时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:实用英语


英语课

 一大早,同事就来抱怨:“我本想办一个小型的私人聚会,没想到老婆把该请的、不该请的全请来了!” 呵呵,“这该请的,不该请的”该如何用英语来表达呢?看好了!“Every Tom, Dick and Harry 1”。


当然,这里的“Tom,Dick and Harry”泛指的是普通人,有点象汉语里的“张三、李四、王二”。不过,在用法上,这一表达更含有蔑视意,特指“非常非常一般、毫无半点建树的普通人”,如:Every Tom, Dick and Harry is qualified 2 to do the job.(这活儿谁都能干!)
究其渊源,“every Tom, Dick and Harry”最早可追溯到莎翁的戏剧,不过,他老人家当时仅用“Francis(弗朗西斯)”一个人名来代指“无足轻重的小人物”。到了19世纪,由于“Harry”成了极其普遍的“大众名”,人们于是开始用“Harry”、外加“Tom”和“Dick”,来指代“受人轻视的普通人”。
话题讲到此也该画上句号了。不过,同事那句抱怨话可得记着如何表达哦,说不定下次你也用的上:“I wanted this to be a small, private party, but my wife invited every Tom, Dick and Harry.”

1 harry
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
2 qualified
adj.合格的,有资格的,胜任的,有限制的
  • He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
  • We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。
标签: 口语
学英语单词
active fuel
advanced degree
Ajana
arthur laffers
artificial weathering aging
azidoglycosides
bantung
battery-park
bergia ammannioides
Block Island
blockade mine
bronchomediastinal trunk
bulk volume
cellular partition
clutch bolt
consumption plate boundary
cowardness
cruellty
csapp
current-time curve
Cyperquat
deglobalizing
Donizettian
dorotik
dressing of turnning green stage
ecological deficit
epulofibroma
etkin
European lemming
factor-price equalization theorem
family Lythraceae
feoffing
fertigations
first contact of umbra
fly-wheel generator
fracture mode
friendly relationship
gorgeousness
hacker-proof
half-timber house
high frequency ceramic soldering machine
high salary
higher aliphatic hydrocarbon
homologous tumors
hydrelytron
in forma pau, pe, ris
in the dog box
Indian Village
intrapsychical
lensectomy
Light-emitting diode printer
low-radiation
manni
MDAPE
mordanted
myodynamian
nedders
negrolike
neutron scatter plug
ntr.
nutritorium
observation equation
organizational mission
out of sb.'s line
oxidisations
oxygen laser
pancreectomies
phukets
pink-and-green
polar anisotropy
projectile nose
protruding bow warining
purchaser in good faith
racerlike
real time communications
richard kuhns
run of block
s'mores
secret language telegram
servoflaps
shizu
slotted stator
sock it to sb
solid resistance
sombrero
stage efficiency
sulfofatty acid salt
superseminate
swamp blue berry
the beautiful people
three-port connection valve
tokenised
trisubstituted carbinol
turdus
two-bit algorithm
unformat
waveness
wet expansion
wood scaler
wrist pin end
Wrotham