TURNING DOWN AN INVITATION 委婉地拒绝别人的邀请

　　Saying no to people is not always easy, so the next time you have to refuse an invitation, these polite expressions will help you avoid hurting person's feeling:

　　拒绝别人的邀请可不是一件容易的事情。下面的表达可以帮助你不伤感情地说“不”：

　　I would love to, but…

　　That sounds great, but…

　　I’m afraid I can’t. I...

　　Thanks so much for asking me, but…

　　Unfortunately, I can’t because...

　　NOT UNDERSTANDING/ASKING TO REPEAT 没听清、没听懂/请求重复

　　If you did not clearly hear what another person have said, you can say “Sorry”, “Pardon me”, or “Excuse me”, or else use the phrases below to ask them to repeat in a polite way. Notice that it's polite to blame yourself for not being able to hear, even if it was actually because they spoke too softly or there are other loud noises covering them up!

　　如果没听清别人讲话，你可以礼貌地让对方重复，例如“Sorry”、“Pardon me”、“Excuse me”或者下面的表达。把没听清的原因怪在自己身上听起来特有礼貌，即使其实是因为对方讲话太轻柔或者是环境太嘈杂。

　　I’m sorry. I didn’t quite catch that.

　　Could you say that again, please?

　　Would you mind repeating that?

　　AVOIDING ‘FINGER-POINTING’ STATEMENTS 尽量避免“指责性”表达

　　When dealing with a problem, coming across as rude can just make the problem worse. In order to sound more diplomatic and less aggressive, focus on ‘I’ and ‘we’ instead of ‘you’, which can come across as accusatory, and use the passive voice:

　　处理问题的时候，“粗鲁”永远会使情况更糟。为了使我们的措词听起来更加得体、不那么有攻击性，要多说“I”，因为“you”听起来“指责”的意味多一些。使用被动句也是不错的选择：

　　Perhaps I am not making myself clear.

　　Instead of:

　　You're not understanding me.

　　My favorite mug has been broken!

　　Instead of

　　You broke my favorite mug!

　　It was agreed that you'd complete the task today.

　　Instead of

　　You said you were going to complete the task today.

　　William Feather once said, “Politeness is an inexpensive way of making friends”. Now that you are well equipped with polite expressions and vocabulary, maybe it’s just the right time to book an English language course abroad and make friends from all over the world!

　　William Feather说过，礼貌是很经济的交朋友的方式。既然你已经学了这么多礼貌的表达，是时候参加一个海外语言课程，跟来自全世界的人们交朋友啦!

　　语言点解析：

　　leave somebody / something out (of something) = to not include or mention somebody/ something in something例如：

　　Leave me out of this quarrel, please.

　　He hadn't been asked to the party and was feeling very left out.

　　She left out an ‘m’ in ‘accommodation’.

　　come across = to make a particular impression例如：

　　She comes across well in interviews.

　　He came over as a sympathetic person.

　　be inclined to do something = tending to do something; likely to do something例如：

　　He's inclined to be lazy.

　　They'll be more inclined to listen if you don't shout.

　　blunt = (of a person or remark) very direct; saying exactly what you think without trying to be polite例如：

　　She has a reputation for blunt speaking.

　　To be blunt, your work is appalling.

　　教师简介：

　　朱博，新东方口语讲师，毕业于985院校大连理工大学，硕士保送一等奖学金。在校期间曾游学美国，任出版社英语出版中心校对四年，工作严谨，活泼开朗，让大家快乐的学习英语。

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（编辑：何莹莹）