第19讲 脱光衣服了! Give someone the shirt off one’s back & Lose one’s shirt

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在古装武侠小说中，那种为朋友两肋插刀的英雄豪杰很令人佩服，而英语中也有类似的表达。今天我们就向大家介绍一个：Give someone the shirt off one’s back.
片语give someone the shirt off one’s back意思是“竭尽所能的帮助某人。”你看，把自己的衬衫都给了别人，衣服都脱完，背都露出来了，是不是算得上竭尽所能了？If you give someone the shirt off your back, you must try your best to help him or her when he or her is in trouble. 如：

Gord is a kind and generous man. He’d like to give people the shirt off his back. Once a co-worker got really sick, Gord gave a lot of money to him.
(译文：Gord是个心地善良且慷慨的人，他会竭尽所能的帮助别人的。他的一个同事曾经病得很重，他就给了许多钱给那个同事。)

朋友们可能有这样的感慨，朋友很多，但真心的没有几个。真正的朋友是能在你最需要他的时候出现的朋友，看看下面这个句子是怎样说的：

A true friend is someone who’ll give you the shirt off his back when you are in all kind of serious troubles.
(译文：一个真正的朋友是会在你遇到各种困难的时候竭尽所能的帮助你的。)

所谓患难真情(a friend in need is a friend indeed)只有在你需要的时候才看得出来。有时朋友还会为你奉献完他的全部财产，赔上了一切包括自己的生命(lose his shirt)。这里lose one’s shirt正是今天我们要向朋友们介绍的第二个片语。

先看一个例句：

Tim got a great success in his business and earned more money. But money burned a hole in his pocket. Not long ago, he began gambling at card games. Now he has lost his shirt.
(译文：Tim在生意上取得了很大的成功，但钱在口袋里留不住。不久前他开始赌扑克牌，现在已经分文不剩了。)

To lose one’s shirt means to lose all his money and property for some reasons. 让我们再发挥一下我们的想象力吧(let our imagination run wild)! 如果一个人连shirt都没有(lose)了，你说他穷不穷呢？

现在让我们再看另一个例子：之前先复习一下burn a hole in one’s pocket这个片语，在前面几讲我们介绍过的，它的意思是“钱在口袋里留不住。”

Bart was sentenced to five years in jail for accounting cheats. And he has lost his shirt now. He is deeply repentant of it. 
 (译文：Bart因财务欺诈而被判入狱五年，一切都完了，他非常后悔。)

结束语：人都会犯错误的，关键是要知过悔改。这不，Bart入狱后，他的父母并没有放弃对他的关心，鼓励他重新做人。他也决定奋发图强，出狱后，勒紧腰带重新创业。在下一讲里我们就要介绍“奋发图强”和“勒紧腰带”在英文中该怎么说。