【篇一】
a drop in the bucket
九牛一毛
Li Ling was a great general during the time of emperor Han Wu-di (hàn wǔ dì漢武帝). He was a very good fighter， and he won every battle.
西漢時(shí)代有個(gè)很有名的大將軍名叫李陵，他驍勇善戰(zhàn)，百戰(zhàn)百贏。
One time， however， Li Ling‘s troops were so hopelessly outnumbered by the Huns that although they fought bravely， the whole army was soon taken captive.
有，雖然李陵的軍隊(duì)奮勇殺敵，因?yàn)楸Σ蛔愣鴳?zhàn)敗投降。
Li Ling shamefully surrendered for the moment， planning to wait for an opportunity to strike back.
李陵打算暫時(shí)先忍辱投降，以便伺機(jī)等待機(jī)會(huì)反擊。
But when news of the surrender reached the capital， the emperor’s jealous ministers began to degrade Li Ling in front of the emperor.
但當(dāng)李陵投降的消息傳到首都，皇上身邊嫉妒的大臣們都開(kāi)始指責(zé)李陵。
What he heard made the emperor so angry that he had Li Ling‘s wife and mother put to death.
皇上十分氣憤，他將李陵的妻子與母親都賜死了。
Ze-ma Chian， who had always respected Li Ling， believed that he wouldn’t surrender without a reason， and urged the emperor not to believe rumors.
司馬遷一直很敬重李陵，他不信李陵會(huì)無(wú)緣無(wú)故投降，便諫言皇上不要聽(tīng)信謠言。
This time， the emperor grew angry at Sz-ma Chian， and locking him up， punished him severely.
但就因?yàn)檫@樣，皇上便遷怒司馬遷，并將他囚禁，進(jìn)行嚴(yán)懲。
Sz-ma Chian then wrote a long letter to a friend， saying， “I am now in the middle of writing a history book. If I die， it will be as if one ox in a group on nine were to lose a single hair. I am willing to withstand punishment in order to complete this book.” Sz-ma Chian finally did finish his book - the very famous Shr-Ji.
司馬遷隨后寫了一封長(zhǎng)信給他的朋友，說(shuō)道：“我現(xiàn)在在寫一部歷史長(zhǎng)篇，如果我死了，就如同九牛一毛般微不足道，但我愿意承受住這般的懲罰，來(lái)完成這部書。”終，司馬遷完成了這部名流千古的史學(xué)著作——《史記》。
英文中對(duì)應(yīng)的“九牛一毛”的表達(dá)方式是“a drop in the bucket”，意思就是“一個(gè)水桶里的一滴水”，一個(gè)大水桶里的一滴水那就是九牛一毛，少之又少啦~同時(shí)也可以翻譯成“滄海一粟”或者是“微不足道”~
下面我們一起來(lái)看幾個(gè)例句：
�。�1）“I‘m sorry I scratched your car.”
“很抱歉，刮花了你的車�！�
“Don’t worry about it. It‘s just a drop in the bucket. That car has more scratches on it than I can count.”
別擔(dān)心，小事一樁~這車本來(lái)就被刮了很多次了。
�。�2）When I think how many people there are in the world， I realize that my own problems are just a drop in the bucket.
當(dāng)我意識(shí)到這個(gè)世界上的人是何其多，我的個(gè)人問(wèn)題簡(jiǎn)直是微不足道。
下面我們來(lái)看一句特蕾莎修女的名句：
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
“我們自己總是會(huì)覺(jué)得我們的所作所為猶如滄海一粟，但是這一整片大海卻少不了這一粟。”
就因?yàn)檫@一句話，曾有公益活動(dòng)的名字就叫做“We need your drop.”(我們需要你的幫助）
【篇二】
be concentrating on sth
專心致志
Yi Qiu was known as the most famous expert at chess throughout the land.
奕秋是全國(guó)有名的棋手。
Once he gave lessons on chess to two men.
有，他教兩個(gè)人下棋。
One of them was completely absorbed in his teaching， listening attentively to Yi Qiu while the other， who seemed to be listening， had his mind on something else.
一個(gè)認(rèn)真的聽(tīng)課，完全沉浸于其中。 另一個(gè)盡管看上去也在聽(tīng)課，其實(shí)在想其它的事情。
In fact， he was having a fancy that a swan was flying towards him and he had in his hands a bow and an arrow， ready to shoot.
他幻想有只天鵝正朝他飛來(lái)，而他拿著弓和箭準(zhǔn)備把它射下來(lái)。
As a result， though he was having the same lesson together with the first man， yet he turned out a much inferior student.
所以，雖然他和另一個(gè)人上的是同樣的課，他學(xué)得可差多了。
If one is not concentrating on his study， no skills will be learned.
不專心致志的學(xué)習(xí)，什么技能都學(xué)不會(huì)。
大家是不是一直對(duì)“be concentrated on sth”和“be concentrating on sth”感到有些迷惑呢？今天就有我來(lái)給大家講解一下吧~
我們先來(lái)看一段話：
The teacher wrote two sentences on the whiteboard and asked us what’s the difference. “He is very concentrated on…” and “He is very concentrating on..”
老師在白板上寫下兩句話，讓我們說(shuō)出區(qū)別，這兩句句子是“He is very concentrated on…”和“He is very concentrating on..”
A girl sits besides me said it was very similar as the way “surprised” and “surprising” is used.
做在我身邊的女孩說(shuō)這兩句句子的區(qū)別就是“surprised”和 “surprising” 的區(qū)別類似。
He is surprised means he is surprised by something. He is surprising means he himself is something surprising.
“He is surprised”意思就是“他感到很驚喜”，而“He is surprising”意思則是“他總是讓別人感到很驚喜�！�
“Good，” the teacher says，”Concentrated means something with high density， like concentrated jam and orange juice. If you want to say the person is focusing on something mentally you should use ‘He is concentrating on…’”.
“非常好，”老師說(shuō)，“Concentrated就是說(shuō)某樣?xùn)|西密度很高，濃度很大，就像是果醬、橘子汁”，但如果你想說(shuō)某人專心致志做某事就是“He is concentrating on…”。
Oh….. my goodness， I must have been saying he is concentrated on … for decades now.
哦，我的天啊，我至少說(shuō)“he is concentrated on……”有十年時(shí)間了。。。
相信大家通過(guò)這么一段話，都理解這兩句話其中的差別了吧~
【篇三】
Honey in the mouth and swords in the stomach/Judas kiss
口蜜腹劍
Li Lin-fu was a prime minister of China during the T‘a(chǎn)ng dynasty (唐朝， 618—907AD).
李林甫，唐玄宗時(shí)官居“兵部尚書”兼“中書令”這是宰相的職位。
He was good at both calligraphy and painting， but had a crafty and sinister personality which made him disliked by everyone.
此人若論才藝倒也不錯(cuò)，能書善畫。但若論品德，那是壞透了，所以并不受歡迎。
Li Lin-fu would bribe the palace eunuchs and concubines to tell him what the emperor liked， and then would immediately go prepare that thing for the emperor. The emperor was therefore very fond of Li Lin-fu， and trusted him unduly.
李林甫常常*宦官來(lái)告訴他皇上的喜好，然后再準(zhǔn)備東西討好皇上。因此皇上很倚重李林甫。
One time， the minister Li Shr-jr offended Li Lin-fu. Li Lin-fu pretended not to care， and was in fact especially nice to the minister.
有，大臣李適之冒犯了李林甫，李林甫表面上并不在意，還裝作對(duì)這個(gè)大臣特別好。
Then on a day， he told Li Shr-jr about some gold that was hidden over in Hua Mountain， and encouraged him to suggest mining this gold to the emperor.
然后有一天，李林甫告訴李適之在華山后面藏著金子，并慫恿他讓皇上去挖金。
Li Shr-jr being of an honest and upright disposition， believed that it was true， and immediately went and told the emperor.
李適之為人老實(shí)，就信以為真，馬上就去告訴了皇上。
But when the emperor began to discuss this with Li Lin-fu， Li Lin-fu acted very frightened and said，
“Hua Mountain in the place where all of Your Majesty’s auspicious aurora are gathered. If we were to mine that area， it could be very dangerous for you. Who is it that wants to harm you？”
玄宗立刻把李林甫找來(lái)商議，李林甫卻說(shuō)：“這件事我早知道了，華山是帝王風(fēng)水集中的地方，怎么可以隨便開(kāi)采呢？別人勸您開(kāi)采，恐怕是不懷好意；我?guī)状蜗氚堰@件事告訴您，只是不敢開(kāi)口�！�
Today we can describe someone who is two-faced and always nice on the outside and yet is mean to people behind their backs as having “Honey in the Mouth and Swords in the Stomach.”
如今當(dāng)我們形容一個(gè)人是兩面派，表面對(duì)人溫文爾雅，但暗地傷人的人時(shí)，我們就用“口蜜腹劍”這個(gè)成語(yǔ)。
“口蜜腹劍”的英文表達(dá)是“Judas kiss”，就是“猶大之吻”的意思，該詞源出于圣經(jīng)故事。
Judas 是耶穌的十二門徒之一，但為了三十個(gè)銀幣卻出賣了自己的老師耶穌。他假惺惺地向耶穌問(wèn)好，并且親吻他，以此向前來(lái)捉拿耶穌的人示意誰(shuí)是耶穌，結(jié)果耶穌被他們捉走并釘死在十字架上。所以“Judas kiss”就是“口蜜腹劍”，“笑面虎”的意思啦~同時(shí)，單單用““Judas”可以表示“叛徒、背叛者”的意思，所以“play Judas（扮演 Judas 的角色）”就是“當(dāng)叛徒”的意思。
我們來(lái)看一個(gè)例句：
When he said he had some extremely important information and must talk to the chief in person， no one suspected it was meant to be a Judas kiss.
當(dāng)他說(shuō)有些極為重要的情報(bào)，必須和頭兒親自談時(shí)，誰(shuí)也沒(méi)懷疑這是個(gè)出賣的行為。
