剧变骚乱之后,总会归于平静,此语缘于1200年,在美国首见于《拉迪松航行记》一书,此书叙述的是法国探险家拉迪松的航行故事。该谚语的其它常用形式还有the calm before the storm. The storm before the calm
E.g. In fact I’m actually starting to view the age of thirty-nine as the storm before the calm. As I hear tell , many woman reach a state of grace at forty.--------Ladies’ Home Journal
Threatened man live long
E.g. Their enemies have been vowing to stop their supplies, yet threatened man live long. They seem to be growing steadily all the same.
There’s no such thing as free lunch.
E.g. John is fond of taking petty advantages. Once, he walked into a restaurant that had a sign reading: free food on our third anniversary. He ordered his food and found it enjoyable untilled was given a bill—the food was, indeed, free, but the drinks he ordered cost him twice as much as the food itself. There’s no such thing as free food.
From clogs to clogs is only three generations.
中国有句俗话叫做富不过三代,上面这句起源于英国的谚语表达的也是这个意思。Clog是英格兰常见的下层劳动者的装束,直译就是:从穿clog(木底鞋)到clog不过三代人而已。二者可谓异曲同工。皆体现出创业于守成二者之间的道理,其中深意,或可为诫。
亦作:From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.
E.g. The father buys, the son buildings, The grandchild sells and his son begs. So goes an English saying. The curse of God rest on idleness and that’s why “from clog to clog is only three generations”
New brooms sweep clean.
新买的扫帚扫的干净。与中文谚语:新官上任三把火。有惊人的相似之处。都是人们对一种常见情形的批评。
E.g. When Tom became the general manager, everybody in office placed great hopes on him. New broom sweep clean. They felt .he seemed quite energetic during the frist few months, but his enthusiasm soon petered out and everything was back to normal.
