“rug rat”是什么意思？可千萬(wàn)別翻譯成“地毯老鼠”

對話(huà)原文：

I found the coasters. They were in the last box I looked in.

我找到杯墊了 在我最后找的那個(gè)箱子里

Sheila and Leo were just telling me about the neighborhood.

希拉和利奧跟我介紹了周邊鄰里 

You are gonna love the supermarket.

你一定會(huì )喜歡這里的超市 

It's five blocks away and it's got everything.

五個(gè)街區遠 一切應有盡有 

I can't wait.

我迫不及待了 

I have so much shopping to do.

我有好多東西要買(mǎi) 

And the schools here are excellent. You guys got kids?

而且這里的學(xué)校棒極了 你們有孩子嗎 

No.

沒(méi)有 

Well, we have four little rug rats.

我們有四個(gè)小家伙 

At some point, they are gonna break something that you own.

早晚有一天 他們會(huì )弄壞你們的東西 

Not to worry. We will pay for it.

別擔心 我們會(huì )賠償的 

We make up for being bad parents

我們通過(guò)做好鄰居 

by being good neighbors.

來(lái)彌補做壞父母的不足

所以rug rat的意思其實(shí)是指小孩子，尤其是指還不會(huì )走路的小孩子。試想一下小baby只能在地毯上亂爬的樣子，rug rat是不是也很形象了呢？

其他重點(diǎn)：

杯墊：coaster。這個(gè)詞也是“航海者”的意思。coast是“海岸”的意思

街區：block。幾個(gè)街區遠：數字+block（s）+away。這個(gè)詞還有“阻止”的意思，sunblock，防曬霜

在某時(shí)：at some point

補償：make up for

（來(lái)源：滬江英語(yǔ)）