124节

英语精读：

美国前First Lady，Michelle 自传，年度畅销书《Becoming》124节：

Craig, too, was in a suit and prepared to play his own song.

But the prospect of it wasn’t bothering him. 

He was sound asleep, in fact, knocked out cold in the backseat, his mouth agape, his expression blissful and unworried. 

This was Craig.

词汇解释：

1 prospect /ˈprɑː.spekt/

the idea of something that will or might happen in the future

2 Knock out cold

我们知道拳击比赛里有一个词是KO，就是Konckout 的缩写，knock out 这个动词短语的意思一般指，被打倒，打晕，失败。

而cold也不是我们常理解的冷. 

Out cold可以单做作一个词组表示asleep，unconscious 表示睡着和无意识。

比如：I was so tired that I was out cold as soon as my head hit the pillow last night

（昨晚上我太累了，以致于我脑袋一沾上枕头，我就昏睡过去了。）

所以词组knock out cold 的意思是因为某些原因昏睡过去，比如被打，晕车，无聊，累。通常用作被动式 be knocked out cold.

原文中的knocked out cold in the backseat 是一个过去分词从句，可以还原为He was knocked out cold in the backseat就是：昏睡过去。

再举一个例子：

My girlfriend and I were knocked out cold as soon as we got home from our four-hour cycle around the city.

3 agape /əˈɡeɪp/

with the mouth open, especially showing surprise or shock

4 blissful /ˈblɪs.fəl/

adjective

extremely or completely happy

上下文背景：

同样去参加音乐演出，Michelle和她的哥哥Craige表现出来皆然不同的样子。