时间:2019-02-03 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

今天我们要学几个有turn这个词的习惯用语。Turn是个很普通的词。它当动词的时候意思就是转动。我们要学的第一个习惯用语是: turn tail。 Tail是尾巴,猫或狗在面临什么威胁的时候,往往会调头就走。换句话说是把尾巴转向令它害怕的一方,逃之夭夭。


这也许就是turn tail这个习惯用语的出典。让我们听个例子来体会turn tail究竟是什么意思。这是个男孩儿在说当校里的小霸王威胁要揍他一顿的时候发生了什么。


例句-1:When this bully 1 saw my big brother, Tom, he turned tail and ran. I don't think he'll bother me again. You know, I'm really proud of Tom -- some day I hope I'll be as big and strong as he is.


他说:这个小霸王一看到我的老大哥Tom掉转头来就一溜烟地逃走了。我想他再也不会来找我麻烦了。你知道我可真为Tom大哥骄傲,但愿我有一天也能像他那样高大强壮。


小霸王看到高大强壮的Tom自知不是他的对手,为了别招惹麻烦灰溜溜地转身逃走了,所以这里的turn tail意思就是逃避麻烦或者困难。这个习惯用语有点像中文的俗话:夹著尾巴逃跑了。


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我们再学一个习惯用语: turn one's head。在这儿turn意思是转变,head指的是头脑思想,所以turn one's head直译就是改变人的头脑思想。好,让我们通过一个例子来体会turn one's head含义究竟是什么。


例句-2:Her big inheritance really turned Mary's head. She used to be very friendly and modest. But now she's changed a lot. She snubs old friends and only mixes these days with other rich people.


他说:Mary以前为人友善谦和,但是自从继承一大笔遗产之后一反既往,她冷落老朋友,只跟那些有钱人交往。


Mary向来平易近人,而发财后却变得虚荣势利。这是金钱在作怪:利令智昏;所以这里的turn one's head解释被某种好运冲昏了头脑。


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我们再学一个习惯用语: turn over a new leaf。 Leaf在这儿解释书本的一页,所以turn over a new leaf,按照字面意思来解释就是“翻开新的一页”。其实这个说法在中文里也比较常用,所以中国听众并不难以理解这个习惯用语的比喻意义。它用来说“有焕然一新的开端”,也可以指某人改过自新,或者思想观念上的破旧立新。


这是一个相当古老的习惯用语。人们从十六世纪起就开始使用这个习惯用语了。我们来听个例子。这是一位老师在为调皮捣蛋的学生George近来大有进步而感到惊喜。


例句-3:I really hope this is the real thing! George turned over a new leaf this week, and stopped disturbing the class -- no more fighting or bothering the other students! I only hope it lasts!


他说:我可真盼望这回George确实改过了。这星期来George面目一新;他再也不在班级里惹是生非,他竟然不再打架,也没有招惹其他同学!我唯一的愿望是这种好现象能长久维持下去。


George的品行发生了令人惊讶的变化。他过去老是在班上捣乱,跟同学吵架,到处惹事。但是这星期来他却一反既往,乖乖地不吵也不闹。所以老师说他turned over a new leaf, 意思是行为改过自新。可见习惯用语turned over a new leaf含义就是有一个崭新的开端。

 



n.恃强欺弱者,小流氓;vt.威胁,欺侮
  • A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
  • The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。
学英语单词
?-subunit
Acanthephippium sinense
amilorides
analytical geometry of space
Association of Oil Pipe Lines
at the furthest
automobilists
balanced incomplete type
Bartica
beautiness
bocion
bockwurst sausage
brownell
build up to
calorimotor
carrottop
caveator
continuity coefficient
core cavitation
correction and compensation device
counterextortion
cultural diffusions
Dactyloctenium aegyptium
Dazoxibin
DBMS drivers
dead water zone
dialling tones
dietary antigen
diguanidinobutanase
eclipsing star
Elliont type knuckle
equilibrium, temperature
erythrocythaemic
fdp management science
fruitshop
gear in train
grey-back
high quartz solid solution
hooking pass
Hungarian grass
incendiary leaf
incumbent upon
India lawn
iridium sulfite
j-invariant of elliptic curve
kulm
laid siege
lift distribution
low-order
major first face
meadow ferns
mid-latitudes
midget
multicolor emission
multident
multiviscosity oil
Ngoc My
non-independent accounting unit
nonweekly
objective force level
Okawville
P-T region
Pedicularis dolichoglossa
photoactive reaction
pipe valve tray
pointwise ergodic theorem
prolific writer
quinonyl
quotation board
rapid scanning spectrometer
rational form
reinforcement bending shed
remines
repressibility
riveros
Sena, R.
send back system
send sb into bankrupt
side toppling
startscummers
stiede
Stiegel, Henry William
stove drying
stress in beam
suirs
swab man
sweat over sth
swept
tabards
Take someone to the woodshed
Terezinha
theory of matrices
thiofuradene
tropical automatic weather station
tropicalist
tulie
ultrasonic cell disintegration
unirrigated soil
unlight
vieulence alteration
wage drift
wave length-ship length ratio