第87讲 栽跟头 Blow up in someone’s face & As plain as the nose on one’s face

本教程已正式出版，版权归属世博英语网站。未经世博英语书面授权，请勿转载！

现实生活中总有一些人由于急剧增长的名誉或取得的重要成就而骄傲起来，这时他们就可能栽个跟头了。看看下面的句子是如何描述这种情形的：

The football player is great. They say, “Pride goes before a fall”. Years of constant success and popularity are about to blow up in his face.
(译文：这名足球运动员是很优秀的。有句话说“骄傲在失败之前”。多年来长久的成功和声望就要使他栽跟头了。)

这里的片语blow up in someone’s face的意思是“使某人栽跟头或使某人做事失败”。这个片语主要用来描述突然间的、没有预期到的做事失败或栽了跟头。If something you have done or planned to do blows up in your face, it suddenly goes wrong. 再看一个例句：

Harry is very proud of herself. She always tells others that she is the best one. But now, it is kind of funny watching the presentation blow up in her face.
(译文：Harry很骄傲，她总是告诉别人她是最好的。但现在看到她难堪的样子真是有趣。)

正如汉语中的一句名言所言“骄傲使人落后”。很明显，骄傲之后接踵而来的就是跟头了。对了这里的“很明显”，我们可以用一个相对复杂一点的片语来表示：as plain as the nose on one’s face. For example:

Harry is one of the best players. That is as plain as the nose on your face. But he doesn't deserve all the credit for the great progress our team has made. Other players worked hard too.
(译文：Harry是最好的选手之一, 那是很明显的。但我们不该把球队取得的巨大进步归功于他一个。其他选手也做得很努力。)

片语as plain as the nose on one’s face的意思是“很明显、很明显的”。Plain本来就有“简单清楚，明白朴素的”之意，所以从字面上看这个片语的意思就是指“像某人脸上突起的鼻子一样清晰明白的”，这就是我们常说的“很明显、很明显的”之意了。If you say something is as plain as the nose on one’s face, you mean it’s very clear. For example:

He is very nervous. That is as plain as the nose on your face, because he stands awkwardly in front of the microphone for several minutes and says nothing.
(译文：很显然地，他十分紧张,因为他在麦克风前局促不安地站了好几分钟而没有说一句话。)

结束语：在英文写作中我们有时需要用不同的词汇来表达同一个意思，这样的文章才显得生动。很显然的（as plain as the nose on one’s face），当我们表达“很显然的”意思时，我完全可以用it is very clear，也可以用it is obviously，但在一篇多处需要表达这个意思的文章中，如果你总是使用这两个简单的片语就易栽跟头了（blow up in one’s face）。请记住还有另一个表达as plain as the nose on one’s face，注意，它是个副词片语，而且在句子中一般起插入语的作用。