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
a wedding
address comparison
after-the-fact approval
ANCOA
azarin
balance desiccator
bluegown
bluehead gig
bootie
broken lot
Buckle, Henry Thomas
Bulbophyllum pingtungense
cahinca
central granite
change ... condition
chinese national standard code by section-position
class-marks
Cobar
counter-timer
cyclic coordinates
Diatoma
die
differential reinforcement
directional effect
discommonize
dorsal commissure
dune morphology
DVD-ROM Drives
EDT, E.D.T., e.d.t.
electron spectrum
elez
extension circuit
family desmodontidaes
fitting arrangement drawing
fleep
for long
gear pair with negative modified centre distance
gielguds
grapetree
Haengxin
hamangioma-hemorrhage
headquarters management
Hesso
hog-baying
Hollinacea
honrar
instant on system
integral curve
jammal
Kenyan monetary unit
keratella valga
Krajian's Conogo stain
maranzano
metagalactic cosmic ray flux
minovine
minus infinity
monochlorotrifluoromethane
Nissen hut
nuclear coordination
Old Man Jenkins
ophthalmoneuritis
outlet stud area
over-thick
pancreatin
paraquedact
passed over
polyabuser
polymastigote
port salut
port service charges
pretensory
program status vector
pyranopterin
queue descriptor
radiative function
remarkables
resonant scattering
reversal interval
San Juan Abajo
setting block/board
spectral-shift reactor
spottiswoode
spring loaded
station service supply
stood pat
sundt
tantalum emitter
teazle
tentpoles
terminal branch
tertiary nitro compounds
thermal design of reactor
top-loaded antenna
tucking frame
upper tail coverts
vinyl solution coating
wachter
watler
whitlas
wydew
Zaangarskoe Plato
Zhuravskoye