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What does that mean? 你真的瞭解這個慣用語嗎?
【英文學習】
很多字詞並非表面所見的意思，字詞的組合會產生不同的解釋。這樣的慣用法，我們稱之為「比喻」。一個成功的比喻，作者本身必須相當瞭解字詞的源起。以下的句子為讀者介紹一個比喻及其來源。
Imagery buries itself in language and takes on new meaning. The transplanted and transformed sets of words are called “figures of speech.” For a figure of speech to be effective, however, a writer must first understand the original meaning of the phrase. The following sentence contains a common figure of speech. Its original meaning is explained.
“Southern Song Dynasty General Yue Fei was a tiger of unusual stripe, as fiercely egalitarian to his men as he was dictatorial to his children.”
南宋大將岳飛就像是非凡的猛虎，對部下力求同甘共苦，對子女則嚴厲管教。
“A tiger of unusual stripe” refers to the variety of coloration and pattern in the coat of a tiger. The standard configuration is black stripes running around the orange trunk of the body. The stripes also can be brown or gray. However, Malaysian natives report seeing a tiger with stripes running the length of the body.
「A tiger of unusual stripe」意指老虎外皮斑斕的色彩與花樣。一般的虎皮都是在橘黃色的軀幹上佈有黑色條紋，有時也有褐色或灰色，但馬來西亞原著民中曾見到老虎條紋遍布全身的記錄。
As used in a paper about a dynastic Chinese military leader, the metaphor denotes a human characteristic that apparently set him apart from his peers: His charity was more evident at work—on the military campaign trail—than at home. Using a uniquely striped tiger to metaphorically illustrate Fei’s individualism is doubly effective; the virtues traditionally associated with tigers, including ferociousness and courage, also are associated with generals.
在這篇有關中國古代名將的文章中，老虎的比喻暗示岳飛有著超凡出群的品格。他在軍中相當愛護下屬—尤其是在征途中—在家則較為嚴厲。用非凡的猛虎形容岳飛的出眾格外有力，因為傳統上，兇猛與勇敢這類與猛虎的特徵聯想在一起的特質，用來形容軍中將領是最適合不過了。
Imagery buries itself in language and takes on new meaning. The transplanted and transformed sets of words are called “figures of speech.” For a figure of speech to be effective, however, a writer must first understand the original meaning of the phrase. The following sentence contains a common figure of speech. Its original meaning is explained.
“Southern Song Dynasty General Yue Fei was a tiger of unusual stripe, as fiercely egalitarian to his men as he was dictatorial to his children.”
南宋大將岳飛就像是非凡的猛虎，對部下力求同甘共苦，對子女則嚴厲管教。
“A tiger of unusual stripe” refers to the variety of coloration and pattern in the coat of a tiger. The standard configuration is black stripes running around the orange trunk of the body. The stripes also can be brown or gray. However, Malaysian natives report seeing a tiger with stripes running the length of the body.
「A tiger of unusual stripe」意指老虎外皮斑斕的色彩與花樣。一般的虎皮都是在橘黃色的軀幹上佈有黑色條紋，有時也有褐色或灰色，但馬來西亞原著民中曾見到老虎條紋遍布全身的記錄。
As used in a paper about a dynastic Chinese military leader, the metaphor denotes a human characteristic that apparently set him apart from his peers: His charity was more evident at work—on the military campaign trail—than at home. Using a uniquely striped tiger to metaphorically illustrate Fei’s individualism is doubly effective; the virtues traditionally associated with tigers, including ferociousness and courage, also are associated with generals.
在這篇有關中國古代名將的文章中，老虎的比喻暗示岳飛有著超凡出群的品格。他在軍中相當愛護下屬—尤其是在征途中—在家則較為嚴厲。用非凡的猛虎形容岳飛的出眾格外有力，因為傳統上，兇猛與勇敢這類與猛虎的特徵聯想在一起的特質，用來形容軍中將領是最適合不過了。
