时间:2019-02-03 作者:英语课 分类:英文语法词汇


英语课


  在“加拿大文学皇后”玛格丽特·爱特伍的小说《强盗新娘》中,有一个角色在空想中迷失了自己,并用“woolgathering”来自我标榜。没错,woolgathering就是“胡思乱想,白日梦,心不在焉”的意思。


  我们知道,从羊身上分离羊毛是一件难度很大的工作,在澳大利亚和新西兰,剪羊毛(sheep-shearing)逐渐成为一项竞赛。Woolgathering和剪羊毛本来没什么关系,但16世纪的时候,一些乡下穷苦人会在牧羊人常去放牧的田野漫步,试图采集羊群挂在灌木和树枝上的零星羊毛。如果能够收集到足够多的羊毛,就可以编织一件衣服,自己穿或者拿去卖掉。如此看来,wool-gathering 并不是一项获利丰厚的职业,而且还要在乡野整天游荡。到了大约1550年, woolgathering就产生了比喻义“无目的地漫游,无利可图”。


  今天,woolgathering就有了“空想,异想天开,白日梦”的含义



学英语单词
abandonment charges
Achzib
Aesculus wilsonii
AK-Ramycin
alveosubnasl prognathism
Americanocentric
angular backlash
Arta, Nomos
as mad as a wet hen
aural fistula
be converted to
be the height of absurdity
better an open enemy than a false friend
birddom
blowing
BRANCHIOSTOMATIDAE
breast feeding
brevetoxin
cancer of bile duct
Changjiang-Huaihe shear line
compound medicines
confiscators
consolidated-undrained shear test
counting number
crux
cupric potassium chloride
Cystopteris
debevoises
dermatitis venenata of external genitalia
differential scanning calorimeter (dsc)
disorderly houses
double-U butt joint
elastic design method
endocarditis fibrosa
ERMP
Estronal
expiries
family living expenses
feldspar-greisen
Fischer reagent
flow-sensing element
forwray
Gassegrain
glacier cap
going through the mill
guide column
high-rise automatic warehouse
high-speed photodetector
holmby
hush kit
Josephson junction
julimycin
kinematic indeterminacy
Komārpur
kruskall-wallis
Langat encephalitis
Lebesque-Stieltjes integral
Likuyu
live pit
lower case tool
mamouna
mast-cell sarcoma
metaprotocol
midwatch
miradors
modern theoretical biology
mohammed ali jinnah
national level
neutral-red agar
never too late
operation efficiency
pertusions
PIFA
pooid
pre-budget
rebond
remove goods
respublica
rorschach inkblot test
S factor
sanctuarise
schizosaccharomyces pombe
senate race
share manipulation
shear wall structure
shell procedure
smooth marketing
son of node
spend management
static class
subsea positioning system
Tao Jun
tiedown chain
to wear
to-warp
treatless
trial subscription
tuberculosis hospital
tubular combustion chamber
unlust
uptook
utility routines and techniques