Free Trimmingsexystrippedmomanddaughter Tr Tag Graphicdesign Handling Super Heroine [休闲灌水]与考试无关的趣味英语 and 漫画英语(by installment.)_英语杂谈_天涯社区

　　#20 cow jumps over the moon
　　
　　 The comic strip above makes fun of the line “The cow jumps over the moon.” from a nursery rhyme. (From what is known as the “Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes”)
　　
　　The Nursery rhyme is “Hey Diddle Diddle” and it goes like this:
　　
　　Hey diddle diddle,
　　the cat and the fiddle,
　　The cow jumped over the moon;
　　The little dog laughed to see such sport,
　　And the dish ran away with the spoon.
　　-----------------------------------------------------
　　
　　 Children in English-speaking countries read these either as preschoolers or when they are in Kindergartens.
　　Many of these rhymes are put to song, such as Jack and Jill and Mary had a little lamb.
　　 I am sure many of you have heard of, or read Mary had a little lamb
　　Mary had a little lamb,
　　her fleece is white as snow,
　　and everywhere where Mary went
　　The lamb was sure to go.
　　--------------------------------------------
　　
　　 The “pun” in the comics in on the word “moon.” Notice the cow is jumping over the butt of a naked man.
　　
　　 Moon and Mooning
　　
　　Moon is the slang for "the rear end" or to put it bluntly, your ass (arse). (Cantonese call that part of your anatomy the 八月十五 )
　　
　　 Mooning means showing your bottom as an act of defiance or disrespect.
　　(Dictionary definition: Slang. To expose one’s buttocks in public as a prank or disrespectful gesture.)
　　-----------------------------
　　
　　(Picture below: "mooning" someone.

　　#21 Damn the Torpedoea;Full speed/steam ahead.

　　 This is a bit of Naval Americana, as often quoted as "I have not begun to fight !","Don’t give up the ship", and "You may fire when ready."
　　
　　 The expression "Damn the torpedoes , full steam ahead" is similar to 不顧槍林彈雨﹐ 勇往直前 in Chinese. This expression is often quoted in one of two forms: "full steam or full speed."
　　
　　 The torpedoes in this expression are not the type of torpedoes you see today; they are actually mines. The expression was supposed to have been uttered by the American Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, during their civil war.
　　
　　The following is quoted from: trivia/trivia02.htm
　　
　　(Start of quote)
　　Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870). Aboard Hartford, Farragut entered Mobile Bay, Alabama, 5 August 1864, in two columns, with armored monitors leading and a fleet of wooden ships following. When the lead monitor Tecumseh was demolished by a mine, the wooden ship Brooklyn stopped, and the line drifted in confusion toward Fort Morgan. As disaster seemed imminent, Farragut gave the orders embodied by these famous words. He swung his own ship clear and headed across the mines, which failed to explode. The fleet followed and anchored above the forts, which, now isolated, surrendered one by one. The torpedoes to which Farragut and his contemporaries referred would today be described as tethered mines.
　　(End of quote)
　　

　　thank you

　　 Frog in Slowly Boiling Water.
　　
　　Read this morning in a newspaper: (2000/10/27)
　　...... When it comes to taxes, citizens tend to be like the proverbial frog in slowly boiling water. .—
　　
　　And recently (a few months ago)
　　From: New York Times by Elaine Shannon:" A SLOW IRAN SQUEEZE:" "The West’s plan, which is informally known to diplomats as being the frog strategy - (with no disrespect to the French), who were among its key tacticians. The name refers to the old saying, that if you want to boil a frog, you put the unsuspecting amphibian in a pot of cold water. "This time it will be an Iranian frog," says a European diplomat. "The strategy is to heat the water slowly and steadily and try to keep the frog unsuspecting inside the pot." US Secretary of States, Condoleezza Rice and her French, German, and British counterparts crafted this plan."
　　
　　===
　　 (In Chinese: 不知危机将至
　　作者：S.H - 2000/10/28 09:11:25 *** 汉英 Forum
　　
　　水慢慢煮沸，青蛙丝毫不觉危机将至，如果快速煮沸的话，它一早就跳出来了。人类也一样，某些潜在危机不易觉察，知道时为时已晚，就像被煮熟的青蛙.
　　

　　#23 Sing Like a Canary

　　 "Sing" means "to squeal告密", "to spill the beans." Here is a comic strip with the phrase "sing" (sang like a canary.) When you "sing like a canary" to the authority you are telling them a lot of secrets.)
　　
　　Here is an interesting question from a Toefl site: ~yukna/ENG/lessons/crime.htm
　　2. When someone says that "he’ll sing like a canary" that means that:
　　A he’ll tell the police everything
　　B cry out from punishment
　　C he’s not very logical
　　D he’s got a high voice
　　
　　(Second comic strip to follow.)
　　

　　Second example, taken from the comic strip "Stone Soup."

　　#24 Coming in on a wing and a prayer.

　　 During the Second World War, badly damaged aircraft trying to make it home is said to be coming in “on a wing and a prayer.” The phrase is supposed to have come from a song (see illustration at the bottom of the page.) The phrase, use for describing a desperate situation in which you rely only on hope to see your through, has quickly entered into mainstream English.
　　 I was reminded by this expression yesterday (note 1) when the TV program "On a Wing and Prayer" came on. It was about an Airbus (belonging to Transat Airline), while flying over the Atlantic, experienced a fuel leak. All power was lost and the engines went dead. The pilot tried to glide the plane through hundreds of miles of air space to land, without braking power, on a tiny island with a military airstrip. It was a happy ending as no one was killed or even severely injured. The pilot was lauded at that time as a hero. But years later, after the investigation was complete, he was reprimanded for taking the wrong measure when one of the gauges on the plane showed one of the fuel tanks to be empty. Not realizing that the fuel line had ruptured, he diverted fuel from the other wing, thus rapidly losing all the fuel he had. (The correct decision would have been to fly only with one engine.)
　　(1) Yesterday refers to 2005-7-17 since this item wasoriginally written for the Rainlane English corner on 2005-7-18)
　　
　　Example of use:
　　Out of food and water, the explorers are relying on a wing and a prayer to get them home.
　　

　　up

　　I have completed just over 2 dozens of these. The interest in this thread has wane, so I am going to let it sit for a while. Someone once criticize me for turning into a tailor: cutting and stitching things togethr. Try doing that yourself and see how much work is involved.
　　
　　#25 Nudge, Nudge; wink, wink.

　　(Some people might recognize the picture at the bottom of this message. Yes, that’s from the zany episode of "Nudge, nudge; wink, wink" of the hugely successful, but sometimes incomprehensible to non-British, comedy series "Monty Python and the Flying Circus.")
　　 In this scene, the guy on the left is trying to find out the sex life of the guy on the right. However, he was trying not to mention anything specific, so he kept on saying things such as "you know what I mean; nudge, nudge; wink, wink." "Nudge" is to slightly touch someone with your elbow. Wink, is to wink your eyes at someone. When you want to let someone know something, but does not want to say it out in public, or that you want to draw someone’s attention, but not to let anyone else know about it, you nudge him or her slightly, or wink at him/her.
　　 I don’t know what the Chinese equivalent is. In some context, it could be “心中有数", but I am not sure. You guys can help me out on this.
　　Examples:
　　Here is one strange way of using it :
　　Winter may swing both ways (nudge nudge, wink wink) archives/2004/10/07/winter_may_swing_both_ways_nudge_nudge_wink_wink.php
　　Here is the description of a book: citation.cfm?id=371554
　　Nudge nudge wink wink: elements of face-to-face conversation for embodied conversational agents
　　One more: messageboard/01-05-05/discussion.cgi.35.html
　　The Islamic Army in Iraq (nudge, nudge; wink, wink), one of the main armed groups fighting U.S. forces in the war-torn country (nudge, nudge; wink, wink.), has threatened to carry out attacks inside the United States, according to ’’a statement posted on a Web site’’ (nudge, nudge; wink, wink.) [the day before] yesterday.
　　
　　

　　#26 The 64,000$ question.
　　The sixty-four thousand dollar question.

　　 Long before that ubiquitous "Want to be a Millionaire" game show was aired on TV, there was this famous show "Take it or leave it", hosted by NBC between 1955 and 1958. Contestants started with a one dollar question. Every time they answered correctly, the prize money doubles. However, it is an "all or nothing" situation. Contestants can quit at any time, or take a chance at the next round and either win it or lose everything.
　　 64,000$ in the mid-1950s is around, in today’s money in terms of purchasing power, 600,000$.
　　 The expression "the sixty-four thousand dollar question" has since become main-stream Americanism (and also in the UK) to mean "the most important question", "a very difficult question", "your guess is as good as mind", "something that is hard to predict"....
　　 Please note that there is an older phrase, "the 64 dollar question" that predated the "64,000 dollar question." That comes from a radio game show in which the top prize was 64$.
　　
　　 Examples: (1) How will the Americans extricate themselves from Iraq is the 64,000 dollar question.
　　 (2)Here is the 64,000 question, who will be able to resolve the conflict in the Middle East?
　　For more about the game show: 64000q.html
　　You can also search for more information. There is also a write up at pedia: /The_64,000_Dollar_Question
　　
　　

　　27 Gung Ho

　　Gung Ho, derived from Chinese, is an expression that has been in mainstream English, especially American English, for over 50 years. Can you guess what it is in Chinese? (Read the next message box (next floor) for the answer.
　　
　　
　　

　　Previously published at 第 60 楼 dispbbs.asp?boardid=27&star=6&replyid=15434&id=6499&skin=0&page=1 [原创] Origin of Gung Ho
　　Gung Ho, which in English nowadays means "Can Do", originated from the Chinese expression of 工合--Industrial Cooperative. In the late 1930s, after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, small industrial operations were set up in rural China to replace the industrial centers that had fallen into Japanese hands.
　　The two words, meaning "work together", were adopted by Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson of the U.S.Marine Corps, who was a military attache of the U.S. government in China. He was impressed by these cooperatives and when he was appointed commander of the elite 2nd Marine Battalion, he adopted "Gung Ho" as their motto. By 1942, the expression had been adopted by all of the marine corps to represent the "Can do" spirit.
　　 Gung-Ho and Ding Ho(顶好 see picture below) are also intimately associated with the Flying Tigers.
　　 In 1941, before the Americans entered the Pacific War, the U.S. government had no official military role in the Sin0-Japanese war. A group of volunteer fighter pilots, under General Claire Lee Chennault 飞虎将军陈留, (1893-1958), help defended the skies of Kumming. They became known as the "Flying Tigers."
　　(Continued in the next message) jFree Trimmingsexystrippedmomanddaughter Tr Tag Graphicdesign Handling Super Heroine [休闲灌水]与考试无关的趣味英语 and 漫画英语(by installment.)_英语杂谈_天涯社区u Super zFree Trimmingsexystrippedmomanddaughter Tr Tag Graphicdesign Handling Super Heroine [休闲灌水]与考试无关的趣味英语 and 漫画英语(by installment.)_英语杂谈_天涯社区s v Naked Girls Pussy Handling Super Heroine