英语讲义(70)英语惯用语的活用
现在从下面的四点举例说明：
⒈惯用语组成部分的替换，例如：
● pull a long face（愁眉苦脸）→pull an unhappy face, 如：
“The football coach pulled an unhappy face when his team was defeated.”
● a stitch in time saves nine（及时补救）→a word in time saves nine, 如：
“The two were going to quarrel, but their friend cut in to appease them. A word in time saves nine.”
⒉惯用语组成部分分开，例如： ● get an upper hand（占上风）→“In a debate competition, a quick-witted debater can get an upper cut, if not the upper hand.” ● cannot see the wood for the trees（见树不见林）→“He sees too many trees, but not the whole wood.”
⒊惯用语组成部分的扩充，例如： ● put into practice （实行）→put into widespread practice, 如：
“David's proposal was well accepted, but no real effort was made to put it into widespread practice.”
● keep company （结交朋友）→keep disreputable company, 如：
“His business son often dines out and keeps disreputable company.”
● come of age（成年）→come of college age, 如：
“Even his youngest son has now come of college age.”
⒋惯用语组成部分的缩略，例如：
● every cloud has a silver lining（一线希望）→silver lining
● make a mountain out of molehills（小题大作）→mountains of molehills
有些惯用语缩略后引起转化词，如：
● call someone names（谩骂某人 ）→name-calling：“You won't command respect if you enjoy name-calling.”
● Bury one's head in the sand（对面临的危险闭目不见）→ head-in-sand：“Don't be so foolish as to adopt a head-in-sand attitude.”
● live and let live （自己活，也让别人活）→a live-and-let-live policy：“All the countries in the world should adopt a live-and-let-live policy.”
● A dog in the manger（占着茅坑不拉屎的人）→a dog-in-the-manger attitude: “As it is wrong to have a dog-in-the-manager attitude, you had better give what you don't want to others instead of holding on to it.”
上述例子说明了严谨的惯用语，在特殊情况下，也可以稍微改变，或替换字眼，或拆开组成部分，或扩充词语，或缩略成分，达到灵活运用的目的。
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