昨天去我姐姐家，看到我的小侄女噘著嘴不高興。一問才知道她得重新考期中考。為什么呢？原來，他們班好多人在最近的考試中都得了好成績，老師懷疑有人漏題，所以全部人都要重考。這讓我想到一個習(xí)慣用語。那就是: foul-play.

Foul play這個短語的意思是"不正當(dāng)?shù)男袨椋瑖?yán)重犯規(guī)"。就像上面提到的情況，老師認(rèn)為不可能所有人成績都這么好，所以懷疑有人舞弊。She suspected foul play. 在下面的例子里，一名公司主管談到他看到辦公室一團(tuán)混亂之后的反應(yīng)。我們一起來聽一聽。

例句-1：When I got back to my office, my papers were scattered. I found my file cabinet had been opened and my computer turned off. My first thought was that it was a case of foul-play. But, it turned out to be rather innocent; just my colleague's kids playing around without any supervision.

這段話是說: 當(dāng)我回到辦公室的時候，桌上的紙撒了一地。我發(fā)現(xiàn)我的檔案柜被打開，電腦也被關(guān)了。我第一反應(yīng)是有人闖進(jìn)了辦公室。但后來我發(fā)現(xiàn)這只是虛驚一場，是我同事的孩子在沒有大人看管的情況下，在我辦公室里玩著。

大家可能已經(jīng)注意到了，foul play也經(jīng)常被用在犯罪行為上，意思就是非法的暴力行徑。我的一個朋友就跟我講過，去年圣誕節(jié)他們整個社區(qū)都遭到了一場洗劫。She discovered that thieves had broken in, and other neighbors had reported similar incidences of foul-play. 她發(fā)現(xiàn)小偷破門而入，其他鄰居也有類似遭遇。

所以說，居住的社區(qū)真的很重要呢！

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上面提到，foul play經(jīng)常被用在犯罪行為上。下面的例子就提到了這樣一起犯罪，讓我們一起去一探究竟。

例句-2：Police discovered the woman's body in the river. Her husband claimed she had accidentally fallen out of a canoe. Soon enough, it was determined that foul-play was involved. She had been struck on the head with a rock and left to die. The husband murdered her and intended to collect an expensive insurance policy!

這段話是說：警方在河里發(fā)現(xiàn)一具女尸。死者丈夫說，她是不小心從獨木舟掉到河里去的。但是不久后，警方發(fā)現(xiàn)這其中其實參雜了非法行為。死者的頭部是被石塊擊中，然后流血而死。她的丈夫謀殺了她，是為了一大筆保險費!

太可怕了！不過到最后，這個丈夫肯定也被繩之以法了。這就像英語里一句俗語說的，Crime doesn't pay. 意思就是犯罪得不償失。