VOA慢速英语2011--Words and Their Stories: Deep Six

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

现在是美国之音慢速英语词汇典故节目。

Sailors seem -- to those of us on land -- to lead exciting, even mysterious lives. Many things are different at sea. Even the language is different.

对陆地上的我们来说，水手引领着精彩甚至神秘的生活。在海上很多东西都是不同的。即使语言也是不同的。

Simple words like "right" and "left" are not the same. On a ship, "right" is "starboard." And "left" is "port."

像"right"和"left"一类简单的单词就有区别。在船上，"right"是右舷，而"left"是左舷。

Sailors are responsible for many colorful English expressions.

水手还代表了许多丰富多彩的英语表达。

One of these is deep-six. It means to hide something or put it where it will not be found. You can also deep-six, or reject a proposal.

其中之一就是deep-six。这个词的意思是藏起什么东西，或把它放到一个永远不会被发现的地方。你也可以deep-six（拒绝）一个建议。

One language expert says that deep six is the bottom of the ocean. "Deep," in this case, means deepest. The "six" in the expression comes from the six feet that make up a fathom 1 -- which is a little less than two meters.

一名语言专家表示，deep six是海洋的底部。在这个词中，Deep意思是最深的，而six来自英寻（fathom），1英寻等于6英尺，略小于2米。

Sailors measure the depth of the water in fathoms 2. Thus, the deep six is the deepest fathom...the final six feet at the bottom of the ocean. A sailor who never wants to see something again will give it the deep-six. He will drop it from the ship to the ocean bottom.

水手们用英寻衡量水深。因此，deep six是指最深的英寻，也就是说海洋底部最后6英尺。水手不想再看到什么东西就会give it the deep-six，也就是说水手会把这个东西从船上扔到海底。

You can deep-six something even if you are not a sailor. All you do is throw it away or put it where it will never be found. You might, for example, deep-six an unplesant letter from a former friend.

即使你不是一名水手，你也可以deep-six某些东西。你要做的就是把它扔掉，或放到一个永远不会被发现的地方。例如，你可以deep-six一封来自以前的朋友的不愉快的信。

Another expression linked to sailing is batten down the hatches. That is what sailors do to prepare their ship for a storm at sea.

和航海相关的另一个短语是batten down the hatches（未雨绸缪）。这是水手们在海上为风暴所要做的准备。

Battens are thin pieces of wood. Hatches are the openings in the deck. Before a storm, sailors cover the hatches with waterproof 3 material. Then they nail on battens to hold the hatch coverings firmly in place. This keeps rain and waves out of the ship.

Battens是指薄木条。Hatches是指甲板上的舱门。在风暴来临前，水手使用防水材料盖好舱门，然后用薄木条把舱门覆盖物钉牢。这样可以防止雨水和海浪进入船舱。

Now, people use the expression to mean to prepare for dealing 4 with any kind of trouble.

现在，人们使用这个短语来表示做好迎接困难的准备。

A news report, for example, might say that people in Washington were battening down the hatches for a big winter storm. Or a newspaper might report that "defense 5 lawyers were 'battening down the hatches' for testimony 6 by someone who observed the crime."

例如，一则新闻报道可以说，华盛顿的人们正准备迎战暴风雪。或者报纸可能报道称 “辩护律师正就目击证人证言进行辩护”。

An old expression of the sailors that is still heard is to sail under false colors. Experts on language say the expression was born more than two hundred fifty years ago, when pirates sailed the seas, attacking and robbing trade ships.

另一句仍能听到的来自水手的老话是to sail under false colors。语言专家表示，这个短语诞生于两百五十多年前，当时海盗横行，袭击和抢劫贸易船只。

Pirate ships often flew the flag of a friendly country as they sailed toward the ship they planned to rob.They sailed under false colors until they were close enough to attack. Then the pirates pulled down the false flag, and showed their true colors. They raised the pirate flag -- with its picture of a skull 7 and crossed bones.

海盗船在向意图抢劫的目标船只行进时，通常悬挂友好国家的旗帜。他们一直挂着这种虚假旗帜，直到他们足够靠近对目标船只发起袭击。然后，海盗们降下虚假旗帜，秀出他们的真实旗帜。他们升上骷髅头和交叉骨头图案的海盗旗。

Today, a person, not a ship, is said to sail under false colors. Such a person appears to be something he is not. His purpose is to get something from you. If you are careful, you will soon see his true colors, and have nothing to do with him.

今天，一个人被称作是to sail under false colors，意思是这种人虚假。他的目的是从你这获得某些东西。如果你很谨慎，你很快就会看到他的真面目，不会与他产生任何关系。