VOA慢速英语2011--Words and Their Stories: Bag Expressions

Words and Their Stories: Bag Expressions

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
Different people have different ways of saying things – their own special expressions. Each week we tell about some popular American expressions.
The bag is one of the most simple and useful things in the world. It is a container made of paper or cloth. It has given the world many strange expressions that are not very simple. Some of them are used in the United States today.
One is bagman. It describes a go-between. The go-between sees to it that money is passed – often illegally – from one person to another.
Another widely-used expression is to let the cat out of the bag. It is used when someone tells something that was supposed to be secret. No one can explain how the cat got into the bag. But there is an old story about it.
Long ago tradesmen sold things in large cloth bags. One day a woman asked for a pig. The tradesman held up a cloth bag with something moving inside it. He said it was a live pig. The woman asked to see it. When the dishonest tradesman opened the bag, out jumped a cat – not a pig. The tradesman’s secret was out. He was trying to trick her. And now everybody knew it.
The phrase to be left holding the bag is as widely used as the expression to let the cat out of the bag.
This expression makes the person left holding the bag responsible for an action, often a crime or misdeed. That person is the one who is punished. The others involve in the act escape.
Where the expression came from is not clear. Some say that General George Washington used it during the American Revolutionary War.
One of Washington’s officers, Royall Taylor, used the expression in a play about Daniel Shay’s rebellion¹. The play was in seventeen eighty-seven, after Taylor helped to put down Shay’s rebellion.
Shays led a thousand war veterans² in an attack on a federal³ building in Springfield, Massachusetts. Guns were in the building. Some of the protesters were farmers who had no money to buy seed. Some had been put in prison for not paying their debts. They were men who fought one war against the king of England, and were now prepared to fight against their own government. Most of the rebels⁴ were captured⁵. Shays and some of the officers escaped.
In his play, Taylor describes Shays as disappearing, giving others “the bag to hold.”
A bag is useful in many ways. Just be careful not to let the cat out of the bag, or someone may leave you holding the bag.
(Music)
You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. This is Bob Doughty⁶.

1 rebellion   

n.造反，叛乱，反抗

参考例句：

• The next year they rose up in rebellion.第二年他们就揭竿起义了。
• The new government quickly suppressed the rebellion.新政府迅速把叛乱镇压下去。

2 veterans   

经验丰富的人，老兵( veteran的名词复数 )； 退伍军人

参考例句：

• Some veterans of the two world wars gathered to celebrate their victory. 一些经历了两次世界大战的退伍军人欢聚庆祝胜利。
• Seasoned veterans were picked to storm the difficult enemy position. 有经验的老兵被挑选出来去突袭难攻的敌军阵地。

3 federal   

adj.联盟的；联邦的；(美国)联邦政府的

参考例句：

• Switzerland is a federal republic.瑞士是一个联邦共和国。
• The schools are screaming for federal aid.那些学校强烈要求联邦政府的援助。

4 rebels   

n.反政府的人( rebel的名词复数 )；反叛者；造反者；叛逆者v.反抗政府( rebel的第三人称单数 )；反抗权威

参考例句：

• Most of the rebels were captured and disarmed. 大部分叛乱分子被俘获并解除了武装。
• The rebels went on an orgy of killing. 叛乱者肆意杀人。

5 captured   

俘获( capture的过去式和过去分词 )； 夺取； 夺得； 引起（注意、想像、兴趣）

参考例句：

• Allied troops captured over 300 enemy soldiers. 盟军俘虏了300多名敌方士兵。
• Most of the rebels were captured and disarmed. 大部分叛乱分子被俘获并解除了武装。

6 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。