美國習(xí)慣用語Lesson 89 - put on the dog / go to the dogs

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to put on the dog

to go to the dogs

美國人總是說：狗是人的最好的朋友。許多美國人對(duì)家里的狗就好像對(duì)待家里的人一樣好。有錢人還往往會(huì)出幾千美元去買一只稀有品種的狗，我們今天要講的一個(gè)俗語就和這種現(xiàn)象有密切關(guān)系的：to put on the dog。

To put on the dog就是擺排場(chǎng)給別人看。大概一百多年以前，一些有錢的人往往化很多錢去買一只稀有品種的小狗來顯示自己很有錢。一些闊太太們經(jīng)常在接待客人的時(shí)候把一只小狗抱在腿上來眩耀自己的闊氣。當(dāng)時(shí)耶魯大學(xué)的學(xué)生就創(chuàng)造了to put on the dog這一說法來嘲笑那些暴發(fā)戶。我們來舉一個(gè)例子吧：

例句-1: Joe Doak is sure putting on the dog since his rich aunt died and left him 10 million dollars. He's bought the biggest house in town and a Mercedes 600, and talks about buying some riding horses.

這句話的意思是：?jiǎn)潭嗫俗詮乃⒁倘ナ溃艚o他一千萬美元遺產(chǎn)以后，他可真是擺闊氣。他買了城里最大的一棟房子，還有一輛奔馳600型號(hào)的汽車。他還在說要買幾匹馬供他騎馬玩呢。

看來有錢的人也不都是那樣揮霍的。下面就是一個(gè)例子：

例句-2: I had this friend in the army who was the son of one of the richest men in the country. But what I like about him was that he never put on the dog to show off his money.

這句話的中文意思就是：我在部隊(duì)服役的時(shí)候有個(gè)朋友，他的爸爸是美國最有錢的人之一。我很喜歡這個(gè)朋友，因?yàn)樗麖膩硪膊谎Ｒ约憾嗝从绣X。

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和to put on the dog意思相反的一個(gè)俗語是：to go to the dogs。To go to the dogs這個(gè)俗語的意思就是：變得很窮，徹底破落。比如說，在十九世紀(jì)的時(shí)候，美國西部發(fā)現(xiàn)金礦的地區(qū)出現(xiàn)了一個(gè)又一個(gè)新的城鎮(zhèn)。許多人到那里去淘金，都想發(fā)家致富?？墒呛髞碓趺礃恿四?

例句-3: As soon as the gold was all gone, these towns went to the dogs almost overnight. Everybody moved away, and these places are ghost towns now, with the wind whistling through the empty houses and shops.

這句話的意思是：等到金子都淘光了，這些城鎮(zhèn)一下子就被人遺棄，徹底完蛋了。那里所有的人都走了，剩下的只有風(fēng)在吹過空房子和商店的時(shí)候發(fā)出的沙沙聲音。

這是社會(huì)變遷造成的結(jié)局。但是，人為的結(jié)局更加悲慘：

例句-4: I always thought my friend Pete had a good future. But then he got hooked on heroin and lost his job and his wife--I never saw a man go to the dogs so fast!

這人說：我總以為我的朋友彼徳是很有前途的。但是后來他吸上了毒品，失去了工作，妻子也走了。我從來沒有看到過任何人破落得那么快的！