英語文化陷阱系列 (24)

　　24. Put somebody to sleep

　　我去洗衣服的時候，通常會路過隔壁德國老太太的門口，她開門出來打招呼。她由于單身一個人，非常孤獨，看見我女兒會“Honey(寶貝)長，Honey短的”。一個周日的晚上，她見到我， 便問：“Where is your little girl? I did not see her today.” 我答說：“Oh， I just put her to sleep.”她聽罷，突然驚叫起來，“Ashley(我的名字)，What did you say?”

　　不等她說完，我立即意識到我說了一句天大的錯話。我馬上補充說：“I am sorry. I mean that I just put her to bed.”(我的意思是我剛哄她入睡了)。

　　英語中“put somebody to sleep”是指終止某人生命，是一種委婉的表達，也可以用作“(為動手術(shù)而用麻醉劑)使人失去知覺”的意思。常聽老美說：“Oh， I had to put my dog to sleep. He suffered too much from his sickness”(我只好讓我的狗安息，它飽受病痛的折磨!)