VOA慢速英语2014 Get Your ‘Kick’ with Words 词汇掌故：Kick相关词汇

 

Get Your ‘Kick’ with Words 词汇掌故：Kick相关词汇

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

这里是美国之音慢速英语词汇掌故。

From birth to death, the word kick has been given an important part in expressing human experience. The proud and happy mother feels the first signs of life kicking inside her womb. And that same life -- many years later -- comes to its end in a widely-used expression, to kick the bucket, meaning to die.

从出生到死亡，单词kick在表达人生经历上占了重要的一部分。幸福骄傲的母亲最初感受到生命的信号就是孩子在她子宫里的kicking（踢）。然而，同样的生命，多年以后，到生命结束的时候普遍的表达方式是“kick the bucket”，意思是死。

The expression to kick the bucket is almost two hundred years old. One belief is that it started when an English stableman committed suicide by hanging himself while standing¹ on a pail, or bucket. He put a rope around his neck and tied it to a beam in the ceiling, and then kicked the bucket away from under him.

kick the bucket（死，翘辫子）的表达方式大约有200年的历史。该词汇源自一位英国马夫站在桶上把自己吊死，他把绳子套在脖子上系到屋顶的梁上，然后踢开脚下的桶。

After a while, to die in any way was called kicking the bucket.

之后，任何方式的死亡都被称为kicking the bucket。

Another old expression that comes from England is to kick over the traces, meaning to resist the commands of one’s parents, or to oppose or reject authority. Traces were the chains that held a horse or mule² to a wagon³ or plow⁴. Sometimes, an animal rebelled and kicked over the traces.

另一个源自英国的短语kick over the traces（挣脱羁绊，反抗），意思是反抗父母的命令，或抵抗拒绝权利。trace缰绳是把马或骡子拴在马车或犁上的链子，有时，动物反抗就会挣脱缰绳。

The word kick sometimes is used to describe a complaint or some kind of dissatisfaction. Workers, for example, kick about long hours and low pay.

有时kick用来描述抱怨或某种程度的不满。例如，工人们kick about（抱怨）工时过长而工资太低。

There are times when workers are forced to kick back some of their wages to their employers as part of their job. This kickback⁵ is illegal. So is another kind of kickback: a secret payment made by a supplier to an official who buys supplies for a government or company.

有时工人被迫从工资中kick back（退回）一些给雇主。这种kickback（回扣）是非法的，所以另一种回扣：供应商给为政府或公司购买设备人的秘密款项。

Kick around is a phrase that is heard often in American English. A person who is kicked around is someone who is treated badly. Usually, he is not really being kicked by somebody’s foot. He is just not being treated with the respect that all of us want.

kick around（粗暴而轻率地对待某人）在美式英语中经常听到。一个人被kicked around是指被粗暴地对待，通常不是说他真的被某人踢了，只是没有受到我们希望的尊敬对待。

A person who has kicked around for most of his life is someone who has spent his life moving from place to place. In this case, kicking around means moving often from one place to another.

一个人大部分的时光kick around（到处流浪，到处是游荡）指他一生都在从一个地方搬到另一个地方。这样，kick around意思就是经常从一个地方换到另一个地方。

Kick around has a third meaning when you use it with the word idea. When you kick around an idea, you are giving that idea some thought.

kick around和idea一起用还有第三种意思，当你kick around an idea就是再三考虑。

There is no physical action when you kick a person upstairs, although the pain can be as strong. You kick a person upstairs by removing him from an important job and giving him a job that sounds more important, but really is not.

当你kick a person upstairs（明升暗降）则是没有实际位置，尽管疼痛如此强烈。明升暗降是将他从重要的工作岗位撤掉，安排到听起来更重要实际则不然的工作位置上。

Still another meaning of the word kick is to free oneself of a bad habit, such as smoking cigarettes. Health campaigns urge smokers⁶ to kick the habit.

kick的另一个意思是将自己从不良习惯中摆脱出来，诸如吸烟。健康运动敦促吸烟者kick the habit（

 

戒除嗜好，戒除陋习）。

1 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

2 mule   

n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人

参考例句：

• A mule is a cross between a mare and a donkey.骡子是母马和公驴的杂交后代。
• He is an old mule.他是个老顽固。

3 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

4 plow   

n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough

参考例句：

• At this time of the year farmers plow their fields.每年这个时候农民们都在耕地。
• We will plow the field soon after the last frost.最后一场霜过后，我们将马上耕田。

5 kickback   

n.酬金；佣金，回扣

参考例句：

• Mike got a kickback from a merchant.麦克从商人那里得到了回扣。
• The company had to kickback a lot to the corrupt officer.这家公司必须给腐败的政府官员很大一笔佣金。

6 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。