Touchy-freely
Li: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I'm Yang Li.
大家好！欢迎收听“日常英语”。我是 Yang Li。
William: (subdued) I'm William Kremer.
（有气无力地）我是William Kremer。
Li: So, what English are we speaking today, William?
嗯， 我们今天学什么单词呢， William。
William: (sigh) I don't know.
（叹气）我不知道。
Li: Oh what a big sigh! What's wrong?
呀，叹这么大的一口气。怎么啦？
William: Oh, it doesn't matter.
哦，没什么。
Li: Oh, come on! I can see something's not right. What's wrong?
拜托！我能看出来你不对劲呢。怎么了嘛？
William: (sigh) It's... well, if you must know, it's Tigger... he's died.
（叹气）呃，如果你真想知道，我就告诉你吧，是Tigger啦，Tigger死掉了。
Li: Tigger? Who's Tigger?
Tigger? 谁是Tiger？
William: Tigger... Tigger is... Tigger was my beautiful cat. He was my best friend. I suppose you could say that. I'm going to miss his stripy face in the morning. And his purr, yeah, I'm going to miss that. But, you know, these things happen. I shouldn't get so upset...
Tiger是我的猫。 也可以说是我的好朋友啦。 老想起早上它的那张花纹脸。 还有那种咕噜咕噜的声音，我也不会忘记。 但是，我知道，这种事情是在所难免的。 我不应该这么难过。
Li: Why not? I think it's normal to be very sad when a pet dies.
为什么不应该呢？自己的宠物死了，会感到难过这是很正常的啊。
William: No, no, it's silly! I'm getting upset over an animal! I'm not a baby! I should grow up.
不对！这样的话感觉好蠢哦，为一个小动物难过。 我不是小孩子，应该有个大人样。
Li: But you might find it helpful to talk about your feelings for Tigger.
但是，也许聊一聊你对Tiger的感觉会让你好过一些。
William: No, no, no, no! I hate all of that touchy-feely stuff!
不不不！我讨厌 “touch-feely”那一套。
Li: Touchy-feely?
Touchy-feely?
William: Yeah, if something is touchy-feely it's very emotional. If you are a touchy-feely person you don't mind talking about your feelings and maybe actually hugging people.
对，这个词是描述情感方面的一个表达。 如果你是个“touch feely”的人，你 不会介意跟人聊你的感情你甚至会拥抱别人。
Li: I see. So is this a negative phrase, touchy-feely?
我知道了。 那么，这是个贬义词咯？
William: Yeah, a little bit. Let's hear a couple of examples of it in use:
有一点吧。让我们来听几个例子看看这个词是怎么用的：
• Man: Do you know, I never once saw my mum and dad kiss or hug.
你知道吗， 我从们见过我的爸爸妈妈接吻或是拥抱。
• Man 2: Really? Gosh, that seems incredible.
是吗？不可思议！
• Man: But I think they really loved each other. They just weren't all touchy-feely about it.
但是，他们应该是很恩爱的，只是不那么喜欢感情外露而已。
• Woman: Did you go to that drama group?
你去参加那个戏剧小组了吗？
• Woman 2: Yeah. I don't think I'll go again.
去了。但是我可能不会再去了。
• Woman: Oh? Why not?
哦？ 为什么？
• Woman 2: Well, the acting was fine. But it's all that touchy-feely stuff they do that I don't like.
呃，排戏的时候倒是不错啦。只是我讨厌他们婆婆妈妈，多愁善感的那一套。
Li: Look, you English people! You just can't talk about your feelings, can you?
听着，你们英国人就是不喜欢表达自己的感情是吧？
William: Well, you might be right Li – we're not famous for talking about our feelings. Now, before we finish, I have heard this phrase touchy-feely being used in a very different way too. Listen to this:
嗯，你或许说对了，Li。我们确实不是以喜欢表露感情而名声在外呢。 （ 现在）在节目结束之前，我知道这个短语还有一种不同的用法，来听一下例句：
• Woman: I love your sweater!
我喜欢你的毛衣。
• Man: Thanks.
谢谢。
• Woman: It's so soft! I love this material. It's so touchy-feely!
好软呀。我喜欢这种料子，摸起来那么柔软。
• Man: OK. Shall I take it off and then you can touch it properly?!
哈，我是不是应该脱下来让你好好地摸一下呢？
Li: So in that example, 'touchy-feely' was being used to describe a kind of material.
在那个例子中，“touch feely”被用来形容一种材料。
William: Yes. If something is touchy-feely it is very soft. You want to stroke it, just like Tigger. I'm going to miss stroking Tigger. The way he used to purr... And sometimes he would bring me a little present, you know. A dead mouse or maybe a little bird. So thoughtful.
嗯，如果某种东西很“touch feely”，你会有想抚摸它的冲动。 就像你想抚摸tiger 一样。 我忘不了抚摸Tiger 时的感觉。 它咕噜咕噜叫的声音……有时候它还会带给我礼物。 一只死老鼠或者一只鸟啊什么的——是这么地贴心！
Li: Hmm. It's OK to cry you know, William...
呃，William，哭一下没关系的。
William: (recovering himself) No! No it's not. No touchy-feely stuff!
（振作起来）才不！ 才不要变得那么婆婆妈妈情绪化呢！
Li: Oh I give up. Goodbye everyone.
哦，好吧，我服了你了！ 再见！
William: Bye!
再见！