时间:2019-02-26 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有一个共同的词,monkey。也许大家都熟悉这个词。它的意思是猴子。说到猴子人们就会想到它上窜下跳、好动不安分的样子。我们要学的第一个习惯用语跟猴子这个特点有关: monkey around。 Monkey around这个习惯用语里monkey是当动词用的。我们见到猴子老在东蹦西跳、攀上爬下似乎忙得不亦乐乎,却又搞不出个名堂来。这个习惯用语的出典就在这儿。它可以用来指有些人老爱干些无聊的事儿;他们乐在其中,却是徒劳无益。例如有这样一个小伙子Bob:


例句-1:Bob spends his time monkeying around with his friends in a shopping mall, just standing 1 there talking and watching the girls walk by.


Bob这人够无聊的,老是跟朋友一块站在商场里闲聊,并张望走过的那些女孩儿。


这里的monkey around意思就是做无聊事儿。但是有时候monkey around表示的意思比无聊还要严重。比方说在下面的例子里。这是一个朋友在忠告他的大学同学:别追错了女朋友。


例句-2:Pete, I've got to tell you: you're asking for big trouble when you monkey around with that girl -- you know she's engaged to that tough football player, and I hear he has a hot temper 2.


他说:Pete, 我得告诉你:你围著那女孩团团转可是在自找麻烦。知道吗?那女孩已经跟那厉害的足球运动员订了婚,听说她未婚夫是个火爆性子。


那位小姐已经名花有主,跟足球队员订了婚,但是Pete却还对她献殷勤,看来这不仅徒劳无益处,还会惹麻烦。可见这里的monkey around含义是所作所为不仅毫无意义,而且还会惹是生非。


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我们接著要学的习惯用语和monkey around意义相互关连。它是:monkey business。 Monkey business常常指那些毫无意思的胡闹行为,但是有时它还可以用来说一些性质更为严重的行为。例如在下面的例子里:


例句-3:The newspapers say there's a lot of monkey business going on at City Hall these days with officials getting money under the table from people who want the contract to build the new airport.


他说:报界揭露了市府近来发生的欺诈勾当,官员暗中从那些想承包新机场建筑工程的人手里收受贿赂。


这里的monkey business指的是市府官员受贿的事情,可见monkey business不仅可以用来说胡闹举止,也可以指包括受贿、贪污等不法行为在内的胡做非为。


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我们再来学个习惯用语: monkey wrench 3。 Monkey wrench是活动扳手;一种手工工具。那是一副可以调节的钳子以便夹住不同尺寸的螺帽把它旋到相配的螺钉上去。而习惯用语monkey wrench另有一层特殊意思,就是破坏一项计划或者行动的东西。为什么会用monkey wrench来表示这样的意思呢?


有一种说法是想破坏机器的人把monkey wrench丢进机器里,机器当然就卡住不能运转了, monkey wrench起了破坏作用。这也许就是这个习惯用语的出典。


我们来听个例子。这是个办公室工作人员在告诉他的朋友发生了什么出乎意料的情况破坏了他先前的安排和打算。好,我们来听这段话吧。


例句-4:All week I'd planned to leave work early to go to the ball game. But the boss just threw a monkey wrench into my plans -- he asked me to stay late to finish up a special report for him.


他说:整整一星期我都在打算要早点儿下班去看那场球赛。但是我那老板却把我的全盘计划都打翻了;他要我加班为他写完一份特别报告。


这里threw a monkey wrench into my plans意思是破坏了我的计划,而monkey wrench就是造成破坏的事情。

 



n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
n.恶劣的心情,心绪焦躁;性情,脾气
  • The man lost his temper and struck out wildly.那人因发怒而大打出手。
  • One day the man flew at me in a temper.一天,那个人冲着我大发脾气。
v.猛拧;挣脱;使扭伤;n.扳手;痛苦,难受
  • He gave a wrench to his ankle when he jumped down.他跳下去的时候扭伤了足踝。
  • It was a wrench to leave the old home.离开这个老家非常痛苦。
学英语单词
acid-carbonate
al qahirah (cairo)
Alemli
angeloylfuranofukinol
backstairs intrigue
barterable
benippled
beweapons
bus insurance
charabanc
childhood aphasia
CLHE
cold food pantry
colocalisation
common boneset
common licence
corrupcion
cross countries
cross-country skiing
crystal vessel
cupric fluoride
Diksonskiy Rayon
distributing valve board
double-beam oscillograph
drawbeam
dry foot
EAggEC
electroelute
endodermoreaction
enjoyee
eschewal
extension reflex
ezekiass
filter expresser
Flying Scotsman
gadolinia
genus sennas
gergon
get sth out
good natures
Harmonized Description Coding System
highwater marking
hirings
hot-bath quench aging
i was wondering
lame-ducks
laughed my ass off
liquid monomer plastic
maids
Manx cat
melanoderma toxica
Microzamia
modern cybernetics
mountain phlox
negative going
nonlead
octopodes
papillary epithelioma
perichareia
periodic merit rating
phenylmercuric hydroxide
place-brick
Placido's disk
PNID
polydystrophic
pyrometer lamp
radionavigation tailbuoy
robbo
rock craft
rossmen
scrapped vessel
scutle
secondary mouth
see no evil
severe burn
shaw
single-end user
slobbers
small particle contamination
smp (scanning microscope photometer)
son vertex
specialized capital goods
spywares
start-finish
Stoby
stream of people
sulfidize
sun yat - sen university
test ring
tetragnatha ceylonica
thermal conversion
thiazidelike
tonify the kidney to arrest spontaneous emission
toralizumab
tuberculosis of scrotum
tuberculous bacillemia
unemolumented
upper middle class
vitrics
Weston standard cadmium cell
what's your problem
wine-shipper