美军(英中对照)

古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
美军「四过」
by the end of 1942, there were almost 250,000 gis in britain. every gi was reminded that the british public were on short rations, but few of them realised what this really meant. a british woman who helped out at an american red cross club recalled:"i saw'boys' help themselves to what would have been a week's ration for me, eat a few mouthfuls and then--horror of horrors--stub out a half-smoked cigarette in the middle of the plate."
and though the gis were issued with a glossary to try to prevent linguistic misunderstandings, misunderstandings still arose. one british girl working on a us base recalled how embarrassing it was when she asked for a"rubber" to correct a mistake. her american boss thought she wanted a contraceptive.
a common joke in britain at that time was that the yanks were"over-paid, over-sexed, over-fed and over here."

一九四二年底，在英国的美军有将近二十五万人。当局不是没有提醒他们说，英国大众获配给的粮食不足，但他们多数还是不了解那不足的情况。一名英国妇女忆述在美国红十字会一个会所帮忙期间所见：「我看见那些军人取了等于我一星期口粮的食物，只吃几口，然后把吸了半支的香烟望盘子中央一按，弄熄烟头，真折福！」
此外，美国军人都获发词汇表，务求避免语言误会，但误会还是会发生。一个英国女郎在一美军基地工作，谈到所经历的尴尬事：她想改错，说要 rubber（橡皮擦），美国上司却以为她要避孕套。
当时英国一个流行笑话是：那些美国大兵「薪水过高，性欲过盛，吃得过饱，而且渡海过来了」。