【篇一】
be afraid of one‘s own shadow草木皆兵
In AD 383， the king of Former Qin (秦朝)， Fu Jian (fú jiān 苻堅)， led a huge army to attack Eastern Jin.
公元383年，秦王苻堅率領(lǐng)步兵、騎兵90萬，攻打江南的晉朝。
After losing the first round of fighting， Fu Jian looked down from a city wall， and was terrified when he saw the formidable battle array of the Eastern Jin army.
在一輪戰(zhàn)敗后，苻堅從城墻俯視周遭，當(dāng)他看到勢不可破的東晉部隊，他感到很害怕。
And then looking at the mountains around， he mistook the grass and trees for enemy soldiers.
此時，苻堅在壽春城上望見晉軍隊伍嚴(yán)整，士氣高昂，再北望八公山，只見山上一草一木都像晉軍的士兵一樣，于是更加恐慌。
As a result， when the nervous Fu Jian led his army into battle， it suffered a crushing defeat.
后來苻堅全軍覆沒，帶著少數(shù)殘余的隊伍逃回去了。
This idiom describes how one can defeat oneself by imaging difficulties.
這個成語后來形容人在極度驚恐時，疑神疑鬼的心理狀態(tài)。
英文中“草木皆兵”的相應(yīng)說法可以用“afraid of one’s own shadow”，也就是一個人連自己的影子都怕，當(dāng)一個人連自己的影子都怕的時候，是不是就是疑神疑鬼，“草木皆兵”了呢~~
我們來一起看一個例句吧~
She stays at home all the time and never makes any new friends. She seems to be afraid of her own shadow.
她老待在家里， 從不交新朋友，感覺“草木皆兵”。
【篇二】
to add insult to injury/to add fuel to the fire抱薪救火
In the last years of the Warring States period (戰(zhàn)國， 475-221BC)， the State of Qin (秦國) attacked the State of Wei (魏國) on a large scale repeatedly and occupied large areas of land， for the State of Wei was too weak to defend itself.
戰(zhàn)國末期，秦國向魏國接連發(fā)動大規(guī)模的進(jìn)攻，魏國無力抵抗，大片土地都被秦軍占領(lǐng)了。
In 273 BC， the Qin army launched another attack upon the State of Wei with a momentum more vigorous than ever. The king of the State of Wei summoned his officials，and asked with a worried look if anyone could propose a way to defeat the Qin army.
到公元前273年，秦國又一次向魏國出兵，勢頭空前猛烈。魏王把大臣們召來，愁眉苦臉地問大家有沒有使秦國退兵的辦法。
After years of chaos caused by the wars，the officials trembled when fighting was mentioned， and no one dared to speak of “resistance”.
大臣們由于經(jīng)過多年的戰(zhàn)亂，提起打仗就嚇得哆嗦，誰也不敢談“抵抗”二字。
At the critical moment when a large enemy force was approaching the border， most of the officials persuaded the king to sue for peace， at the cost of giving away to the State of Qin the large area of land north of the Huanghe River
(huáng hé 黃河) and south of the Taihang Mountain (tài háng shān 太行山).
在這大兵壓境的危急時刻，多數(shù)大臣都勸魏王，用黃河以北和太行山以南的大片土地為代價，向秦王求和。
However Su Dai (sūdài 蘇代)， a counsellor， did not agree. He hurried up to the king and said：“Your Majesty， they don‘t think about the interests of the country at all.It is just because they are cowardly and afraid of death that they ask you to sue for peace by betraying the country.Of course you can temperarily satisfy the ambition of the king of the State of Qin is insatiably greedy. It will never stop assaulting us until our land is totally given away.”
謀士蘇代聽了這些話，很不以為然，忙上前對魏王說：“大王，他們是因為自己膽小怕死，才讓您去*求和，根本不為國家著想。您想，把大片土地割讓給秦國雖然暫時滿足了秦王的野心，但秦國的*是無止境的，只要魏國的土地沒割完，秦軍就不會停止進(jìn)攻我們。”
Once there was a man whose house was on fire. People told him to put out the fire with water， but he would not listen. Instead， he carried a faggot to put out the fire， only to make the fire fiercer. That was because he didn’t know that，instead of putting out the fire， faggots could only make it burning more vigorously. Isn‘t it equivalent to carrying faggots to put out a fire if you agree to sue for peace at the cost of the land of the State of Wei？“
說到這里，蘇代講了一個故事：“從前有一個人，他的房子起火了，別人勸他快用水去澆滅大火，但他不聽，偏抱起一捆柴草去救火，是因為他不懂得柴草不但不能滅火反而能助長火勢的道理。大王若同意拿著魏國土地去求和，不就等于抱著柴草救火嗎？”
Though Su Dai’s argument was very convincing， the king accepted the suggestion of those officials and gave away to the State of Qin a large area of the land of the State of Wei.
盡管蘇代講得頭頭是道，但是膽小的魏王只顧眼前的太平，還是依大臣們的意見把魏國大片土地割讓給秦國。
The State of Wei was finally destroyed by the State of Qin. This story appears in the Historical Records Written by Sima Qian. The set phrase“carrying faggots to put out a fire”is used to mean adopting a wrong method to save a situation and ending up by making it worse.
到公元225年，魏國最終被秦國滅掉了。這個故事出自司馬遷的《史記》，“抱薪救火”就是指“用錯誤的方式去挽救現(xiàn)狀，最終只會令狀況更糟糕”。
英文中“抱薪救火”的相應(yīng)說法可以用“to add insult to injury”，“insult”是“言語侮辱”的意思，試想當(dāng)一個人已經(jīng)受傷了，你可能本想用激將法，但最后卻適得其反，越幫越忙，變成了“在傷口上撒鹽”，那就是“抱薪救火”啦~
同時也可以用“to add fuel to the fire”來表達(dá)“抱薪救火”的意思，其實“to add fuel to the fire”的直譯是“火上澆油”，但實際表達(dá)的含義是相近的~
【篇三】
Love me， love my dog.愛屋及烏
There was a state called zhou (周) in the chinese history.
中國歷有一個國家名叫“周”。
One day， the king of zhou asked his officials for advice on deal with prisoners of war.
一天，周王問他的官員，應(yīng)該怎樣處理戰(zhàn)俘。
An official said， “i once heard if you love someone， you are intended to love even the crows on the roof of his house； if you hate someone， you are intended to hate even the walls and the parapets of his. The prisoners of war were enemies fighting against us. In my opinion， we‘d better kill them all.”
一個官員說：“我以前曾聽說：如果喜歡某個人，就連停留在那人住的屋頂上的烏鴉都喜歡；如果厭惡某個人，就連那人家里的墻壁和圍墻都厭惡。戰(zhàn)俘是我們的敵人，和我們是對立的，我覺得把他們?nèi)繗⒘��！?/p>
But the king didn’t agree with him.“I think we should treat the prisoners of war differently by differing them into those who are guilty and those who are not. The guilty ones will be sentenced to death in order to avoid future disasters.” Another official put forward his suggestion.
周王認(rèn)為這樣做不行。另外一個官員也提出了自己的意見：“依我看應(yīng)該把戰(zhàn)俘區(qū)分對待，把有罪的和無罪的、好的和壞的區(qū)分開來。有罪的戰(zhàn)俘要處死，不能留下禍患�！�
The king didn‘t think it was a proper way， either.
周王認(rèn)為這樣做也不大妥當(dāng)。
Then a third one said， “Your majesty， I think all the prisoners should be set free and sent back home to work in the fields and support themselves by their own labor. Moreover， you should keep strictly the rules for reward and punishment and treat your relatives and friends impartially.The people are sure to believe in you if you administer our country by morals and laws.”
接著，又有一個官員說：“大王，我認(rèn)為應(yīng)該把這些戰(zhàn)俘全都放了，讓他們回到自己的家里，耕種田地，自食其力。而大王對自己的親人和朋友，也要賞罰分明，不能偏心。通過道德和法律來治理國家，人民肯定會對大王信服的�！�
The king thought the official’s proposal was quite reasonable so he accepted and followed it.As a result， the domestic situation soon settled down and gradually the country became more stable and stronger.
周王聽后覺得很有道理，就按這個辦法去做，結(jié)果國家真的很快安定下來了，變得越來越穩(wěn)定和強大。
The idiom is then used to mean that if you love someone，you‘ll love people and things relative to him as well.
成語“愛屋及烏”后來就被用來比喻：因為喜愛一個人，連帶和他有關(guān)的人或事物也喜愛、關(guān)心。
“愛屋及烏”的英語表達(dá)大家也一定都有所耳聞了吧~就是“Love me， love my dog.”字面意思就是“愛我，就要愛我的狗”，比喻一個人如果喜歡一樣事物或者人，他就會喜愛關(guān)于這個事物或是人的一切，也就是“愛屋及烏”的意思啦~
這里向大家介紹一首好聽的英文歌曲，就叫做“Love me， love my dog.”是由Peter Shelley演唱的，相信大家聽完，一定會牢牢記住這一個有趣的英文表達(dá)。
