欧美人文风情第307篇:下大雨哪来的猫猫狗狗?习语的由来

 So this is proverbs² explained. 欢迎收看谚语讲解。

Today, we're going to look at the proverb¹ "It's raining cats and dogs." 今天，我们要来看这个谚语，「It's raining cats and dogs.(下倾盆大雨)」。

Raining cats and dogs? No one ever thought this is actually possible, not even a long time ago, like, in the 17th century. 下猫又下狗？没人曾想过这真的可能发生，连在很久以前也不那么觉得，像在十七世纪。

But in that time, people threw their waste on the streets, just like that, so the big cities were...a mess³. 不过当时，人们将垃圾乱丢到街上，就像那样，所以各大城市都...脏乱不堪。

Between all that waste, there were animals living and—don't get scared—they died there as well. 在那所有垃圾堆中，有动物生活着，而且－－别吓到－－牠们也死在那里。

Unfortunately⁴, there was no one to clean up all the waste, 不幸地是，没有人去清理那些废弃物，

so when it started to rain—no, no, like, rain a lot— everything would wash away, including those dead animals. 所以开始下雨时－－不不，象是，下超大的雨时－－一切都会冲走，包含那些死掉的动物。

That's why when people saw heavy rain, they would say, "It's raining cats and dogs." 那就是为什么人们看到下大雨时，他们会说：「It's raining cats and dogs.(下大雨了)」。

 

1 proverb   

n.谚语，格言，箴言；vt.使成为谚语，用谚语表达

参考例句：

• As the proverb goes,time is money.俗语说，时间就是金钱。
• "Practice makes perfect." is a proverb.”熟能生巧 ” 是一句谚语.

2 proverbs   

n.谚语，格言( proverb的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His conversation was larded with Russian proverbs. 他交谈时夹杂了很多俄国谚语。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We should not use proverbs and allusions indiscriminately. 不要滥用成语典故。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 mess   

vt.将…弄糟，混乱，妨碍，使紊乱；n.食堂，伙食，用膳，一份食品，混乱，乱七八糟，困境

参考例句：

• Don't mess up my homework.不要弄乱我的家庭作业。
• You'll mess up my hair.你会把我的头发弄乱.

4 unfortunately   

adv.不幸地，可惜的是

参考例句：

• I called on you yesterday,but unfortunately you were out.昨天我来看你，但是不幸的是你不在。
• She had gone home,unfortunately.遗憾的是她已回家了。