HOW TO with BBC Learning English.Com. Everyday English for everday situations.He's about fifty, greyish hair, beard… looks a bit like a politician.Well, he's kind of scary when you first meet him, but he's a really nice guy.Now in the past, some people have thought vagueness to be a bad thing but actually it's very useful.Let's start by listening to this clip:Have you had a chance to read the new contract?Yeah I mean it's more or less the same as the last one, but there are one or t bits we should look at.The man said that the new contract was more or less the same as the old one.In practice, we use more or less to mean almost - the contracts are more or less the same, they're almost the same.Perhaps more interesting than this is what he says afterwards…Yeah I mean it's more or less the same as the last one, but there are one or t bits we should look at.
这里是BBC的《HOW TO》栏目。地道英语每天说。大家好，欢迎收听今天的《HOW TO》，我是William Kremer。下面请听今天的节目：他大约五十岁，头发和胡子有点发白，看起来像一位政客。嗯，当你第一次看到他的时候，他也许有点可怕，但是他确实是个好人。今天我们要讲的是模糊用语。也就是那些表达不确切信息的用语。在过去，有一些人认为说话模糊不是一件好事儿，但是实际上它很有用。值得注意的是书面语中的模糊用语是不同于口语中的模糊用语的。我们今天主要是关注口语中的模糊表达。首先让我们听一小段对话：那份新合同您看过了么？我觉得它和上一份差不多，但是有一处到两处的不同，我们需要一起看看。那位男士说新合同和旧合同差不多。实际情况中，我们用more or less去表达almost的意思，合同more or less一样，它们almost一样。或许更加有趣的是他之后所说的：是的，我是说它和上份合同差不多，但是还是有一两点地方，需要我们一起看看。
