“暴雨”英文表达
英语课
请看报道:
An airport spokesman said the torrential downpour caused 144 flights to be canceled and 93 flights delayed for more than an hour at the Beijing Capital International Airport by 9 pm Thursday.
首都国际机场一位发言人称,截至上周四晚9点,这场倾盆大雨导致144架航班被取消,93架航班延误超过一小时。
文中的torrential downpour就是“倾盆大雨”,类似的说法还有drenching downpour、come down in bucket/sheets、rainstorm、cloudburst、a deluge 1 (of rain)等等。暴雨来临前,北京市气象台发布了blue rainstorm warning(暴雨蓝色预警)。
关于大暴雨,还有一种非常形象的说法,就是rain cats and dogs。关于这一习语的起源有这样一种解释:During heavy rains in 17th century England, some city streets became raging rivers of filth 2 carrying many cats and dogs.(17世纪的英格兰在下大雨的时候,一些城市的街道就会水流成河,而且这些污水中还会飘浮着大量的死猫死狗。)
传说诺亚建好方舟后,八个人被带到船上。God shut the door and then the heavens opened and outpoured.(神关上了方舟之门,然后天开了,暴雨哗哗临降。)因此我们现在也用the heavens opened来形容下暴雨了,比如:We were waiting at the bus stop when the heavens opened.
n./vt.洪水,暴雨,使泛滥
- This little stream can become a deluge when it rains heavily.雨大的时候,这条小溪能变作洪流。
- I got caught in the deluge on the way home.我在回家的路上遇到倾盆大雨。
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