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
acceptance trial
acetomycin
administrative controls
administrative skill
alveolar-capillary membrane
amount undercollected
arbit-
ARI (alternate rod insertion)
Bad Bibra
blade loss
bloodmobiles
brisbane quandongs
budger
Burnhaupt-le-Bas
catalytic wet oxidation
Cauto, R.
centrifugal milk homogenization
compensatory errors
compute mode
computer-aided audit
control-flow trace
cornea gumbo
Cricoesophageal
curatrices
dark menses
Dialloy
Diandranthus brevipilus
diiodohydroxyquinoline
DIR COUP
directory hierarchy
dynamo bronze
ectocommensal
Edridge-Green lantern tests
endostomes
Erythronium albidum
european honeysuckles
European Tugowners Association
evidence record keeping authority
fertiloscopies
flexible modular scheduling
flow series
FX-703
gas loadting
GDP-D-MANNOSE
geotechnical index property test
grain drive shifter
gustaves
Hancock, Mount
have a pull
hua hsiang ku
hyper-commutator
in the next breath
inflammasomes
karyosome
kurlelo
limettin
liquid motion
lodde
microfloras
milling groove
miscirculate
monadelphous
moneylending
Morisset
mosaic structure
negating
Noam
nonpathology
opsohypomenorrhea
passing member
penthienate
pole diagram
polynemus indicus
principal commodity
profunds
puntal
querulously
radical of Lie algebra
rainmaker
sal magnesii sulfatis effervescens
Salt March
sialoyl
sound-absorbing cover
special function routine
statistic linearization
statistical copolymer
subtendinous bursae of sartorius muscle
superterrorist
surface search coordinator
swelling soil
tatarkaite
tiktaalik
top-fired kiln
Torrance
trace mineral
transversely isotropic
two-point recorder
two-stage reforming
unembodied
ungainful
weed eradication
XO-type