muddle 英 式和美式 IELTS SAT TEM8

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America has grown healthily and the rest of the world has muddled along.
美国经济健康增长,世界其他地区也还算过得去。
——《经济学人》
Yes, Southern Europe is experiencing an economic crisis thanks to that money muddle.
是的,由于货币引发的混乱,欧洲南部正在经历经济危机。
——《纽约时报》

基本释义

[verb] bring into a disordered or confusing state
[动词] 使陷入混乱或令人费解的状态


深入解读

看到 muddle 一词,小站的老铁们应该不难想起差不多一年前推过的 小词详解 | meddle ,这两个单词不仅形似,而且含义也稍稍有些接近。别第一眼觉得 muddle 很陌生,其实它可能衍生自英语单词 mud (烂泥、泥浆、淤泥),也可能直接源自中古荷兰语 moddelen (使水等浑浊),其基本含义即像把水弄浑一样“弄乱、搅浑”,多指将事物以错误的顺序弄乱或混淆,比如:

别动——你会弄乱我的文件的。我可是花了好长时间才整理好的。
Don't do that─you're muddling my papers. It took me a long time to collate them.
他们神秘隐晦的情书都乱七八糟地放在一个抽屉里。
Their cryptic love letters were all muddled up together in a drawer.

这个概念也可以用在人身上,把脑袋弄乱,即表示“使困惑、使糊涂”,以及指酒、麻醉药等“使烂醉、使昏昏沉沉”,比如:

说慢点儿——你都把我搞糊涂了。我真搞不懂你在说什么。
Slow down a little─you're muddling me. I really couldn't fathom what you are talking about.
那男人醉醺醺地踉跄着走出了酒吧。他喝了两杯就醉了。
The man lurched drunkenly out of the pub. Two drinks muddled him.

东西弄混之后或者脑袋乱了之后,就容易分不清两个比较相似的人或物以至于不知道哪个是哪个,这可以用 muddle sb/sth (up) 或 muddle A (up) with B 表示某人“混淆、搅浑、分不清”,比如:

我搞错了日期,早到了一个星期。
I muddled the dates and arrived a week early.

虽然混乱不是件好事,但有时候我们在缺乏相应的知识、信息、设备等时,甚至都不知道自己在干什么,也要蒙混过关达成目标,这就可以用 muddle through 表示“胡乱应付过去”,与小站之前在 小词详解 | brazen 中提到的 brazen it/sth out (厚着脸皮硬挺过去)有些近义,比如:

你不必为这事吵吵嚷嚷。我们能想办法应付过去。
You don't have to be blatant about it. We'll muddle through somehow.
显然媒体已被封了口,因为什么都没有报道。现在我们能做的顶多就是设法保持冷静,蒙混过关。
The media has obviously been gagged because nothing has been reported. The best we can do now is try to stay cool and muddle through.

而在英式英语中还有一种混法叫 muddle along ,指的是“混日子、得过且过”,比如:

我们不能就这样混日子。我们必须设法摆脱贫困的煎熬。
We can't just keep muddling along like this. We must contrive a way to escape the grinding poverty.

用作名词时, muddle 除了自然表示“糊涂、困惑、茫然”以及“混乱、乱七八糟”外,也可以用 muddle about/over sth 表示局面“一团糟、混乱”,比如:

我曾在一家戏院兼职当引座员。那里的戏票管理问题一团糟。
I did part-time work as an usher in a theatre. There was a muddle over the theatre tickets.

双语名著
Bagovut, a sturdy old general of placid disposition, had been worried too by all the delays, the muddles, and the contradictory orders, and, to the amazement of everybody, he flew into a violent rage, quite out of keeping with his character, and said some very nasty things to Toll.
巴戈乌特是一个文静的、能征善战的老将军,他也因为一路拖延、混乱和错误百出被搞得筋疲力竭,令人惊讶的是,他一反平日的温文尔雅,大发雷霆,他对托尔说了许多难听的话。
出自俄国作家列夫·托尔斯泰( Leo Tolstoy)创作的长篇小说《战争与和平》(War and Peace)。本书于1865年到1869年出版,讲述欧洲拿破仑时期俄罗斯所发生的事。《战争与和平》自从问世以来,一直被认为是世界上最伟大的小说之一。

同近义词

jumble: mix up in a confused or untidy way
disarrange: make (something) untidy or disordered
scramble: make (something) jumbled or muddled
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