日韩精品久久一区二区三区_亚洲色图p_亚洲综合在线最大成人_国产中出在线观看_日韩免费_亚洲综合在线一区

您現(xiàn)在的位置: Language Tips> Columnist> Zhang Xin  
 





 
Put your shoulder to the wheel
[ 2007-07-06 11:05 ]

Another idiom pertaining to “the wheel” is the phrase “put one’s shoulder to the wheel”.

 

Unlike it is with “put your hands on the wheel,” which is the steering wheel of automobile, this wheel refers to the wheels of a wagon as pulled by, for example, horses.

 

Horse-pulled carts and wagons have seen better days as a vehicle for transport, suggesting the phrase itself must be aged and old. It is. By definition, “putting one’s shoulder to the wheel” means putting in a great effort in order to accomplish a difficult task.

 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, one puts their shoulder to the wheel of a wagon “so as to extricate the vehicle from the mire.” Picture the image.

 

I infer from theOxford explanation that the origin of this phrase might very well be from ancient Greece, or Aesop’s Fable to be exact, for one of Aesop’s proverbs depicted this very image. The tale of Hercules and the Waggoner reads:

 

A Waggoner was once driving a heavy load along a very muddy way. At last he came to a part of the road where the wheels sank half-way into the mire, and the more the horses pulled, the deeper sank the wheels. So the Waggoner threw down his whip, and knelt down and prayed to Hercules the Strong. “O Hercules, help me in this my hour of distress,” he asks. But Hercules appeared to him, and said: “Tut, man, don’t sprawl there. Get up andput your shoulder to the wheel.”

 

The gods help them that help themselves.

 

Well, you get the message, I hope (wink).

 

Sightings (or citings) of the phrase are often seen in classic English literature.

 

This, from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce:

Mr Dedalus pushed his plate over to Stephen and bade him finish what was on it.

 

“Now then, Stephen”, he said. “You mustput your shoulder to the wheel, old chap. You’ve had a fine long holiday.”

 

“O, I’m sure he’ll work very hard now”, said Mrs Dedalus, “especially when he has Maurice with him.”

 

“O, Holy Paul, I forgot about Maurice”, said Mr Dedalus. “Here, Maurice! Come here, you thick-headed ruffian! Do you know I’m going to send you to a college where they'll teach you to spell c.a.t. cat. And I’ll buy you a nice little penny handkerchief to keep your nose dry. Won’t that be grand fun?”

 

Maurice grinned at his father and then at his brother.

 

This, from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy:

ARABELLA was preparing breakfast in the downstairs back room of this small, recently hired tenement of her father's. She put her head into the little pork-shop in front, and told Mr. Donn it was ready. Donn, endeavouring to look like a master pork-butcher, in a greasy blue blouse, and with a strap round his waist from which a steel dangled, came in promptly.

 

“You must mind the shop this morning,” he said casually.

“I’ve to go and get some inwards and half a pig from Lumsdon, and to call elsewhere. If you live here you mustput your shoulder to the wheel, at least till I get the business started!”

 

“Well, for to-day I can’t say.” She looked deedily into his face. “I’ve got a prize upstairs.”

 

“Oh? What’s that?”

 

“A husband – almost.”

 

“No!”

 

“Yes. It’s Jude. He’s come back to me.”

 

“Your old original one? Well, I’m damned!”

 

“Well, I always did like him, that I will say.”

 

“But how does he come to be up there?” said Donn, humour-struck, and nodding to the ceiling.

 

“Don’t ask inconvenient questions, Father. What we’ve to do is to keep him here till he and I are – as we were.”

 

“How was that?”

 

“Married.”

 

And this, from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

 

And the lawyer set out homeward with a very heavy heart. “Poor Harry Jekyll,” he thought, “my mind misgives me he is in deep waters! He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God, there is no statute of limitations. Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace: punishment coming years after memory has forgotten and self-love condoned the fault”

….

And then by a return on his former subject, he conceived a spark of hope. “This Master Hyde, if he were studied,” thought he, "must have secrets of his own; black secrets, by the look of him; secrets compared to which poor Jekyll’s worst would be like sunshine. Things cannot continue as they are. It turns me cold to think of this creature stealing like a thief to Harry's bedside; poor Harry, what a wakening! And the danger of it; for if this Hyde suspects the existence of the will, he may grow impatient to inherit. Ay, I mustput my shoulder to the wheelif Jekyll will but let me,” he added, “if Jekyll will only let me.” For once more he saw before his mind’s eye, as clear as a transparency, the strange clauses of the will.

 

About the author:
 

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: [email protected], or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

 
 
相關(guān)文章 Related Stories
 
         
 
 
 
 
 
         

 

 

 
 

48小時內(nèi)最熱門

     
  女孩的心思誰能猜:Suspended from class
  各種各樣的“錢”
  “搶鏡頭”怎么說
  姚明婚后打算:備戰(zhàn)奧運第一

本頻道最新推薦

     
  Apple Pie
  Efficient police a sign of the times
  Better late than never
  Foreign origins: Kowtow, omerta
  Killing the goose that lays the golden egg

論壇熱貼

     
  形容人有“親和力”都有哪些形容詞?
  “低生育,素質(zhì)好,男女都是寶”,怎么譯為好?請教高手!
  請問“老鄉(xiāng)”這個詞怎么翻譯?
  C-E: how to say "路盲"?
  各位,“相親”英語怎么說?
  指紋上的ridges and loops是什么意思?






主站蜘蛛池模板: 日韩三级视频 | 成人激情视频网站 | 亚洲一区二区三区在线看 | 成人在线精品视频 | 美女午夜色视频在线观看 | 草草影院网站 | 欧美一级黄视频 | 久久伊人婷婷 | 久久女| 一级三级黄色片 | 国产毛片av | 国产亚洲精品一品区99热 | 欧美一区二区免费电影 | 日本特黄特色大片免费视频 | 天天干天天干 | 多男操一女视频 | 色综合在 | 91精品视频在线播放 | 99久久精品国产亚洲 | 国产精品亚洲片在线va | 日韩久久精品电影 | 国产亚洲欧美在线视频 | 欧美精品亚洲 | 中文字幕久久久 | 日本不卡免费一区 | 久久亚洲精品中文字幕 | 99热.com| 日本高清免费zzzzzzzz | 一区二区中文字幕 | 久草手机在线 | 在线一区视频 | 色视频网站在线观看 | 97日日摸天天碰免费视频 | 国产高清xxxsexvideo | 毛片免费在线视频 | 久草免费新视频 | 中国av在线 | 91久久久久久久一区二区 | 能看的毛片网站 | 欧美视频网站在线观看 | 国产精品夜夜爽 |