时间:2019-01-16 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来自飞机的航行。五十年前乘飞机是件惊天动地的大事,但是今天坐飞机旅行已相当于家常便饭了。美国各航空公司每天都要载运一百多万名旅客。航空事业如今这样发达的一个原因是有了无线电导航系统,但是过去在没有无线电航空信标、雷达和空中交通管制人员的时候,飞行员是怎么寻找航线的呢?他是观看地面上的铁路轨道、河流和其它陆地标记来决定航线和航向的。但是如果他穿入云层或者雨区,地面上的东西被云雾遮挡什么都看不清了,那又怎么办呢?这时飞行员就只得根据自己的直感来猜测他座下的飞机该是在什么方位了。由此而产生了这个习惯用语: fly by the seat of one's pants。



大家也许早就知道pants是裤子,而seat在这儿是指裤子接触座位的部分。也就是裤子的臀部。飞行员的裤子当然不能为他的航向提供指点,fly by the seat of one's pants其实是说他在茫无依据的情况下只得凭直觉猜测他座下的飞机该往哪儿开。这个习惯用语如今被用作比喻意义。我们来听个例子。这是个美国企业家在说他去越南开办企业的经历。



例句-1:When I set up business in Vietnam 1 I had to fly by the seat of my pants. I didn't know anybody, couldn't speak the language and had to learn the local business situation in a hurry.



他说:他在越南开办企业的时候,既不认识任何人,也不会说越南话,还得在短促的时间里了解当地的商业形势。



换句话说他是在毫无客观依傍、茫无头绪的情况下硬著头皮上马,摸索行事的。所以to fly by the seat of one's pants解释在没有客观依据、茫无头绪的情况下只得摸索行事。



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有时候fly by the seat of one's pants实在困难重重,要是飞行员正在云雾中晕头转向的当口上汽油又消耗完了,或者引擎偏偏在半空中又出了故障。这时这架飞机会发生什么情况呢?很可能会这样: nose dive。大家也许能猜出nose dive意思是飞机急速下降。这里的nose是机首,也就是飞机头部,dive这里的意思是急降,所以nose dive就是机首向下的急降。换句话说是俯冲。这个习惯用语被广泛应用在航空之外的其它方面。例如股票市场或者商业贸易。我们听个例子来琢磨nose dive可以用来比喻什么。这是一家公司的负责人在谈论他们企业的业务倒退:



例句-2:It's not good news -- our profits took a real nose dive the last couple of months. In fact they're down about 50 percent from the same time last year.



他说:这可不是什么好消息。这几个月来我们的盈利确实直线下降,和去年同期相比下降了几乎百分之五十。



由此可见,nose dive这里可以用来比喻盈利或者价格的直线下降或者暴跌。



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如果一名飞行员无法控制急速下降的飞机、不能令它重新升空,或者在半空中飞机的引擎突然停止运作的话,在这生死关头飞行员要是不想和飞机同归于尽,就得采取什么行动来保全生命呢?他只得这样做了: bail 2 out。你也许已经猜到bail out是跳伞的意思。但是如今bail out用途已经相当广泛,再也不局限于飞行员为了生命安全而弃机跳伞了。



我们来听个例子。说话的人在谈论他有钱的叔叔。



例句-3:My uncle has made millions playing the stock 3 market. But he says it's time to bail out and sell his shares -- the market is as high as it will go, and prices will nose dive by fall.



他说:我叔叔辗战股票市场赚了好几百万,但是他说目前是采取紧急措施、抛出股份的时候了,因为行市已上涨到顶峰,价格到秋天就会暴跌。



大家一定听到这段话里除了用习惯用语bail out之外,还用了nose dive来说股市暴跌。他叔叔是个大玩家,看出股票市场有即将暴跌的危险,就及时撤退,抛出股票,以保住财产,所以这里的bail out意思是采取紧急措施及时脱离困境,或者临危脱险。



n.越南
  • Vietnam is suffering from food shortage.越南正遭受食物短缺之苦。
  • Laos is on the west of Vietnam.老挝在越南西面。
v.舀(水),保释;n.保证金,保释,保释人
  • One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
  • She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。
n.存货,储备;树干;血统;股份;家畜;adj.存货的;平凡的,惯用的;股票的;畜牧的;vt.进货,采购;储存;供给;vi.出新芽;进货
  • The shop takes stock every week on Friday mornings.这家商店每星期五早晨盘点存货。
  • Experts have forecast an upturn in the stock market.专家已预测股票市场价格有上升趋势。
学英语单词
abdominal part
absolutely stable
absorbing state
adrenochromes
aluminium foils
asymmetric transformation
banded stilts
basivertebral vein
battologized
be let in on the ground floor
body feed
Buridan's ass
cash invoice
Chorzelów
chronographer
clip off
combined vibrating roller
compensating feedback loop
conus planorbis
cost objective
cotton production
cylinder by-pass valve
D-frame
data over voice
days of rest
deglamorization
derestrict
dextrotorsion
dispersion-equalization
ditching attitude
Dohans
electrical characteristics
externally-braced monoplane
fall-out of synchronism
forecaddies
golden eagle
Goldstein-Scheerer tests
graduated string
half-hunter
Haplopappus spinulosus
have analogy to
heating system
heliotridylamine
hildebrand
hotlines
hyuck
indirect type central air-conditioning unit
Internet suffix
Izena-jima
Kurdistani
lampyridaes
leukoplania
liquid waste receiver tank
local acceptance
lsi-cml circuit technology
magnetoresistance magnetometer
merions
metal surface plasmon and second harmonic generator
minimum graph
mohs scales
natural environment management
nervi ampullaris lateralis
neverless
occasional light
once and a way
ordinary life assurance
oscillator padding
Osipa
photocell matrix
piston curl
pivot hinge
pontes
prequalified tenderer
puffest
queueing system structure
reflux column
repair of side ditch
Revere, Paul
sample-reset loop filter
Scirpus rosthornii
scornliche
separation of spinal cord and arachnoid adhesions
silicon diode array
sope
speed through the water
stellite-faced valve
Subprime Meltdown
tee-times
toll free number
toroidal discharge
transitive law
trichomonal urethro-cystitis
under constraint
undistributed score
virus diarrhea
waltz through
white cypresses
wide anode
win ... over
Yak-141
yellow-necked mice
zygomorphic pea flower