时间:2019-01-07 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

To give up the ghost


ghost town


世界上到底有没有鬼?真正看见过鬼的人似乎也不多,可是几千年来,许多人一听鬼的故事就毛骨悚然。今天我们要讲两个和"鬼"这个字有关的俗语,可是大家千万别害怕,你绝不会见到鬼的。"鬼"这个字在英文里就是:ghost。


根据字典里的解释,ghost就是看不见的幽灵,人死了,他的灵魂也就离开了人体。今天要讲的两个俗语就是这个意思。我们先来介绍:to give up the ghost。To give up就是"放弃"。一个人放弃了灵魂不就是死了吗?To give up the ghost的意思也就是:" 死"。下面我们来举个例子:


例句-1: "My poor old aunt was in bed with cancer for six months before she finally gave up the ghost."


这个人说:"我那可怜的老阿姨得了癌,在床上躺了半年后终于去世了。"


To give up the ghost不一定指人,它还可以用来说别的东西,就像那些磨损很利害无法修理的机器:


例句-2: "I need money to buy a new car. My old one is twelve years old and I'm afraid it's ready to give up the ghost."


这个人说:"我需要钱去买一辆新车。我那辆老的汽车已经开了十二年,恐怕是要完蛋了。"


要是你看过美国的西部电影的话,你很可能看到过那种被遗弃的城镇。美国人把它们叫做:ghost town。Ghost town就是一些被遗弃的城镇。一百多年前,成千上万的人都争先恐后到美国西部去淘金,想一夜就变成富翁。当时那里的小城镇都很繁荣,后来,随着淘金活动的结束,人们也就逐个地离开了那里到别处去谋生,这些城镇也就没有生命了。下面的例句是一个人在形容ghost town的凄凉情景:


例句-3: "These old ghost towns can give you a scary 1 feeling, with the buildings falling apart and the only sound is the moaning 2 of the wind blowing through the deserted 3 streets."


这人说:"被遗弃的城镇真让你感到害怕。那里的房子东倒西歪,唯一能听到的声音就是在那没有人的街道上风吹的呜呜响声。"


就是在现代的美国社会中,有些城镇由于经济条件的变化仍然会被遗弃。我们要举的第二个例子就可以说明这种现象:


例句-4: "I come from a city in Illinois which used to have three big steel plants. But these factories closed twenty years ago and the city has almost become a ghost town with most of the people gone and most of the stores and houses boarded up like a mining town out West."


这人说:"我的老家是在伊利诺伊州的一个城市。那里原来有三个大钢铁厂。但是,二十年前这些厂就关闭了,那里的大多数人也都搬走了,商店和房屋都钉上了木板,就像西部那些开矿的城镇一样。所以我的老家也几乎成了一个被遗弃的地方。"


我们今天讲了两个和ghost有关的俗语,它们是:to give up the ghost和ghost town。To give up the ghost是指人死了,或是无可补救的东西。Ghost town是被遗弃的城镇。


「美国习惯用语」第一百零三课就讲到这里。欢迎下次再一起来学习美国习惯用语。再见。



a.引起惊慌的;害怕的
  • What animal do you think is the most scary?你认为什么动物最可怕?
  • Are you afraid of scary movies?你害怕恐怖电影吗?
v.呻吟,悲叹( moan的现在分词 );抱怨;发出萧萧声
  • They were moaning over the death of their father. 他们正在哀悼他们的父亲。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She's always moaning that she has too much work to do. 她总是抱怨她有太多的事要做。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的
  • The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
  • The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。
学英语单词
address bus driver
agitating form
agricultural output value
Antsiafabositra
breadier
capitals of liberia
caprio
ceruminous deafness
chionite
coarse setting
Cupressus chengiana
darling rivers
DC of S
deep foundation method
deterministic grammar
Dhurnāl
DTPA
dump steam
effective exposure
enzymatic synthetic
equitable defenses
evaporant ion source
fixed quantity weight
flow limit (yield point)
for one's own sake
geminated tooth
Gretz rectifier
hardin-simmons
hatefest
Helcionellacea
impulse shopping
include file
indie-dances
inductive drop
initial excitation system response
inner-tube core lifter
iris repositor
judgement means
jug up
konosirus punctatus
Lavoisierian
lightning arrester
lii
littlewit
Long Cay
luminous vapor trail
magnolia dawsoniana rehd. & wils.
maintien
many-group calculation
maradonas
microwave meteorology
multilevel algorithm
neutral tone
no load power consumed by transformer
non-contradictions
non-exchanger
non-violences
nonpresentational
orbital attitude and maneuver system
os1
paijanne l.
paper-type
parameter stack
pastry doughs
photographic tape
plugging uterine
polygama
post-emergence application
prestressed pile
redwood national parks
role transition
sadegh
sampling circuit
scale stone
scandalizations
schedule performance evaluation and review technique
self-communication
sentence position
slipped epiphysis
spore spectra
statutory protection
stelite
stem mother
stepping it up
strain tester
string trimmers
submarine's trimmed surfacing
subsemigroup
super hard alloy
superiority
synthetic rubber tank
tankias
trade debtor account receivable
transaction register
Trévoux
Turin, Shroud of
Tëtkino
unpianistic
varnishment
viscuous
wall impedance