時差N小時:改過自新 洗心革面

In latitudes that have four seasons, springtimemeans the rebirth of nature. Flowers bloom and treesgrow new leaves. So it is easy to imagine this idiom,which indicates renewal, as having a springtimeassociation. After all, isn't "trying to improve one'sbehavior or attitude" (which is the meaning of thisidiom) similar to a tree growing new leaves?

高緯度地區(qū)有四季，春季意味著萬物的復(fù)蘇?；ǘ渚`放，樹也長出新葉。因此很容易就想起那個用來形容新生、與春天有一定的聯(lián)系的成語。畢竟“試圖改進(jìn)某人的行為或者態(tài)度”(指成語的意思)與樹木長出新葉相似。

It turns out that is only part of the story. The reference to "turning over a new leaf" actuallyrefers to a blank page in a book, such as a diary in which you write the story of your life. Longago, book pages were called "leaves" because pages are flat and broad like the leaves of trees. A"new leaf" would be an empty page, not written on yet. "Turning it over" means that a freshstart is possible. An empty page indicates unlimited possibilities.

事實證明這只是其中的一層意思。“turning over a new leaf”中的“leaf”實際上是指一本書的空白頁，比如說記錄生活點滴的日記本。很久以前，人們稱書頁為“leaves”，因為書頁就像樹葉一樣平展。“new leaf”則指新的一頁，還沒有被寫的一頁。"Turning it over"指全新的開始?？瞻醉搫t表示有無限的可能性。