to go haywire 火冒三丈,非常生氣
美國的農(nóng)民一般都是用一根細(xì)的鐵絲把乾草一捆捆地捆起來。這種捆乾草的鐵絲在英文里叫做:haywire。每當(dāng)一個(gè)農(nóng)民要喂牲口的時(shí)候,他就用斧頭把鐵絲砍斷??墒牵撬恍⌒牡脑?,鐵絲可能會(huì)彈起來,鐵絲的尖端還會(huì)刮破他的皮膚和衣服。鐵絲這種四處亂彈亂跳的現(xiàn)象就形成了美國人常用的一個(gè)俗語,也就是:to go haywire。
To go haywire的意思就是:一個(gè)人非常生氣,以致于無法控制自己。有些人平時(shí)看來脾氣很好,從來也不會(huì)發(fā)火。可是,每個(gè)人都有個(gè)限度,超過了限度,誰都會(huì)發(fā)火。下面說話的這個(gè)人的哥哥就是這樣。
例句1:
"Usually my brother is the calmest man I know. But when he saw this kid trying to steal his new car, he really went haywire. He chased the kid down the street, tackled him and sat on him until the police showed up. He's lucky the kid didn't have a knife!"
這人說:“我哥哥一般來說是我認(rèn)識的人當(dāng)中最沈著鎮(zhèn)靜的一個(gè)。但是當(dāng)他看到那孩子想偷他那輛新車的時(shí)候,他真是火冒三丈。他一直追到街那頭才抓到那孩子,然后就騎在他身上,一直等到警察來才罷休。算他運(yùn)氣,那孩子身上沒帶刀子。”
美國人很喜歡養(yǎng)狗。狗雖然可愛,但有時(shí)也會(huì)給你帶來麻煩。下面是一個(gè)人回到家發(fā)現(xiàn)他的狗把家俱啃壞了。他對一個(gè)朋友說:
例句2:
" I tell you I was so mad when I saw what the dog had done. I'm afraid I went haywire: I rolled up a newspaper to swat him with and chased him all over the house."
這個(gè)人說:“我告訴你,當(dāng)我看到我那條狗干了什么的時(shí)候,我真是火極了,當(dāng)時(shí)我恐怕已經(jīng)控制不住自己了。我把報(bào)紙卷起來,滿屋子追著打它。”
上面這個(gè)例句里用了一個(gè)大家恐怕不太熟悉的字:swat。Swat就是用力打的意思。