It comes directly from the person who knows most about the subject and is the best source. Let us say your teacher tells you there is going to be a test tomorrow. You could say you got the information
straight from the horse's mouth
. However, you would not want to call your teacher a horse!
You may have heard this expression:
You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink
. That means you can give someone advice but you cannot force him to do something he does not want to do.
Sometimes a person fights a battle that has been decided or keeps arguing a question that has been settled. We say this is like
beating a dead horse.
In politics, a
dark-horse candidate
is someone who is not well known to the public. Sometimes, a dark horse unexpectedly wins an election.
Another piece of advice is,
do not
change horses in midstream.
You would not want to get off one horse and on to another in the middle of a river. Or make major changes in an activity that has already begun. In the past, this expression was used as an argument to re-elect a president, especially during a time when the country was at war.
(MUSIC)
This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Faith Lapidus. You can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at our website, voaspecialenglish.com.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25