第18讲 风雨中的美丽 keep sth. under one’s hat & Start something off on the wrong foot

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今天我们要介绍的第一个片语是keep something under one’s hat. 它的意思是keep something secret，即隐瞒某事。我们可以从字面上理解这个片语：朋友们想想，如果我们把某物放在帽子里，或把某物放在帽子下使之被遮住，不正是“隐瞒“的意思吗？

Greg leaked information about his company to a competitor for getting more pay. Although he tried to keep it under his hat, finally, his boss found out and called the police.
(译文：Greg 为了获得许多钱，泄露了他们公司的信息给竞争者，虽然他尽力隐瞒，但最后他的老板还是发现了并报了警。)

结婚纪念日就要来临了，如果你邀请你的朋友共同为你的爱人准备了一个特别的礼物，这时你就可以用上下面这句话了：

Please keep the news under your hat. I’ll give my dear a surprise.
(译文：请保守这个消息，我将给爱人一个惊喜。)

也许朋友们有这样的经历：在淅淅沥沥的小雨中，偶然邂逅一位温柔的女孩，于是思念便潮水般涌来，没有心思学习，没有心思工作。多年后的现在，你才觉得从开始的那一刻起压根就不应该让自己陷入那种相思之中。对了，片语start something off on the wrong foot正好表达这个意思，指 “某事一开始就错了”。看看下面这个句子。

Rose and Jim have been dating for a year, but Rose’s parents don’t think Jim is the right guy for their daughter. So Rose doesn’t want to start their marriage off on the wrong foot by displeasing her parents.
(译文：罗斯和吉米已经交往了一年，但罗斯父母认为吉米不适合他们的女儿。所以罗斯并不想惹父母不高兴而使他们的婚姻没有好的开始。)

start something off on the wrong foot相当于to begin in the wrong way. 可以译为“一开始就错了”或“没有好的开始”。 这个片语是从“舞蹈领域”中得来的──如果两个人刚开始跳舞时都使用左脚或右脚，不就脚碰脚了吗？一开始就错了!下面这段话是对这个片语的解释，让我们来看看：

In social dancing, the man usually starts on the left foot, while the woman starts on the right foot. If one of them doesn’t do this, then they may end up stepping on each other’s feet. So they are in trouble from the very beginning. So to start something off on the wrong foot means to start something by already doing something wrong at the very beginning. This puts you in a bad position or at disadvantage. It makes what you are doing even harder than it might happen if you started it off on the right foot.

再看一个句子：

Today is the first day I go to work. I don’t want to be late and start my new job off on the wrong foot.
(译文：今天是我上班的第一天，我不想迟到，从而使自己一参加工作就没有好的开始。)

结束语：朋友写了首诗寄给了我：尘封往事，历历在目，提起笔，却无从写起…轻轻推窗而望，夜深人静，唯有晚风摇动一树相思…从认识她的那一天开始，我的世界便开始了漫长的等待，为一种没有结束的等待而等待。也许这一开始就是一个错误(I start my feeling about you off on the wrong foot!)。我这样回信：朋友，天涯何处无芳草，勇敢的面对人生，坦诚的面对自己，不要试图隐瞒(keep something under one’s hat)心中的那团爱的烈火，希望能早日找到属于你的伴侣!