Thorn in the side——查字典英语网_其他

Thorn in the side——查字典英语网

So there, a thorn in your side – a nagging pain or a thorny issue that lingers (won’t go away).

This idiom is easy to understand, isn’t it, if it’s explained word for word? Unlike other idioms, you know, which you can never get a hang of in terms of where they came from (nip and tuck, make no bones about it and so forth). Whatever the case, the thing with idioms for you to remember is that they’re all born out of common usage. Therefore they can best be learned in the same way, via actual examples.

So here are actual examples of some of the more notable “thorns” in the side of the afore-mentioned US government: 1. A photograph has been published of former Cuban president Fidel Castro, showing him looking relaxed and in apparently good health. The picture shows 82-year-old Mr Castro wearing a sports jacket and smiling alongside Michelle Bachelet, the Chilean President, who was in Cuba on a diplomatic visit. … Since the Cuban Revolution brought him to power in 1959, Mr Castro has been a thorn in the side of the US, which failed to overthrow him by supporting the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Throughout the Cold War, he was president of a Communist nation on America’s doorstep, and survived a number of alleged CIA conspiracies to remove him from power. - Times Online, February 13, 2009.

2. The on-screen revolutionary met the off-screen revolutionary when Hollywood actor Benicio Del Toro flew into Venezuela earlier this week. Promoting his role in Steven Sodergergh’s Che, Del Toro attended a private meeting with president Hugo Chávez, a close friend of the Cuban leader Fidel Castro and a thorn in the side of the US government. “He’s nice,” said Del Toro of the 54-year-old leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, adding that he had enjoyed “a good meeting with the president”. Puerto Rican-born Del Toro, 42, arrived in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Tuesday to attend a screening of the complete, four-and-a-half hour version of Che at a former bull-ring. The film charts Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s pivotal role in the Cuban revolution of 1959 and his disastrous later attempt to spark a similar uprising in 1960s Bolivia. Del Toro told reporters that he was drawn to the project because it represented “a totally Latin-American movie”. - Revolution in the air as Benicio Del Toro meets Hugo Chavez, Guardian.co.uk, March 5, 2009.