《中英對照讀新聞》Cats have the last laugh at this exhibition貓在展覽中獲得最後勝利

◎張沛元

According to folklore, the cat was omitted from the Chinese zodiac because it was duped by the rat into believing that New Year’s Day was a day later, and thus it failed to show up at an all-important gathering.

根據民俗傳說,貓之所以被從中國生肖榜上除名,是因為被老鼠欺騙,以為隔天才是新年,以致沒能在這場非常重要的(生肖)集合中現身。

Cat lovers can take relief this year in knowing that their feline friends have not been written off as mere fools, with a series of exhibits paying tribute to the role of the cat in traditional Japanese art being held in Tokyo.

目前在東京展出的一系列向貓在傳統日本藝術中所扮演的角色致敬的展覽,今年讓愛貓人士能好好鬆一口氣,知道他們的貓朋友並非因為是笨蛋而被生肖榜除名。

Since Jan. 3, the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Museum in the Toyosu district of Tokyo’s Koto Ward has been featuring part of some 200 ukiyo-e woodblock prints, which feature cats as motifs.

1月3日起,東京都江東區豐洲的平木浮世繪美術館展出約200幅以貓為主角的浮世繪版畫。

The exhibition has been divided into three parts, each with a separate theme, running through the end of March.

該展覽分為3部分,每一部分有不同主題,持續展出到3月底為止。

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Q:I am on the right side of age twenty. 有這種說法嗎?

事實上,on the right/wrong side of 這片語在英文中頗為常見,除上述的年齡表示法外,常見的應用至少還有下列三項:

  1. On the right/wrong side of the law (= obeying/not obeying the law; abiding by/not abiding by the law) 意為「守法/違法;做守法/違法的事情」,如 After coming out of prison, he tried to stay on the right side of the law. (出獄後,他盡量不去做違法的事情)。
  2. On the right/wrong side of someone 意為「得到/失去某人的歡心」,如 Whatever you do, don’t get on the wrong side of your boss! (不管你做什麼,就是不要讓你的老闆不高興!)。
  3. Get up on the right/wrong side of the bed 意為「(早晨一起床就) 心情好/心情不佳」,如 I think John must have got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. (我想約翰今天早上一定心情不佳)。這成語亦可寫成 get out of the right/wrong side of the bed 或 get out of bed on the right/wrong side。就 get up on the wrong side of the bed 而言,這不就類似中文的「起床氣」了嗎!? 例如:He’s shouted at everybody in the office. I think he must have got out of bed on the wrong side. (他對辦公室裡的每個人都大吼大叫。我想他的起床氣還沒消)。

若比較 on the right side of 和 on the wrong side of 的應用範圍,後者似乎比前者來得廣泛,實例包括 born on the wrong side of the blanket 和 on the wrong side of the tracks。Born on the wrong side of the blanket 意為「私生」,如 All his life, Peter felt that people looked down on him because he was born on the wrong side of the blanket. (彼得一生都覺得別人看不起他,因為他是私生子);Just between you and me, I suspect Mrs. Potter’s oldest child was born on the wrong side of the blanket. (你不要告訴別人,我懷疑波特太太的長子是私生子)。On/from the wrong/other side of the tracks 意為「在貧民區;出身寒貧家庭」,如 She was brought up on the wrong side of the tracks in a small southern town. (她是在南部小鎮的貧寒家庭長大的)。


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年齡的大小一般都使用下列幾種說法 (以「你比我大五歲」為例):

You are my senior by five years.
You are five years my senior.
You are older than me by five years.

再以「太太比先生小兩歲」為例:

She is her husband’s junior by two years.
She is two years her husband’s junior.
She is younger than her husband by two years.

至於 "be senior to" 和 "be junior to" 指的是職位的高低或資歷的深淺。例如:

He’s senior to me, though he’s younger. (雖然他比我年輕,但職位卻比我高)

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Q:too much of a good thing 是什麼意思呢?

A:"too much of a good thing" 字面的意思是「太多的好事」,但好事太多,過了頭,未必是好事,甚至可能變成壞事;所謂過猶不及,凡事適中就好。因此,這片語含有告誡或勸導的意味,警告人家,儘管福星高照、好事連連,但也不必太高興,因為任何人都不可能永遠走好運;若碰到太多好事,就要提高警覺、步步為營、謹慎將事,否則物極必反,好事過頭反成壞事。這也就是在一些英文諺語中,too much of a good thing 往往與 bad 或 not good 劃上等號的原因。例如:

  • Too much of a good thing is not always good.
  • Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.

在英文中,「too much of a/an + 名詞」這種片語或句型相當常用,意為「太過…,太多…」,如 He’s too much of a cold fish. (他是個過於冷漠的人/他是個很不友善的人)。事實上,與「too much of a/an + 名詞」結構相近的「a bit of a/an + 名詞」 (有點…) 和「something of a/an + 名詞」(有幾分;可說是;算得上) 亦屢見不鮮,如 She’s always been a bit of a mystery to me. (她對我來說總是有點神秘);He’s something of an expert on growing vegetables. (他可說是個種植蔬菜的專家)。

從「too much of a/an + 名詞」這個結構來看,顯然地,其中的名詞一定是單數可數名詞,而其前可用形容詞來修飾,如 too much of a good thing。有人可能會對此結構感到不解,納悶為何不直接使用 too much + 不可數名詞或 too many + 複數可數名詞,卻偏偏把原本水火不容的 too much 和單數可數名詞湊在一起,儘管整個結構語法沒問題,但不無賣弄之嫌。其實不然,這種結構的功用大矣,它解決了某些名詞慣用單數或語法要求須用單數,但又要表達太多、太過之意思或概念時所面臨的困境。例如:

  • We have seen too much defeatism, too much pessimism, too much of a negative approach. (我們看到了太多的失敗主義、太多的悲觀主義和太多的負面傾向) - 在這句中,too much of a negative approach 可用 too many negative approaches 來代替,但這樣一來就無法與前面兩個 too much 呼應,起加強語氣的作用。這句是美國已故著名舞台劇導演兼製作人瑪格•瓊斯 (Margo Jones) 所說的話。
  • Taiwan doesn’t have too much of a downturn. (台灣目前並無太多經濟衰退的趨勢) - Downturn 通常用單數,在此不宜以 too many downturns 來表示。
  • I knew that I’d finished the paper in too much of a rush, and that the final paragraph was probably shady. (我知道這篇報告是我過於倉促趕出來的,最後一段可能有問題) - Rush 在片語 in a rush 中慣用單數,在此不能用 too many rushes。
  • Sandy got fired from that big company because they thought he was too much of a freewheeler. (桑迪被那家大公司開除了,因為他們認為他過於自作主張) - Sandy 是一個人,對應單數的 a freewheeler,若用 too many freewheelers,文法就錯了。

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French office workers are going to war with small pieces of paper.
法國上班族上演便利貼大車拼。
 

 

  Who would have thought that those small, sticky Post-it notes could be used so creatively? In what's being called Post-it wars, office workers in Paris have been trying to _(1)_ each other in coming up with the biggest and the best Post-itartwork.
  The first shot in this raging war was in the spring of 2011, _(2)_ employees at French video game company Ubisoft stuck a small space invader, an aliencreature from a popular video game from the late 1970s, on its windows. Employees at a bank that faced the video company responded by creating a much larger, more elaborate Post-it creation. Ubisoft countered with another even more epic Post-it window _(3)_ , and the battle was on. Soon, workers at other companies across Paris decided to get in on the fun. Post-it fever has _(4)_ spread to other French cities and even other countries.
  The subjects of all these artistic Post-it creations are _(5)_ and can be anything from celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson, to iconicvideo game figures, including Pac-Man and Super Mario. The more intricatecreations are a few stories high and _(6)_ of thousands and thousands of colorful pieces of paper. A website showing photos of many of the pixelated images was created by a French digital communications agency. You can _(7)_ at www.postitwar.com. The site is in French, but the pictures are worth a thousand words in any language.

1. (A) ignore  (B) outdo  (C) remove  (D) distort
2. (A) what  (B) which  (C) when  (D) where

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