名人教英文：挑剔
to pick on 挑剔
annar: you look annoyed. what's the problem?
安纳﹕你看来很不高兴，是什么一回事？
ella: i'm really fed up with my supervisor.
埃拉﹕我那个主管，真叫我吃不消。
annar: hasn't she just been promoted?
安纳﹕她不是刚刚升级了吗？
ella: yes and last week she complained about my skirt. she said it was too short.
埃拉﹕不错。上星期，她不满我的裙子，说太短了。
annar: i didn't think so. it looked the normal length to me.
安纳﹕我倒不觉得，看来不过一般裙子的长短。
ella: yes, and then yesterday she said i was too loud talking to customers on the phone.
埃拉﹕是啊。昨天，她说我跟顾客讲电话太过大声。
annar: that's not fair. the office is pretty noisy so if you don't speak a little louder, the person at the other end can't hear you clearly.
安纳﹕那不公道。办公室颇为嘈吵，你说话不大声点，对方听不清楚。
ella: exactly. and today she said my desk was untidy. i don't know why she's always picking on me.
埃拉﹕你说得对。今天，她又说我的桌面太过凌乱。真不知道她为什么老是对我挑剔。
complain是「抱怨」或「投诉」，其后可用about或of带出所怨所诉的事物。一般而言，说不满某事的申诉，用about较多，说疾病等令人引以为苦的事，则用of，例如﹕(1) we complained to the police about the noise next door（我们向警方投诉隔壁邻人喧闹）。(2) he has been complaining of an ache in his chest（他最近常诉说胸中作痛）。
to pick on someone也作to pick at someone，指挑剔某人的小过失；有时，to pick on someone指「挑选某人（做困难的工作）」，那on则不可改为at，例如﹕(1) the boss always picked on me to do the difficult jobs（上司总是挑我去做困难的工作）。(2) stop picking at / on him（不要再对他诸多挑剔）。
挑剔人家的小过失，英文还有另一说法﹕to carp at someone / something，例如﹕(1) he is always carping at me about everything（他什么事都挑剔我）。(2) he carped at the small errors i made（他挑剔我的小错误）。i don't know why she's always picking on me也可写作i don't know why she's always carping at me。
留意it looked the normal length to me一语。说长度（length）、阔度（width）、形状（shape）、大小（size）、颜色（colour）等，英文常用be（即is、was等）、look、seem等连接动词（link verb）带出，例如﹕(1) the passage is the width of my body（通道和我的身体一样阔）。(2) most of their neighbours are not the same colour as them（他们多数邻居的肤色，都和他们不同）。不要在the width、the same colour之前加of。