山中無老虎,猴子稱霸王。
When the cat's away, the mice will play.直譯過來就是:“貓兒不在家,耗子就會出來活動”,這個短語的正確意思是:“山中無老虎,猴子稱霸王”。因此,當(dāng)美國人說"When the cat's away, the mice will play."時,他/她要表達的意思就是:"The subordinates will do as they like when the superior is away."、"The weak will become active without the strong."。
情景對白:
Shirley: Do you know the boss's assistant has criticized a few colleagues today just for some trivial things? We should take care.
雪莉:你知道嗎?老板助理今天因為一些小事批評了幾個同事。我們最好當(dāng)心點。
Jane: Yeah. The boss is away at the moment. When the cat's away, the mice will play.
簡:是啊,現(xiàn)在老板不在,山中無老虎,猴子稱霸王。
搭配句積累:
①Now the project should be in the charge of an assistant for the boss is on a business trip.
老板出差了,現(xiàn)在這個項目竟然由一個助理負(fù)責(zé)。
②The staff become too casual without the boss there.
老板不在,員工們越來越散漫了。
③She turned down our application for more technical personnel without asking the boss.
她沒問過老板,就拒絕了我們要更多多技術(shù)人員的申請。
④A little secretry should dare yell at us.
一個小小的秘書居然敢沖我們大吼。