談“天氣”

有很多英語詞組都帶有表示天氣的單詞，有趣的是，這些詞組并不是都與天氣有關。下面就讓我們一起來學習這些詞組吧！

Has this ever happened to you？ You start the day feeling ill. Your head hurts. Your stomach aches. Youre walking around confused， like youre in a fog. You just really feel under the weather. You call your co-worker to ask them to go to the meeting for you today. Its a very important meeting， so you know that you wont be able to take a rain check； you wont be able to postpone it. But it turns out that your co-worker is just a fair-weather friend！ She wont support you in your moment of need and refuses to go to the meeting for you.

in a fog從字面上看是“在霧里”，自然是摸不清狀況、看不清真相，因此這是“困惑、糊里糊涂，不知道發生什么事”的意思。

under the weather與天氣沒有太大的關系，是“身體不舒服”的意思，沒有具體指哪里不舒服，只是日常表達小毛病的最普遍的用法。

rain check/ticket出自露天舉行的棒球比賽，若逢突然下雨，賽事不得不取消之時，觀眾可以去領取這種rain check/ ticket作為球賽改期進行的入場憑證。如今，rain check/ticket廣泛運用于日常生活中，take a rain check/ticket是改期的委婉說法。

fair weather指風和日麗，天氣非常好；而a fair-weather friend指的是無法共患難的、靠不住的酒肉朋友。那些朋友只能有福同享，無法有難同當，一旦風云突變，則會離你而去。

So you decide to just weather the storm—survive this difficult situation—and get through this meeting come rain or shine， whatever happens. Of course， youre secretly hoping that the client will cancel the meeting， but that probably has a snowballs chance in hell of happening. It has very little chance.

weather the storm字面上指“經歷風暴”，引申為“克服困難、渡過難關”的意思。

come rain or shine意思是無論下雨還是陽光燦爛，一切都照常進行，這是“風雨無阻”的意思。

a snowballs chance in hell是“希望不大，機會渺茫”的意思，常用于否定句中。

Then， as if things werent bad enough， when you arrive at work， your boss has a face like thunder—he looks very angry indeed. He must have got wind of （heard about） your dry spell. You just havent been as successful as you usually are， but you know that youll get past it. When your boss asks you whats going on. Well， you tell him， things have been a little slow lately， but this is just the lull before the storm. You know that things will pick up soon. Your boss tells you hed better not be waiting for a raindrop in a drought—hed better not be waiting for something thats unlikely to happen.

a face like thunder指的是“怒氣沖沖、愁容滿面”。

get wind of的意思是“聽到風聲、得到線索、聽聞”。

dry spell是“干旱期”的意思，spell此處表示“連續的一段時間”。這里的dry spell指的是在工作中遇到瓶頸。

the lull before the storm從字面上不難理解，意思是“暴風雨前的暫時平靜”。其中，lull表示“間歇，暫停，暫時的平靜”。

wait for a raindrop in a drought是指在干旱中等待雨水，比喻等待極不可能發生的事。

But youve got hope. Youve been working on a project that will take the city by storm. It will captivate the public， and everyone will be talking about it. But when you arrive at the meeting， you discover that another co-worker is presenting your idea！ You cant believe it： He stole your thunder！ He took your idea and now hes the one that will get all the praise. But instead of confronting him right away， you decide to see which way the wind blows—you want to analyse the situation before acting. Maybe he didnt realize that he was raining on your parade， destroying your plan. Happily， once you explain， your co-worker realizes that he cant just steal your idea and sees the cold light of day： He realizes the way things are instead of the way he wants them to be.

Thank goodness your day has ended right as rain！

take…by storm是“使……為之傾倒，攻占，征服”的意思。

steal ones thunder這個詞組有一個出處：1709年，英國戲劇家John Dennis在其戲劇中首次使用一種模仿打雷效果的方法，獲得成功，但是這部戲劇本身反響平平。不久，另一個劇院在演出時也運用了這一方法，遭到Dennis“偷走他的雷聲”的控告。如今，steal ones thunder引申為竊取別人的成果和榮譽從而達到利己的目的。

see which way the wind blows字面上指的是“看風往哪吹”，即中文里我們所說的“見風使舵”，形容人搖擺不定，沒有堅定立場，隨時勢而改變，是一個貶義詞。而在英語中，see which way the wind blows較為中立，源于船只在海上航行，知道風向甚為重要，所以指的是“多了解情況、多搜集資料，進而作出決定”。

rain on ones parade的意思是“掃興、潑冷水”。parade的意思是游行，試想在游行途中因大雨而不得不停止，這的確讓人夠掃興的了！

see the cold light of day指的是冷靜地回想整件事，為自己一時的沖動所為而感到抱歉甚至羞愧。

（as） right as rain的意思是“非常順利，完全令人滿意”。