不说不知道,新一代“美国甜心”Katherine Heigl(凯瑟琳·海格尔)曾经是一名摩门教徒!这位身材高挑,金发碧眼的俏女郎符合了美国人对于“甜心”一词的定义。虽然童星出身的她在青少年时期也出演了一些影视作品,但直到《实习医生格雷》大红才让她人气直升,也让她收获了艾美奖最佳女配角奖的荣誉。这之后,Katherine Heigl连续出演了多部浪漫爱情喜剧,如《27套礼服》、《丑陋事实》、《杀手们》,彻底奠定了她浪漫爱情剧女王的地位。
Peter Out 逐渐消失
“I couldn't find a ward I was comfortable in. It kind of petered out mostly because of that.”
—Actress Katherine Heigl on slowly giving up her Mormon[摩门教] faith.
Definition
To slowly stop; go away over time.
Usage
Katherine Heigl, who grew up with the Mormon religion, no longer practices it. She says that once she moved away from home, she couldn't find a ward she liked (“ward” is the Mormon word for a group of people who go to a particular church, like a congregation or parish), so she slowly stopped being religious. Her faith petered out.
Whenever something slowly stops and goes away over time, it peters out. If there's a TV show you used to watch every day, and then watched once a week and then not at all, your interest in it petered out. If a city was once visited by lots of tourists but now hardly anyone goes there, its tourism industry petered out.
The origin of the phrase is actually unknown, but there are a few good guesses. Some trace the phrase to biblical[圣经的] Greek, but most think it has to do with rocks. A substance[物质] called saltpeter[硝石] is used in mining. So once all the valuable rock is removed from a mine, all that's left is saltpeter, so the mine petered out.
Examples
After he got married, his appetite for partying petered out. He rarely stays out late now.
他自从结婚后,对参加派对逐渐失去兴趣。他现在极少晚归了。
The store's business began to peter out about a year ago and it closed last week.
大约一年前,这商店的生意逐渐走下坡路,上周终于关门大吉了。