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ENGLISH
PORTUGUESE LINGUISTICS & CULTURE |
Autor: | Dale-USA |
E-mail: | dale_thomas2004@yahoo.com.br |
Data: | 21/JUL/2011 10:18 AM |
Assunto: | Contract. |
Mensagem: |
My personal, unauthorized, unsolicited secretary has, I believe, responded to your question, madam. LOL PPaulo keeps forgetting that I have a basic knowledge of English and, being over 21, can speak for myself. Maybe we could teach him to knit so he would keep himself busy. Idle hands... Well, you know the rest. I find the usage somewhat unusual. "To be worked up" generally means "to be excited, nervous, angry, upset, etc." With the exception of "excited", note that the meaning is generally negative, something not desirable. Without more context, I would think that, yes, the person had been cheated or deceived by the landlord. In Gramado, to get the house, I had to sign a contract for a year and pay in advance five months rent. There were the usual problems throughout the year with the caixa de agua, the septic tank, etc. It was always a struggle to get the owner to do anything about the problems. I wanted a little paint, for example, to paint a few small places in the front of the house. He refused. Why would anyone refuse paint to a tenant who wanted to paint places on the exterior of a house that were in need of paint? The owner would know what color to get, where it could be purchased, etc. The handyman told me that the house did not need a touch-up, it needed to be repainted entirely but the owner was too damn tight with his money to authorize it. A plumber could be called for certain problems. Often the problem was related to a bathroom used by guests. He loved to treat me like the biggest fool he had ever met. (Obviously, he had not been around politicians.) I kept saying the toilet was broken, and he kept accusing me of dropping something into it. Finally, he removed the toilet for examination. Guess what: it was broken. LOL Do you think he apologized? Hell no. The bathroom was light green. What was the light green toilet replaced with? A pink toilet, of course. LOL And what became of the old, broken toilet? A few days later I found it in the backyard, just beyond the property line. What a complete idiot. LOL Anyway...it was a huge house, with the exception of the "marias" (aranhas gaúchas) and sometimes an animal in the kitchen around 3:00 AM, I was pretty happy there. It sure was a cold house! Friends told me it was a "casa de praia num mato fechado". It was meant to be cool, but the climate in the Serra is cold. So...damn did it get cold at night in that house! LOL There were nights I wore a coat to bed. Yes, I am serious! |