今天Mike和常爸溝通完工作,就和小小常閒聊起來。
Oh, my goodness! My nephew is such a bad apple! He took his two younger cousins to climb trees in the wood and broke his leg!
(哦,我的天哪!我的侄子真是個bad apple!他帶著他的兩個小表弟去樹林裡爬樹,結果把腿摔斷了!)
常爸一聽有人摔斷腿,不禁關切一下:
Is he okay now? Some kids are naughty. you know, there is always a bad apple in every batch.
(他現在好了嗎?有的孩子就是很淘氣,你知道的,每一群孩子中總有一個bad apple。)
Did he break his leg because he ate a bad apple? It doesn't sound quite right.
(他摔斷腿是因為他吃了壞蘋果嗎?這聽起來不太對呀。)
Not at all, Victor! He broke his leg because he is a bad apple! But he is not really an apple. A bad apple refers to someone who causes a lot of trouble.
(完全不是這樣,小小常!他摔斷腿,因為他是個bad apple!但他並不是一個真的蘋果。a bad apple是指總是製造麻煩的人。)
Oh, I see. I'm not a bad apple!
(啊,我明白了。我可不是個麻煩精!)
bad apple字面意思是壞蘋果,但在口語中是「壞傢伙」。
根據韋氏詞典,bad apple 指給別人製造問題或者帶來麻煩的人,特指:集體中某一個人的表現對其他人有消極、糟糕的影響。bad apple也稱rotten apple。例如:
There is always a bad apple in every batch.
到哪兒都會有害群之馬。
One rotten apple spoils the whole bunch.
一隻爛蘋果,爛一串蘋果。
這個說法最早源於14世紀,引自傑弗裡·喬叟的The Cook's Tale : It is better to take the rotten apple out of the bag than to have it rot all the other apples.(爛蘋果一定要挑出來,不然其它所有蘋果都會跟著爛掉。)
類似於我們漢語中的「一顆老鼠屎壞了一鍋粥」。雖是老話,但也是真理。
社會學家亨利·L·蒂施勒曾在《社會學概論》中提到,The best way to deal with bad apples is to take them out of the group as quickly as possible.(對待害群之馬最好的方式,就是儘快把他踢出陣營。)
蘋果外表可人、酸甜可口,在西方受人喜愛,很多關蘋果的英文表達都含有褒義。例如:
✍the Big Apple
特指「紐約城」。當你跟外國人交流時談到紐約的時候,你既可以說New York City,也可以說the Big Apple。例如:
The little girl is from the Big Apple.
這個小女孩來自於紐約。
✍The apple of one's eye
「某人眼中的蘋果」表示某個特別珍愛的人/物。例如:
The little girl is the apple of his eye. He loves her so much.
這個小女孩是他的掌上明珠。他非常愛她。
✍as American as apple pie
apple pie(蘋果派)是經典的美國飯後甜點,「像蘋果派一樣美國」就是說地道的美國範兒,所以這個短語表示「典型美式風格」,指具有典型美式文化或價值觀。例如:
Jeans are as American as apple pie.牛仔褲是典型的美式服裝。
如果不知道這個表達方式的含義,你是不是會一臉懵?怎麼牛仔褲還跟蘋果派聯繫到一起了呢?
來《英語地道說》和常爸一起變身英語達人吧!