体育赛事中的“飞人大战”历来是大家津津乐道的一项比赛。看过博尔特9.69秒勇破奥运百米记录，你想看看rat race 吗？大家都知道rat是老鼠，race意为竞赛，那么rat race岂不就是老鼠赛跑？想象一下一群饿得发慌的老鼠看到好吃的就一拥而上、你抢我夺的样子，是不是很好笑？

不过rat race并不是老鼠赛跑，而是激烈竞争的意思。An unpleasant way in which people compete against each other at work in order to succeed. Rat race会被用于指自己的工作或者自己的办公室。当一个人讨厌自己的工作，或者不愿意直说喜欢自己工作的时候就可以用带有贬义的俚语rat race来描述自己的工作。同样，被称作rat race的办公室也不是一个好地方，在那里大家像老鼠般争权夺利，勾心斗角。

让我们来举个例子：I'd love to get out of the rat race and buy a house in some remote part of the countryside.

我真想退出这激烈的龙争虎斗，到乡下偏僻的地方买栋房子住。

又如一位工作繁忙的律师午餐后对朋友说：

Man, look at the time! Almost two o'clock! Got to get back to the rat race--I've got people coming to see me all afternoon.

咳，看看都什么时候了！快到两点了。我非得回去搏斗了。整个下午都有人找我。

句中出现的rat race指的就是办公室。这位律师用贬义词称呼他的办公室究竟是什么意思呢？是因为他讨厌这个争名夺利的地方呢，还是他只是要向朋友显示一下自己实在是个日理万机、顾客盈门的忙人呢？这两种可能性都有，真正的答案只有他自己心里明白，但是不论他这样说的真正用意是什么， rat race的意思都指十分激烈的竞争。

说到这里，想起前两天在受骗傻瓜VS爱情骗子&骗子机构这篇博文中曾经给大家介绍过rat love的用法。大家在此顺便复习一下：

love-rat

这是一个和老鼠相关的词汇。许多人都be scared of rats，想来和老鼠相关的都不该是好词。Love-rat，爱情老鼠，听起来也是全身不舒服。

的确，love rats are terrible, they're people who cheat on their partners, and they're quite often men. Love-rat 爱情老鼠的真正意思就是爱情骗子，指那些经常在恋人背后出轨的人。

例句：

I've met people who just can't stop cheating on their partners. They're love-rats and they're getting away with it.

对话：

A: Have you read the story on Britain's biggest love-rat in the papers this morning?

B: No, not yet. What did it say?

A: Well, apparently Britain's biggest love-rat has 12 children with 12 different women, all of whom he has cheated on at least five times.

B: That's disgraceful. He shouldn't be getting away with it.

We also hear the expression love-rat used quite often in popular newspapers. 爱情老鼠这个表达也经常出现在那些通俗小报上。

Have you ever met someone who's a love-rat? 过街老鼠，人人喊打。爱情老鼠，也该人人喊打。

最后再说几个和rat有关的习惯用语：

look like a drowned rat

落汤鸡，因为大雨而湿透；to be very wet, especially because you have been in heavy rain.

例句：I had to cycle home in the rain and came in looking like a drowned rat.

我不得不淋雨回家，结果就成了落汤鸡。 

a rat fink

卑鄙小人，极端惹人厌的家伙；an extremely unpleasant person, or someone who has given secret information about you to the police.

例句：If I find the rat fink who informed on me, he won't live long enough to do it again.

要给我找出哪个卑鄙小人出卖我，他就活不长了。

mall rat

Mall就是购物中心。一到周末，许多人都会去mall买东西。有的人也不见得想买什么，他们只是愿意在里面逛。人们把经常到mall去逛的人叫做：mall rat。

例句：Hey, there's always something to do there for us mall rats. At least a dozen fast food places where we can buy a burger, a slice of pizza, ice cream--whatever. Ten different movie theaters. And a whole lot of people to watch, you know? I can, like, spend the whole day there, you know?

嗨，对我们爱逛购物中心的人来说，那儿总是有好玩的事的。那儿至少有十几个快餐店，我们可以在那里买汉堡包，意大利饼，冰淇淋等，什么都有。那儿还有十个电影院，放映不同的电影。你还可以看到好多人，你知道吗？我可以在那里玩上一整天。

又如：Sure, I used to be a typical mall rat hanging around watching the crowds, especially the girls. But then I went out for basketball, made the team and I don't have time to waste anymore!

当然了，我过去是个典型的逛购物中心狂，喜欢在那里观看来来往往的人，特别是女孩子。可是，后来我去打篮球，而且进了球队，这样我就没法再浪费时间了。