时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

我们今天要学的习惯用语都包括这样一个关键词汇,penny。 Penny, 大家可能早就知道penny这个词是分币,是美国货币中价值最低的单位,如今几乎人人都不把penny放眼里。然而今天要学的第一个习惯用语却出现在和目前情况大不相同的好几百年前,它是: a pretty penny。 几百年前人们还是把penny当回事儿的,这里pretty也不是在说“漂亮”,而是指“大量”。我们还是通过一个例子来推测习惯用语a pretty penny是什么意思吧。说话的小伙子中学刚毕业,正在筹划上大学继续深造:


例句-1: I'd like to go to a famous private school, but the tuition 1 is a pretty penny and our family doesn't have that much money. So I'll go to the state university - I can still get a good education there and I'll take out a student loan 2 to help pay the tuition.


他说:他想要上一所名牌私立大学,但是他家可没那么多钱付学费,所以他准备上州立大学,在那儿他仍然能得到很好的教育,而且他将借学生贷款帮助付学费。


他刚才说私立学校的学费是a pretty penny,接着又说他们家可没那么多钱,可见这里的a pretty penny是指好大一笔钱。


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今天要学的第二个习惯用语是: penny ante。 Ante来自拉丁文,意思是“前头,” 或者“先前”。Penny ante出自扑克牌赌博,打牌的人在发牌前就得把大家商定的钱数先放到牌桌中央。这就是下头注,头注的英文就是ante,头注的钱和牌局中押的赌注最后统统都归赢家。而一个penny是小得不能再小的赌注,所以要是牌友扔到桌面上的头注是一个penny,也就是penny ante,那意味他们打牌纯粹为了消遣,而不是在认真地赌输赢。随着时日的推移penny ante从牌桌而被广泛沿用到生活的其它方面去了。


我们听个例子来体会penny ante这个习惯用语指什么吧。有位先生要来告诉我们他朋友Lee的事业成功之路,Lee从不起眼的夫妻老婆店起家,几年里创下了可观的家业。我们听听他是怎么发迹的:




例句-2:Lee opened a penny-ante Asian noodle shop - only six tables with his wife as cook and himself as waiter. But the noodles were delicious and cheap, and a few years later he had six large restaurants around town and a lot of money in the bank.


他说:Lee开了家亚洲面馆,里面只有六张桌子,厨师是他太太而他自己就是服务员。但是那儿的面条价廉物美,所以几年后他在城里各处开了六家大饭馆,银行里也有了大笔存款。


他说Lee当初开的是a penny-ante Asian noodle shop,这家馆子只有六张桌子,里里外外就他夫妇俩照应,可见这馆子的规模很小,所以这里习惯用语 penny-ante 意思就是“小本经营的”。这里的penny-ante描述noodle shop,是形容词,所以penny和ante之间由连词符号相连。


Penny-ante当形容词的时候不仅可以解释为“小本经营的”,还可以解释为“微薄的”,例如: a penny-ante salary, 就是一份微薄的薪金。 Penny ante还可以作为名词短语,指无关紧要的事情。Penny ante作为名词短语中间没有连词符号。


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今天要学的第三个习惯用语是:pennies from heaven。 Pennies from heaven这个习惯用语从一部也许已被人遗忘的电影片名Pennies from Heaven而风行起来。


这个片名又来自大明星兼名歌星Bing Crosby演唱的一首电影插曲。Bing Crosby在歌里这样唱:When it rains, it rains pennies from heaven, 含义是: 下雨是从天而降的福分,因为雨露滋润,禾苗成长,农民能有好收成,收入也就丰富了。


我们听个例子来领会pennies from heaven这个习惯用语的确切含义吧。这位先生在说他妹妹Sally最近意外地交了次好运。


例句-3:Sally found this old painting that had been in the attic 3 for many years. She took it to an art dealer 4 who said it was by a well-known painter she'd never heard of. He paid her $5000 for it - it was a real case of pennies from heaven.


他说:Sally从顶楼上找到放了多年的旧画,她把这幅画拿给画商。这个画商说,那是名画家的手笔,可是 Sally却从没听说过这位画家。画商付了Sally五千美元买下了这画。这可真是从天而降的意外收获。


显然Sally做梦也没想到这幅多年在顶楼上积灰的画竟然是名家手笔,给她换来了五千美元。可见这里的习惯用语pennies from heaven是在说意外的好运,相当于中文的“福从天至”。

 



n.(某一学科的)教学,讲授,指导,学费
  • Students can apply for individual tuition.学生可以申请个别指导。
  • Is this money enough for the tuition fee?这些钱交学费够吗?
n.贷款;借出的东西;借;vt.借出;贷予
  • I asked the bank to help me with a loan.我请银行给我一笔贷款。
  • Has the bank okayed your request for a loan?银行批准你的贷款要求了吗?
n.顶楼,屋顶室
  • Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
  • What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理?
n.商人,贩子
  • The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
  • The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。
学英语单词
a fair deal
a land of milk and honey
absorption stage
allocation
antipyetics
bead-jointed
bikings
bone a fish
boring life
brodas
Buchholtz relay
Caledonides
cam surface
clival
commitment time
concrete hollow block
containment air cleaning system
cymbidium pumilum rolfe
deficit statement
demand chart
do sb. harm
do your very best
flowering maple
four-pagest
frame slip
freshwater ecosystem
friction nonlinearity
game shows
good-neighborliness
have way on
hollow-cone type nozzle
hot fix
ILAB
improper convex function
in and out works
inscribest
international computation center (icc)
iso rhothophilus
jun-yusho
kresamine
later-
layover time
lerambert
lived for
Livigno
Londoko
luys
major diameter relief
mannosylated
mining room and pillar
Muaragusung
much-misseds
mud cleaner
multistrand mill
nauticas
neptamustine
network control unit
overpublishes
overregarded
packing stick
parricides
pegma
periocular
permeabilizer
phytophthora polygoni
Picón, Cerro
Plekhany
prion protein
protective circuit
pupil-led
quaternary ammonium chloride
retreading of tyre
return on investment
reversed phase column
rocked blade
sans-culottides
screw stay bolt
self-refrigeration
shoo-in
shotput
slaphappiness
social value function
solid-solid interfaces
spontaneous oxidation
steering diode
Stereobelt
suck ... brains
swing door
take off
temposulfan
thabane
the Laffer Curve
to take something with a grain of salt
to televise
tremulas
uranoids
uropyxis arisanensis
us you
veritest
wavy-edge disk
wetproofing
Woosterism