时间:2019-02-16 作者:英语课 分类:美国习惯用语


英语课

我们上次讲了好几个来自海员生活的习惯用语。今天我们还要讲几个来自海员却被一般人采纳的习惯用语。过去,船只前进靠的不是发动机而是风吹船帆。船帆是sail,所以水手跟船帆结下不解之缘。


水手之间也因而流行不少从sail发展来的习惯用语。尽管帆船航运已是陈年往事,但是这些习惯用语却流传至今。


我们先要学的是:trim one's sails。 Trim在这里的意思是调整船帆以适应风向变化。如今这个习惯用语已经被用在跟操纵船帆不相干的各种事务。我们要听的例子把它用在竞争激烈的竞选活动中:


例句-1:First this candidate said he wanted to cut social security. But when he saw most voters were against such cuts, he quickly trimmed his sails and completely changed his position.


这位候选人起先要削减社会福利,但是当他看到大多数选民都反对这样做,他的立场就立刻来个一百八十度的转向。


他显然是为了顺应人心而改变立场以便争取更多选票,所以习惯用语trim one's sails, 意思是为适应不同情况而改变观念行动,其实中国有一句类似的成语就是“见风使舵。”


******


我们再学个由船帆发展而来的习惯用语:take the wind out of one's sails。 Take the wind out of one's sails这个习惯用语的出典是故意用自己的船去挡敌船的风。敌船上的帆吃不到风,速度当然就会减慢。


这个习惯用语同样也被广泛应用在其它场合。我们听个例子来体会它的含义。这是有关谋杀案嫌疑犯的审判的:


例句-2:This man's lawyer claimed he'd been out of town that day. But the prosecutor 1 took the wind out of his sails by calling witnesses who saw him at the scene just before the killing 2.


这人的律师申辩说:他案发那天不在当地。但是检方传唤证人作证,在谋杀发生前不久还见到他在现场。


这当然把被告置于不利地位,使他无可抵赖了。所以习惯用语take the wind out of one's sails意思是把某人置于不利地位,或者使他无可申辩。


******


我们再学一个词的习惯用法:scuttlebutt。 Scuttlebutt原来是船上装供船员饮用的淡水的大桶或者甲板上的饮水柜台。水手们往往聚集在scuttlebutt周围边喝水边说长道短地闲聊。


现代化的办公室也一样。饮水池周围常常是小道新闻或者谣言的发源地。Scuttlebutt这个词逐渐被用来指闲话或谣言了。我们来听个例子吧:


例句-3:Say, have you heard the latest scuttlebutt? Somebody upstairs has this rumor 3 that we didn't get that new contract so the company is going to have to lay off at least fifty people.


他说:嘿,你听到最新小道消息了吗?来自高层的谣言说,我们没争取到那新合同,所以至少必须解雇五十个人。


这里的scuttlebutt就是流言蜚语。


******


最后再学一个出自水手的习惯用语:loose cannon 4。 Cannon是炮,以前航船上的大炮是安在下面有轮子的炮座上的,以便移动方位。炮座通常用绳子固定在甲板上,但是一旦绳子在作战时或者风暴中断了,松动的大炮,也就是loose cannon会在甲板上四处滚动,给甲板上所有的人带来严重危险。现在loose cannon已被用在日常生活中。


我们听个例子。一位参议员想录用一名新闻发言人,但是深得他信任的一位顾问却向他提出忠告:


例句-4:I don't think Bob is the right man for the job. He's smart but he's a loose cannon -- he opens his mouth without thinking, and you never know what he might say.


他认为Bob不适合当新闻发言人; Bob虽然聪明但是说话不加思考,你永远吃不准他会说出什么话来。


当然像这样口没遮拦的人要是去向记者发表谈话,随时可能把事情搞砸;尽管他并非别有用心,却构成了潜在危险。所以loose cannon用来指那种由于口没遮拦,所以会在无意中造成损害的人。

 



n.起诉人;检察官,公诉人
  • The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
  • The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
n.谣言,谣传,传说
  • The rumor has been traced back to a bad man.那谣言经追查是个坏人造的。
  • The rumor has taken air.谣言流传开了。
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮
  • The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
  • The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。
学英语单词
aberrant cycle
absolute frequencies
actual dishonour
Ae.E.
allelgic asthma
arteria renalis
atemporality
automatic system initiation
Back water!
bimoment
blastclastic
borrowing venture
building hardware factory
busie
caldron
censored sample
cherkassy (cherkasy)
citrus obovoidea hort ex takahashi
coming under
corn-snake
cotton prints
cowntewery
cumi-cumi
cyanopindolol
Cycloheterophyllin
Cyclomet
dcvb
deer-skin
desulfitobacterium
directional antenna
dossie
driven element
Earlton
electromotive robot
epiplasm
epoxy spray coating machine
fantasizers
farmland shelter forest
fibre optic faced tube
foreordinated
freel
fullycharged
gazebolike
genitalization
geothermal exploration
ground unit
handpicks
hard-gloss paint
hebin
Hetaeria elongata
high flux heater
holcom
horsejockey
howrahs
human performance times (hpt)
hypomelanoses
impermissive
issue identification
Kochmes
kr.
labor health
light excitation
MEDINET-D
mill head assay
ministry of economic affairs
Mister nice-guy
moor light
N-9
neptunium
nunez
options trading exchange participant
Ouatagouna
overall treatment time
pencil-necks
personal error
porefield
radio frequency relay
read zero
recording supervisor
regulating ring
safety monkey
scale peripheral associated cells
servo swap
shooting through
skenoscop
snow swamp
soap shaving machine
soopolallie
spaced boarding
Sphenophyllales
Spinachitina
stalin (donetsk)
sulphonphthalein
tail shealth
take the arm
tanker airplane
tourings
universal stimulus display instrument
unlawful oath
vacking
well-sifted
worm drive