曲线球与“吃惊”
在打棒球时,美国人经常喜欢发曲线球,使球的方向发生突变,给对方造成错觉,以致于不能回击那个球。其他球类运动,如足球和乒乓球也都有这种曲线球。逐渐地,这种让对方产生错觉,因而无法应付的球技变成了日常用语:throw sb. a curve,意为“通过出难题而使某人大为吃惊”。
请看下面这段学生埋怨教授的话:
Professor Green certainly threw us a curve today. Half the questions were from parts of the book he told us to read but he never covered them in class. Of course, most of us didn’t bother to read the stuff, so we really got caught.
格林教授今天可真是让我们大吃一惊。一半的考题是他要我们看的那本书里的内容,可是他从来也没有在课堂上讲过。我们大多数人也都没有花时间去看那玩意儿,所以我们都被抓住了。
与“throw sb. a curve”意思相似的短语是“throw sb. for a loop”,意为“使某人吃惊且烦恼”。下面的例子是一位女孩子抱怨她男朋友的话:
Bill told me he couldn’t take me out last night because he had to study for a big exam. So it threw me for a loop when I saw him walking into the movie theater with that stupid girl who sits next to him in biology class.
比尔告诉我,他昨天晚上不能带我去玩,因为他要准备大考。所以,当我看到他和生物课坐在他旁边的那个傻姑娘一起走进电影院的时候,我真是大吃一惊,害得我心烦意乱的。