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五官與英語習語
eye
The eyes are extremely precious to us. That is why we say“Mind your eye (當心)!”when we reminding someone to be careful.
Not only human beings and animals have eyes, many things also have“eyes”- the eyes of a ship, the eye of a needle, the eye of a typhoon, and so on.
ear
The ear is the organ of hearing. A piece of light music is easy on the ear. (悅耳動聽). We are usually all ears (專心聆聽) for bit news.
When they think somebody is overhearing, English people use either of the two proverbs: Walls have ears (隔墻有耳) and Pitchers have ears (壺罐有耳). They also think that little pitchers have big ears(小孩子耳朵尖). Nice boys and girls respect other people. They will not secretly listen to others' private conversations.
nose
The English phrase "face to face (面對面)" and its Chinese counterpart(對應)are exactly the same. But English people, to express the same idea, can say nose to nose instead. There is no such substitute in Chinese.
The word nose appears in many idioms. Here are two which are quite similar to their Chinese equivalents: lead somebody by the nose (牽著某人的鼻子走) and turn up one's nose at somebody or something (對某人或某物嗤之一鼻).
lip
We have two lips: the upper lip and the lower lip. If one's two lips are closed, one cannot speak. So it goes without saying that "don't open your lips (不要開口)" means "don't speak".
His lips are sealed. Are his lips really stuck together by wax or glue? No, his lips are sealed when asked about something that he must keep secret. Sometimes a top secret is betrayed because it has escaped someone's lips (脫口而出). Then the incident may become a piece of news that is on everybody's lips (眾口相傳).
tongue
We all know we cannot speak without the tongue. So the tongue is closely related to speech. To hold one's tongue (保持沉默) means "to keep silent". A person who has too much tongue (太多嘴) is disliked by all, for he is too talkative. Mother tongue is not the tongue of a mother: it is a person's native language.
"Don't you have a moth below your nose (你鼻子底下不是有張嘴嗎)?" The Chinese say so to blame a person who did not say what he should have said. But this not the right way to express the idea in English. English people would say, "You have a tongue in your head, haven't you?"
