自学英语 关于家庭的英语俚语

来自VOA的[ Words and Their Stories ] Summer Fun with Family Expressions (2021/7/25) 节选

关于family或者说关于家人关系的英语俚语蛮多的，这篇文章写了好几个俚语，个人觉得非常有趣，给大家看看。

1、While watching television with your family in a crowded room, you might hear, "Your father was not a glass blower."

Of course, it is impossible for a person to be made of glass. That expression really means you are blocking the view of someone else, and they want you to move.

解答：

glass blower字面意思是吹玻璃工，或者是鼓风机。这里我没找到这个俚语的出处，可能原本意思是形容吹玻璃工的肺活量很大，可以把人吹跑。但很可惜，你爸爸不是。

其实就是说你挡住视线了，我们希望你自己挪开。

2、A similar expression is, "You make a better door than a window."

解答：

这个俚语就是调侃，意思是你为什么不造个窗户呢？非要建一个门挡住视线，或者说你做门比做窗户做得好啊。说人话，就是“让开！”

这个俚语比第一个俚语更常用。

3、When a child starts to act just like the parent, we say, "He's a chip off the old block." This suggests the image of an artist making a statue of someone from a block of stone. It can mean that the child is made of the same material as the parent.

解答：

“a chip off the old block”这个口语表达用来描述一个人的性格或外貌酷似自己的父亲或母亲，就如汉语里常说的“简直是一个模子里刻出来的”。

例句：

Mark looks exactly like his dad, he’s a chip off the old block.

马克太像他爸爸了，简直就是一个模子里刻出来的。

4、In a similar way, we may think that a child's action can show how they will act as an adult. To express this idea, we use the phrase, "The child is father to the man."

解答：

The child is father to the man是固定搭配，中文意思就是“三岁看大”，即从小孩的行为举止就能知道长大以后是一个什么样的人。

5、After she lit the barbecue grill, I heard my sister say, "... and Bob's your uncle, there's the fire." This expression means something is easy.

解答：

Bob’s your uncle字面意思是，鲍勃是你叔，但实际意思是很简单很容易，啥都OK，没问题了。

原来英国历史上有一位保守党首相名叫Robert "Bob" Cecil ，他下台后，接任他的新首相是他的侄子(nephew)，那个时候的英国政治还没那么透明，各种裙带（nepotism）关系，大家对此很不满，此后“Bob is your uncle”就用来形容轻而易举，胜利的果实来得太过容易。

这个Bob's your uncle. 的火起来的方式及其用法，就很类似前几年大陆火起来的那句“李刚是我爸”，如出一辙。因为“我爸是李刚”所以，普通大众能把我咋地！也正因为“Bob's your uncle”,你叔是鲍勃，我们能咋的，你爱做啥做啥，做啥都对。所以，现在这个俚语就变成了“啥都对，啥都OK的意思”

例句：

Wear your new dress and Bob is your uncle.

穿你的那件新裙子，就OK啦。

6、Someone who starts out life in a wealthy family was "born with a silver spoon in their mouth."

解答：

这个born with a silver spoon in their mouth是不是很耳熟，含着银汤匙出生？咦，为什么不是“含着金汤匙出生”呢？因为在信仰基督教的国家里，婴儿在接受洗礼时，教父会给他一把银汤勺，因而，人们有也就用银汤勺来象征孩子天生富贵。

7、My younger brother liked to play with the boys on our street who always caused trouble. Mom told him to stay away from the troublemakers with this expression: "Birds of a feather flock together."

解答：

Bird就是鸟，后面加一个s就是指多数，或者是各种类的鸟。同样种类的鸟一般身上都有相同的羽毛。这是字面上的意思，引申义就是各种特征很鲜明的人，用中文来解释就是物以类聚，人以群分。一般使用“birds of a feather”即可，主要是贬义。

例：

They are just birds of a feather, they don’t care about job.

他们就是一丘之貉，一点都不关系工作的事情。