美國習(xí)慣用語Lesson 84 - throw to the wolves...

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to throw to the wolves

to throw the baby out with the bath water

今天我們要給大家介紹兩個(gè)由throw這個(gè)字組成的俗語。第一個(gè)是to throw to the wolves。Wolf就是狼，to throw to the wolves的意思就是：犧牲別人來解救自己。這個(gè)俗語可能是來自一個(gè)俄羅斯的民間故事。這個(gè)故事說的是，一對父母帶著幾個(gè)孩子坐著雪橇在雪地里行走，后面有一群狼在追他們。那個(gè)做父親的就把他的孩子一個(gè)接著一個(gè)地扔給狼吃，這樣他自己就可以安全地抵達(dá)目的地。我們來舉個(gè)例子看看這個(gè)俗語在實(shí)際生活中是怎么用的：

例句-1: The voters have been demanding that the mayor do something about all the corruption at city hall, so he threw a couple of minor officials to the wolves--he accused them of taking bribes to issue building permits and then fired them.

這是說：選民們要求市長對市政府內(nèi)部所有的貪污行為采取行動(dòng)，于是他就把兩名基層官員做犧牲品來保全他自己。他指責(zé)這兩個(gè)基層官員在發(fā)放建筑許可證方面接受賄賂，然后就把他們解雇了。

但是，比這位市長更兇狠的人也并不少見，下面就是一個(gè)例子：

例句-2: Louie, we've got to find some small-time guys to throw to the wolves for murdering that cop. Otherwise, the cops will trace the killing right back to us.

這是一個(gè)流氓頭子在說話，他對手下的一個(gè)打手說：路易，我們得在謀殺那個(gè)警察的事上找一些小嘍羅來做犧牲品，否則，警察就要把這案件追根兒追到我們這兒來了。

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我們下面要給大家介紹的一個(gè)俗語是：to throw the baby out with the bath water。To throw the baby out with the bath water從字面上來解釋就是：在潑洗澡水的時(shí)候連孩子一起潑掉了。這是很難想象的。但是這個(gè)俗語真正表達(dá)的是：在你扔掉不要的東西時(shí)把寶貴的東西都無意地一起扔掉了。我們舉個(gè)例子吧：

例句-3: Our company thought they'd be smart and save money by stopping the bonuses they had been giving to the salesmen who sold the most cars each month. Well, they saved a little money, but they threw the baby out with the bath water--our best salesmen quit and went to work for our biggest competitor.

這句話的意思是：我們公司取銷了給每個(gè)月出售汽車最多的推銷員獎(jiǎng)金的制度，以為這樣做很明智，可以省錢?？墒牵麄兪×艘稽c(diǎn)兒錢卻失掉了更有價(jià)值的東西，因?yàn)槲覀冏詈玫耐其N員就此不干了，他到和我們競爭最激烈的公司去干了。

下面這個(gè)例子里的公司主管比較聰敏，他正在考慮要不要解雇那個(gè)他不滿意的雇員：

例句-4: I'd really like to fire this man tomorrow. But if I fire him, his brother will probably leave with him. His brother is one of our best people, and I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

他說：我可真想明天就把那個(gè)人解雇了。但是，要是我解雇他，他的哥哥也許會和他一起走。他哥哥是我們這兒最好的雇員之一，我可不要因?yàn)榻夤退艿芏ニ?/p>