在新概念第三册的数篇课文中都讲到动物。如第一课A puma at large,第九课 Flying Cats 和第十九课 A very dear cat都讲cat,十六课的Mary had a little lamb等等。
纵观中西方文化,英汉两种语言中概念意义相对应的词汇,由于社会文化背景的不同,其国俗语义可能相去甚远。英语中经常出现与动物有关的习语,往往与字面意思相差很大。如:
1.be the cat’s pajamas 了不起的东西、人、主意等
2.a cat-and-dog life 经常吵架的生活(在一起居住者)
3.a cat in hell’s chance 一点儿机会也没有
4.Play cat and mouse game with sb. 对某人时好时坏,忽冷忽热
5.Put the cat among the pigeons. 引来可能招惹是非或麻烦的人或事物
这里将重点介绍几个常用习语:
1. Let the cat out of the bag. 泄露秘密
为了更好的理解,这里附上这些短语的来源。
Origin: The expression comes from an old tradesman’s trick of hiding a cat in a bag and trying to sell it as a pig. A smart buyer, of course, would look inside the bag and learn the truth when the cat jumped out
举例: I wanted mother’s present to be a secret, but my sister let the cat out of the bag.
2. No room to swing a cat : to have not enough space to live and work in.
vOrigin: Some believe that men once found it was fun to seize a cat by the tail and swing it around their heads. This is a reasonable belief. You do need some space for this.
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