时间:2019-02-02 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

  今天我们要讲的习惯用语都是用来描述刚接手完全生疏的任务,因而急需培训的工作人员。第一个是:greenhorn。 大家也许知道horn 1是动物头上长的角。像鹿和牛之类的动物都有角,而这些动物在刚出生的时候,它们的角还没有长成,只是头上有日后会长成角的基部,带有不久便会消退的绿色,所以greenhorn是初生动物的标志。

大约在二百五十年前,人们开始用greenhorn来指刚入伍的年轻新兵。他们当然对军事技能一无所知。若干年后,人们又用greenhorn来描述刚下船来到纽约的新移民,被嘈杂纷乱的大都会弄得晕头转向。而如今greenhorn指的是什么样的人呢? 我们听个例子吧。

例句-1:This new kid is a real greenhorn so I asked him to go get me a left-handed 2 hammer 3. It sure was funny: he went around asking everybody for such a tool. It took him two hours to realize there isn't any such thing.

他说:他要那新来的小伙子为他取一把左手用的锤子。他说好笑的是那小伙子到处找人打听这样的工具。他整整花了两小时才弄清根本就没什么左手用的锤子。

可见这孩子是个毫无经验的新手,所以才会中了老工人的圈套。这里的greenhorn是指毫无工作经验的新手。

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我们再学个有类似意思的习惯用语: tenderfoot。 Tender有软弱的意思,所以tenderfoot要是直译就是脚软的。

这个习惯用法来自1849年加州的淘金热时代。当时东部城镇的大批各种行业的人都纷纷横跨美国,蜂拥到加州去圆他们的发财梦。这些城里人压根儿不了解当年西部荒野的生活。他们更没想到去加州的路上必须跋山涉水,日复一日地徒步翻越崎岖的山路,简直得走断了腿脚。

当他们终于到达到目的地时多半已经累得走路又瘸又拐的了。本地人看到这些外来客这付双脚无力的狼狈相,就把他们称为tenderfoot,逐渐tenderfoot成了初来乍到还不适应环境的人的代号。

我们听个例子,这人在说带邻居去野外山地的河上钓鱼的经历。

例句-2:A big mistake - all he did was complain about cooking over a campfire and sleeping in a tent with no electricity 4 and no television. This guy turned out to be a real tenderfoot.

他说:我犯了个大错,他除了抱怨篝火上做饭,睡没电没电视的帐篷之外,什么都没干。这家伙原来真是对野外生活毫无经验。

这里的tenderfoot是指对某种环境毫无经验的生手。

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再来学个意义相近的习惯用语: wet behind the ears。 Wet behind the ears如果直译: 耳朵背后是潮的。这个习惯用语流行至今差不多有一个世纪了。它可能来自这样的说法: 小马、小牛刚生下来的时候全身湿漉漉的;别的地方很快会干,但是耳朵背后却还是湿的。所以说某人耳朵背后是潮的,是把这人比作刚生下不久的婴儿了。

换句话说就是他简直像新生儿一般幼稚无知。我们来听个例子。这回是一位电脑软件专家在对上级说他不能使用他们专为一个重要项目雇佣的那名新员工,因为那人毫无工作经验。

例句-3:I'm telling you, Ed, this guy is still wet behind the ears - he has no idea of how to even start the job. Why, my nine-year old daughter knows more about computers than he does!

他说:我跟你说,Ed,这个人简直乳臭未干,他甚至连这工作怎么着手干都不知道。嘿,我九岁女儿对电脑的了解都比他要多。

这里的wet behind the ears,相当于中文里的“乳臭未干的,” 用来形容某人幼稚无知。



n.号角;警报器;角
  • This horn is out of tune.这小号音调不正。
  • He played the tune on the horn.他用号吹奏了这首曲子。
adj.左手的;用左手的
  • She played left-handed to give her opponent a fair chance.她用左手进行比赛以给对手一个较大的机会。
  • If you do most things with your left hand, you are left-handed.如果你用左手做大部分事情,你就是左撇子。
n.锤,榔头v.锤击,敲打
  • Please pass me the hammer.请把榔头递给我。
  • Please hold this hammer for a moment.请帮我拿一会儿锤子。
n.电;电学
  • This room is lighted by electricity.这个房间用电照明。
  • We use electricity to run machines.我们使用电力来运行机器。
学英语单词
a. perinealis
accrued charge
acoustic magnetic mine
adlecting
administration of internal affairs
Aflogualnum
ai chi
alternative procedure
ampholite
art and part
artificial caving
assidue
base of petroleum
black cottonwood
blue-green bacterium
bursting speed
cascading down
centricdiatom
cloud-bases
complementary scale
consistorial
conventional-arms
counter-cast
Crista sacralis intermedia
Cynwyl Elfed
Daphne holosericea
departmental arrangement and distribution in commodity stock
Direct Copper Blue 2R
disinflations
drip channel
event oriented simulation
eye-serve
factorization method
facular
Fentathienil
flower
geomagnetic periodic variation
go yachting.
group demodulator filter
harpending
hepatitis sequestrans
information management program
initial overburden pressure
insulation varnish
intrapore
inverse beta process
journal box lid hinge
lanatest
light pressure separator
Lothair
megalodiscs
merry-go-round
monoethanolamine(surfactant)
moving current-weighted Passche indexes
neutralizing water tank
new staff
Nihon-maru
non-specified-time relay
nuclear quadrupole spectrum
oil pressure switch
one-cancels-the-other order
orbit maneuver engine
output transfer function
Pare's suture
plain shank
plant hole
poikilosmotic character
preregeneration
progressive wave
pushback
put somebody up to
RCITR
reducing capacity
reductive alkylation
regional index call warrant
RFRNA
Rhodiola wallichiana
Richardson's ground squirrel
rosette phyllotaxy
semi-tractor
sexlessnesses
sgd.
shell tuck
sickling diathesis
simple deterministic language
spaces out
spantik
spread back
sugarcane top
system of gravitational unit
tea-tree
telephone bills
tiled mode
use test
vendibler
vertical decomposition
voltage and frequency response
wear plate
Y ligament
Yang Shiying
zori