无论是怎样的文化背景,绿色在很多语言里,都是充满生机和希望的颜色。一些环保组织更是用绿色作为其标志的主色调。近些年来,绿色也成为了时下热门的词汇,绿色产业、绿色软件、绿色消费,还有绿色奥运。这一期我们就来一起分享有关“绿”的词组。
发音：美式发音
语速：110词/分钟
使用方法：精听+听写
Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants.
Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished.
For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no expereince, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.
About one hundred years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American west. Old-timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities back east. The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the hard, rough country.
Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early 1900s.
A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.
The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.
Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion, jealousy. The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play Othello.
It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay raise and she does not.
In most places in the world, a green light is a sign to move ahead. A green light on a traffic signal means your car can continue on. In everyday speech, a green light means approval to continue with a project.
● greenhorn一词由“green”和“horn”合成。“horn”指的是牛、羊等动物头上长的角。不过在它们初生的时候,成型的角尚未长成,而只是一块略带绿色的日后能长成角的基部。因此,“greenhorn”最早出现于牧场,用来指初生的动物。随着时间推移,“greenhorn”不断衍生出新的意思,诸如未上沙场的士兵、工作上毫无经验的新手等等。如今,在任一方面无经验可言的新手、生手,都可以用“greenhorn”来表示。
● “green thumb”的意思显然不是字面翻译的“绿色拇指”。我们都知道,绿色是草或树等植物的颜色,“green thumb”就是指在种植植物,尤其是种花、种菜等方面有过人才能的人。例如:I wish I had a green thumb like her. Just look at the beautiful flowers in her garden!(我真希望我像她一样是个种花能手。瞧她花园里的花开得多好看啊!)
● 绿色革命始于20世纪60年代末,当时世界许多发展中国家和不发达国家为了解决粮食问题而推广了大规模的农业改良革命,强调粮食的增收在于引进新品种与使用化学肥料,而非传统的耕作技术。
● “green-eyed”用作“嫉妒”之意最早出自莎士比亚的作品,1596年的《威尼斯商人》。到了1604年,他在《奥赛罗》里首次用“green-eyed monster”来形容那些在杀死老鼠之前还要戏耍它们的猫。在戏剧《奥赛罗》里,奥赛罗的手下Lago有心挑拨他和妻子的感情,有一次,Lago造谣暗示奥赛罗的妻子与另一名副将有染,但与此同时,他又假惺惺地劝奥赛罗不要妒忌,因为妒忌是只害人的“green-eyed monster”。奥赛罗最终中计,杀死了妻子,随后自杀。
● “green light”,“开绿灯”的说法中国也有,表示同意、批准,让某事继续下去。它通常搭配动词“give”,例如:They'll never give the green light to gambling.(他们永远不会给赌博开绿灯。)