When you scrutinise something, you look at it closley

 
Feifei:   大家好，欢迎收听《你问我答》节目，我是冯菲菲。今天这个问题来自于 Albert, 下
面我们一起来听听他的问题。
 
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Albert: Hello, I’m Albert. I have a question about three words. The first word is take
stock, the second is size up, the third is scrutinize. I don’t know the words’ difference. So
would you like to tell me about these words’ explanation? 
 
Feifei:     Albert 想知道  take stock, size up 还有 scrutinize 这三个意思相近的动词词组的
区别是什么。Well here to help us answer this question is my colleague
William Kremer. Hi William.
 
William:   Hiya Feifei.
 
Feifei:   So take stock, size up and scrutinize. What’s the difference?
 
William:  Well, they have similar meanings but they are different. But let’s just start
by looking at these three verbs. Which one do you think is the odd one out,
Feifei? Which one looks different?
 
Feifei:   Umm, to scrutinise?
 
William:   Uh-huh. And why’s that?
 
Feifei:  从这几个词形来看只有  scrutinise 是一个词，而其他的都是两个词组成的词组。 
 
William:   That’s right, the other examples are phrasal verbs. What does that tell you,
the fact that they’re phrasal verbs?
 
Feifei:  这个我还不大清楚，是不是他们没有  scrutinise 更正式呢？
 
William:   That’s right. They’re less formal than to scrutinise and that is perhaps the
first difference, but all three verbs are very useful. Now, there is something
easy that people can do when they have similar words like these ones and
they want to know what the difference is between them. And that is to look
on the internet and try to find some examples of the words in use. 

 
Feifei:   利用网络资源寻找单词的使用方法。 
 

William:   Right, and I’ve just searched the BBC website to find some real life
examples of these phrases. So, let’s start off with to scrutinise. And this
first example says “Jury told to scrutinise interviews”.
 
Feifei:   A jury 陪审团。 新闻头条说  Jury told to scrutinise interviews, so it means 陪
审团被告知需要  scrutinise interviews, 对有关此案人员问话的审查。
 
William:   And if we look a little bit further in the article, it says “The jury in the trial
has been told to examine the defendants' police statements closely.” And
that’s what to scrutinise means, it means to examine something closely or
carefully. 
 
Feifei:   To examine something carefully 仔细调查一件事情或检查某物。 
 
William:   So if you scrutinise something that usually means you do more than just
think about it – you look at something closely. So for example, if you apply
for a job Feifei, I will scrutinise your application, I will look very carefully at
your application. And in the interview I will scrutinise you. I will ask you
questions and try to work out if you’re being honest.
 
Feifei:  如果我申请一个工作，那么William 就会 scrutinise 我的申请信和表格。之后我的申
请表就会在面试过程中  scrutinise 我，看看我说得都是不是事实。
 
William:   And in an interview I will also try to size you up, to size you up. 
 
Feifei:   什么？你还要用尺子量我的身材尺寸？ 
 
William:   Er, no. It just means I’ll try to work out what kind of a person you are,
your abilities, your personality. I’ll try to form a judgment about you. 
 
Feifei:   To form a judgment about someone 对某人性格作判断。
 
William:   Yeah, if we size someone up, we don’t know them but we try to get a
general idea of what they’re like. And it’s perhaps not as serious a process
as scrutinising someone. Now, here’s another interesting story from the
BBC website. It’s all about people who meet boyfriends or girlfriends by

playing games on the internet. Can you read this paragraph, Feifei?
 
Feifei:   Yeah. “People play games for many reasons, but increasing numbers are
finding that they are a great way to size up potential partners.” 现在很多人
在网上玩儿游戏其实是为了 sizing up potential partners 就是说相互打量，看看是
否有成为恋人的可能。我不觉得这是认识自己终身伴侣的一个好方法 William.
 
William:  I’m not sure about it either! 
 
Feifei:   那我们是不是只可以 size up 人，而不能 size up 东西呢？
 
William:    No, we can size anything up. So imagine, Feifei, that you get your job and
now I’m your boss and I give you quite a tricky project. And then I ask you
how much time and how much money you will need to do your project.
And you will have to size up your project in order to tell me what you need. 
 Feifei:   我们可以在开始做一项工作之前，先对这个事情进行size up 评估，看看我们需要做
的准备和将会需要的资源。 Ok, so what about the last phrase Albert asked
about – to take stock?
 
William:   To take stock. Well one meaning of ‘stock’ is the things available for sale in
a shop.
 
Feifei:  Ok in Chinese we would say 库存。
 
William:   So stocktaking means counting all the things you have left to sell in your
shop.
 
Feifei:   Stocktaking 的狭义理解就是商店里库存量，但是  take stock 又是什么意思呢？
 
William:    Well, it’s a verb which we use to describe looking at processes or situations,
not people. And here’s a story from the BBC called “The UK’s new workers
take stock”. Take a look at this, Feifei.
 
Feifei:  [looking at article] 这篇报道说自从一些东欧国家加入欧盟后，成千上万的这些国家
的国民涌入英国找工作，这还说  “A year on, we find out whether their hopes
have been fulfilled” 一年过后，我们看看这些人的愿望是否实现。
 
William:   So, a year after these people arrived, the article is finding out if their lives
have improved. So if you take stock of something you look back at a
process over time, or maybe you just stop for a moment and review a
situation. 
 
Feifei:   Take stock 进行评估，做出判断通常指回过头去看一件事情的过程，或指后退一步从
而来重新分析一个形势。
 
William:   Exactly. And now it’s time for us to take stock. So let’s go back to the
example I mentioned before. I know it’s painful Feifei but imagine I’m your
boss and I give you a difficult project to do, so what do you do first?

 
Feifei:   你给我一项任务，然后  I size it up 判断需要多长时间还有需要什么东西才能完成此
任务。 
 
William:   And in order to size the project up, you need to examine lots of documents
very closely, very carefully. And what can we call that?
 
Feifei:   Scrutiny. 要想  size the project up 我可能需要仔细阅读大量的文件  to scrutinise
all the information.
 
William:   And then let’s say that six months later I want to know if the project is
going well and if it’s going to be a success. So what do I do then?
 
Feifei:   六个月之后你想知道这项工作是否如期顺利进行，我作为项目主管是否尽责，well of
course I am! 这时你就会  take stock of the project.
 
William:   That’s right, well done! And by the way do you notice a difference in the
way we use those two phrasal verbs, Feifei? 
 Feifei:   我注意到了，我们可以把  to size up 这个词组分开使用，比方说  to size someone
up; 不过我们不能说  to take something stock, 只能说  take stock of
something.  
 
William:   Exactly, that’s right! Thanks Albert for your question. I do hope we’ve
helped clarify these three words.
 
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Albert: Thank you very much. Bye bye. 
 
Feifei:   今天这个问题问的很好！如果你也有任何关于英语学习方面的疑难，都可以发邮件给我
们到 questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. 下一期节目也许回答的就是你的问题。
 
William:   再见!
 
Feifei:   再见!