华尔街英语教你中几个常见的动物习语

网易教育讯 动物习语知多少？华尔街英语解析有关牛、猫狗、马的三大习语。

Are you a Bull in a China Shop?

Your housemaid breaks a set of very expensive cups and dishes in yourhome. Your friend says the maid is like “a bull in a Chinashop.” You areconfused that your friend has described your maid like a bull and says it’s ina Chinese shop. This is an idiom; a phrase that has a different meaning thanwhat it sounds like. “A bull in aChinashop” means that you’re clumsy and breakthings easily. Now that these things are broken, it’s going to cost an arm anda leg to replace them. Don’t worry! You won’t be giving anyone your arm andleg; this just means that it’s going to be very expensive!

（作者：华尔街英语外教Tessa Xioutas）

你是陶瓷店里的一头牛吗？

你的女佣打坏了你家里一套很贵的茶碟套组。你的朋友说你的女佣就像是“瓷器店里的一头牛。”（a bull in a China shop）你很疑惑吧。因为你的女佣被朋友说像一头牛，并且还是在陶瓷店里的一头牛。这是一个英文习语；一个跟习语字面不同意思的短语。“A bull in a China shop”是指那些笨拙而又很容易弄坏的东西。既然东西打破了，就需要花一个“手臂”和一条“腿”来赔偿。不过不用担心！不是真的要你的手臂和腿；这句话的意思是说：赔偿会很昂贵！

（翻译由华尔街英语提供，仅供参考）

It’s Raining Cats and Dogs!

I grew up in London, England. The weather in England is known to be rainyand cold during most months. Some days it’s raining cats and dogs. This doesn’tmean that cats and dogs are falling from the sky! We can use this idiom when wewant to express that it’s raining very hard. Also, we can’t say, “it’s rainingdogs and cats.” So it’s important to ensure correct word-order, otherwise itwon’t make sense!

“A storm is brewing“doesn’t mean there will be a storm; we use this idiomwhen we know there’s going to be trouble. For example: I was late for work. Assoon as I saw my boss’ face I knew that he was angry and a “storm was brewing.”

（作者：华尔街英语外教Tessa Xioutas）

倾盆大雨！

我在伦敦长大。众所周知，一年里的绝大多数时间英格兰的天气都以雨天和冷天为主。某天下起了倾盆大雨（rain cats and dogs）。这不是像字面意思所指的猫跟狗都从天上掉下来了！。当我们想要表达雨下得很大时，我们可以使用这个习语。但是，我们不能说“it’s raining dogs and cats”。保持习语中单词原有的顺序（cats and dogs）是很重要的。不然它就没有意义了。

（翻译由华尔街英语提供，仅供参考）

You shouldn’t look a gift horse in themouth

Before we had luxury items such as theChanel bag or the iPad, giving expensive gifts was a very different story.Before the modern world as we know it people would impress their loved ones orclients by giving them a horse as a gift. This is perhaps the same as buyingsomeone a new car. One way to check the health of a horse is to look insideit’s mouth, but to inspect a gift for it’s quality the second you receive it isconsidered bad manners; so we say ‘you shouldn’t look a gift horse in themouth’.

（作者：华尔街英语外教Cher Reynolds）

嫌东嫌西

在我们拥有例如香奈尔包包或是苹果的平板电脑这样的奢侈品之前，赠送贵重礼物完全是不一样的故事。在现代社会到来之前的那个年代，我们通常会赠送一匹马作为礼物，以博得我们爱的人或者是客户的欢心。这或许跟在现在买一辆新车给某人一样。要检查马的健康一种方式是看它的嘴，但是在收到礼物的当下就立刻检查礼物是被认为不礼貌的行为；因此我们会说“你不应该一收到礼物就检查，还嫌东嫌西的（you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth）。”

（翻译由华尔街英语提供，仅供参考）