诚

 

Subject: I expect you to be on the level with me.

 

情景对话：

 

A: Tom, I expect you to be on the level with me. Sometimes I was really sad about what you said.

汤姆，我希望你能真诚待我。有时候，我真的对你说的话感到难受。

 

B: Oh, sorry, Daniel. It was really unintentional.

哦，对不起，丹尼尔，我真的是无心的。

 

地道表达：be on the level with sb.

 

1. 解词释义

Level这个词语有几个意思，在这里可以理解为“水平面”，因此，on the level就可以说是“在说平面上”，即可以清清楚楚看见的。如果我们说一个人on the level，那意思就是说这个人很直率，坦诚，诚实，没有骗人你可以相信他的话。对话中“I expect you to be on the level with me.”的意思就是“我希望你能坦诚对我。”

 

2. 典型范例

e.g. I'm afraid no one is on the level with me here.

恐怕你们都没有对我说实话。

 

e.g. Paisley told me I'd acted square and on the level with him and he was proud to call me a friend.

Paisley说我为人光明磊落，同我交朋友脸上有光。

 

Ps 1：be sad about的意思是“对......感到难受”“对......感到伤心”等。例如：

We were sad about the death of our dear grandfather. 我们亲爱的祖父去世了，我们感到悲痛。

There's a generation gap between us and I'm sad about this. 我们之间已经存在代沟了，对于这件事我很难过。

He is feeling sad about his examination results. 他为自己的考试成绩不好而感到难受。

 

Ps 2：unintentional的意思是“无心的，不是故意的”。例如：

 

Sometimes, there are some deliberate or unintentional misunderstandings appearing among them. 有时候他们之间也会有意无意地出现一些不理解。

Perhaps he had slightly misled them, but it was quite unintentional. 也许他给他们造成了小小的误导，但他不是有意的。