动物习语：狼来了~~

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I would have ye (to) stur (work) honestly to kepe ( keep) the wolf from the dur (door).
我得勤奋工作才不至于挨饿.

这句话被收录在英国作家海伍德的《谚语集》中, 该语中的wolf并不是真正的\"狼\",而是它的比喻意, 那么,为什么\"狼\"有此含义呢? 下面就让我们去看个究竟吧!

wolf最显著的特点就是贪婪(rapaciousness),贪吃(ravenousappetite),它是\"饥饿与赤贫\"的代名词(the symbol of hunger and want), to wolf 或 to wolf down指\"狼吞虎咽地吃\"(to consume greedily); to be wolfish表示\"非常地贪婪\"(to be fiercely greedy); to keep wolf from the door 字面意思是\"把狼拒与门外\",实际的意思是\"把饥饿赶走\"(to keep out hunger or to ward off starvation),该短语在15世纪就开始使用了,远早与海伍德时代.请看例句:

With a wife and six children to support, Jenkins had all he could do to keep the wolf from the door. (Jenkins要供养妻子和6个孩子,只好尽其所能,使一家人免于挨饿)

美国迪斯尼公司出的动画片《三只小猪》中有一首歌,名为Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?,歌词中的wolf有2层含义, 其一指本义的狼,其二指比喻意,在英语中,the big bad wolf表示\"令人恐怖的人或物\".如:

Everyone was afraid that war would break out. It was the big bad wolf at that time. (大家都害怕战争会爆发,战争在当时是令人恐怖的事情.)

在北美生活着一种大灰狼(the gray or timber wolf), 数量极多, 夏天时它们不喜欢成群结队,宁肯单独或成双成对地捕食(to hunt alone or in pairs),到了冬天才聚集在一起(to hunt in sizeable packs in winter),共度严寒. 所以,就有了lone wolf之说, 指\"不喜欢与人来往的人,喜欢单干的人\"(a person who is by nature solitary or who likes to work alone); 在二战中,盟军(the Allies)称德国潜艇为wolf pack, 它们就像狼一样跟踪袭击船只.

有一位旅行者乘雪橇(sleigh)出行,途中,一群饿狼穷追不舍,旅行者急中生智,把食物仍给饿狼(to throw food to the wolves),饿狼便去哄抢食物. 待它们吃完时,雪橇早已滑得无影无踪了. 所以, to throw food to the wolves表示\"牺牲某物,以转移注意力,保住更重要的事物\"(to sacrifice something in order to divert attention from something more important).

现在,to throw sb. to the wolves 还表示\"把某人置于险境,把某人送入虎口\"(to abandon or dismiss sb. to a terrible fate)

大家一定还记得\"狼来了\"的故事吧,世界许多语言里都有类似的经典寓言. 于是, to cry wolf表示\"发假警报\"(to sound a false alarm)的意思.