put food on the table掙錢養家

一個外號就把一個人的職業標籤釘死，因果說得乾淨。

Someone is known as X because ...

給人下標籤並給出理由時用；正式文書改成 is referred to as。

He's known as the fixer because he always cleans up. ／ That's why everyone calls her the closer.

中性

重讀 Dr. Death，because 後放慢，句尾下沉。

She is known as the fixer because she solves every crisis. 她被稱為救火隊員，因為每次危機都是她擺平的。

用大白話否定對未來的斷言，正好戳中「死亡醫生」證詞的軟肋。

You can't tell what somebody will do.

勸人別把話說死、別替別人預判時用；書面可說 You cannot predict。

Nobody knows what he'll be like in ten years. ／ You can't predict how people will turn out.

口語

can't 和 tell 重讀，gonna do 連讀，句尾放平。

You can't tell what a kid's gonna do years from now. 一個孩子幾年後會怎樣，誰也說不準。

前半句留分寸，後半句把話說死，反駁得又穩又硬。

as far as we know, ...

在說「就我們所知」時用，既嚴謹又不把話說絕；正式文書常用。

To the best of our knowledge, there was none. ／ We have no record of it, as far as we know.

正式

as far as 輕快帶過，重讀 violence，句尾收住。

As far as we know, he had no history of violence whatever. 據我們所知，他完全沒有暴力記錄。

把醫生的可怕預言原樣複述，誇張得讓人聽見指控有多離譜。

I would ... and probably + 誇張結果.

轉述別人對自己誇張的惡意預測時用；不適合拿來當玩笑。

They claimed I would burn the whole city down. ／ According to him, I'd wreck everything in sight.

口語

重讀 crazy 和 butcher，half of 連讀，句尾下沉。

They made it sound like I would go crazy and quit everything. 他們把我說得好像會發瘋、把一切都撂下。

一句警告加一句時間對比，荒謬感一下子頂到最高。

Don't ever ... And he talked to me 15 minutes.

用反差拆穿對方判斷草率時用；語氣帶諷刺。

Never trust me again, apparently, after a ten-minute chat. ／ One short talk and suddenly I'm dangerous.

口語

Don't ever 重讀，15 minutes 放慢強調。

Don't ever trust me with a project. And we spoke for five minutes. 以後別讓我碰專案。而我們只聊了五分鐘。

前句剛說能理解偷竊和吸毒，這句一轉，把不可原諒的界線劃出來。

It's very hard to understand why ...

表達某件事無論怎麼想都無法接受時用；正式演講尤其有力。

There is no way to make sense of killing an officer. ／ That is the one act nobody can explain away.

正式

very hard 重讀，why 引出從句時稍停。

It's very hard to understand why anyone would hurt a child. 很難理解，怎麼會有人去傷害一個孩子。

把整段推理收在一句強調句上，冷得讓人無話可說。

It was X that counted.

強調最終起作用的是某件事時用；正式書面也常見。

What mattered in the end was their decision. ／ Theirs was the call that stood.

正式

重讀 their verdict，that counted 輕收，整句放慢。

In the end, it was the numbers that counted. 到頭來，算數的是那些數字。