时间:2018-12-08 作者:英语课 分类:Modern English 洋话连篇


英语课

  Turn the table

  一位亲戚和妻子失和到了要离婚的地步。几天前接到亲戚电话,说他们在走进律师楼之前,先去求助于心理和婚姻问题专家。夫妇俩心平气和地坐下来谈了好多次,互相之间多了一份理解,少了一份猜疑、埋怨,结果化干戈为玉帛。说简单也简单,就这么拯救了这场婚姻。

  我打心眼里为他们高兴,把这一消息告诉了同样也认识他们的一位美国朋友。这位朋友挺激动的,连连说着"感谢上帝,感谢上帝",她还补充了一句"He turned the table"。

  这话让我心里很不舒服,她是指我亲戚动粗吗?我打抱不平说:"不会,不会,他很斯文,很有绅士风度,不会以粗鲁的举动压制对方,不会以高压让对方屈从。"

  结果,越说谁也听不懂谁。看着我那一脸不快的表情,朋友突然茅塞頓开了,以另一种方法向我解释。终于让我明白,她是说我亲戚"扭转了局面",那"table"和我想到的"桌子"根本无关。

  再说远一点, turn the tables (on someone)这个短语也和桌子没什么关系,它的意思是to suddenly take a position of strength or advantage that was formerly 1 held by someone else (反败为胜,转弱为强),例如: "She played badly in the first set, but then she turned the tables on her opponent and won the match.


1 formerly
adv.从前,以前
  • We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
  • This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。
学英语单词
2-Nonacosanone
6-azauridine
abdelas
affine strain
ancient mud flow
anterior ciliary arteries
antipyrine chloral
asomatic acardius
asymmetrical side-band transmission
audientiary
back pressure governor
behavio(u)r psychology
bismuthines
bob knob
cayles
chain knot
circuit voltage stabilizer
climatic stability theory
codirections
communized
concile
continuous apron
coolroom
cross-heading
daphne tangutica maxim.
dived
dumb-heads
elan
electric rock mucker
elm sawfly
epigraphs
fabricated structure
facsimile teleghph
Federz
fluxline corrosion
frankton
freight outwards
from choice
fuel lag
gas sampler
generated data
gesturism
glut-glut
Goomeri
gorog
haltingly
helicteres isoras
high differential flow
high pressure blowpipe
high-rater
hold someone in the palm of one's hand
horks
in face of
inequigranular
Institute Strikes Clause
isovists
KGD
Kilimanjaro, Mount
long-range oblique photography
LSMR
maintenance of capital
mean-time clock
mecopteran
melanocytoma of optic disc
molecular equilibrium
mosquito-craft
mwadhini
N-propylnoraporphine
nacelle cover
notice of title
oriented fiber reinforced composite
pack-staff
parochializing
pitch of rivets
Plant-food
private-letter
prothallial
quantitative colo(u)r base method
repair of adult umbilical hernia
rim seal
road asphalt tar or oil
santene
semiaxial thrust
Shentoo's line
short wave broadcasting
six-lined racerunners
spellable
sporadic migration
stochastic regime
streptococcus dysgalatiae
suitemate
Synostemon
terminal interference voltage
three in one drawbar
thrustanemometer
tiltings
tricyclist
trypanthrin
twin-boom aircraft
twin-fuselage configuration
ununiformed
vane copying milling machine