the room 什么(theroom什么意思)

英语中有很多有趣的表达,其中有一个关于大象的俚语“elephant in the room”,你知道是什么意思吗?


如果根据字面意思,翻译成“屋里有大象”,那就大错特错啦~



我们来看一下维基百科的解释:


"Elephant in the room" is a metaphorical idiom in English for an obvious problem or risk that no one wants to discuss.

"Elephant in the room" 指显而易见而又没人愿意讨论的问题。


来看两个例句:


Emma: Nobody is willing to talk about the elephant in the room during the meeting.

Jason: What elephant?

Emma: The fact that our company has no money! Broke!!

-没有人愿意在会上谈论那件棘手的事儿。

-什么事?

-就是我们公司没有钱!破产啦!!



We all sat sipping our tea quietly, no one wanting to bring up the elephant in the room about Raj's breakup with his girlfriend.

我们都默默地坐着喝茶,没人愿意提起Raj和女友分手的事。


还有一个关于“大象”的表达"seeing pink elephants",见到了粉红色的大象?……当然不是这个意思啦,我们来看一下维基百科的解释:


"Seeing pink elephants" is a euphemism for drunken hallucination.

"Seeing pink elephants"是醉酒幻觉的委婉说法。


简单来说就是“喝醉了”,不喝醉的话,怎么会看见粉红大象?是不是很形象!我们来看一个例句:


When I got to the point of seeing pink elephants, I knew I had to give up drinking.

当开始看到粉红大象时,我知道,必须得戒酒了。


上面就是今天的内容啦

关于elephant的这两个实用表达

你学到了吗?