英語早間課堂:A Dog in the Manger

Good morning,everybody. I am Juliet , your buddy. I was woken up by that humorous cockcrow . The moment I open the window in my study , I can hear the beautiful bird's singing , I can see the dancing leaves of trees with ages, and I can get a breath of fresh air with the balm of flowers, which really really makes me carefree and happy so that I am in a good mood. I wish you would be the same. Let's enjoy today's programme in five minutes.

大家早上好，我是大家的好朋友，Juliet, 又和大家在空中見面了。煩死了，我可被那滑稽的雞叫聲吵醒了。當我來到書齋打開窗戶的時候，聽見悅耳的鳥聲，看到隨風蕩漾的古樹的葉兒，呼吸夾雜著花香的新鮮空氣，真是心曠神怡。一早就有個好心情，我希望您也是如此.和我共度這5分鐘的美好時光。

We have a phrase which means "a person is in an important position but without doing what he's expected to do." or "a person occupies something that he doesn't make use of and he doesn't give it to someone else to share ." What's it? Think it over. All right, let's listen to a simple situational dialogue and I'm sure you can find it . Mike： John is a dog in manger.

Jane : Yeah, he's in a important position but without doing what he's expected to. Mike : how can we do away with him?

Jane : I have no idea. Maybe we can pull together and get rid of him by making protest against his inefficiency in his work.

【精彩點撥】

Now have you found it ? It is " a dog in the manger ". it is an idiom. This is a figure of speech. 從字面上的意思是占著馬槽的狗，可是在英國他是一個比喻的說法，喻指“身在其位而不謀其職的人”或者是“占據(jù)有某樣東西，自己不能享用可又不給別人享用? a dog in the manger 用我們中文來說是 “占著茅坑不拉屎的人”，這個再合適不過了。

Well , please listen to this dialogue again and write down the key phrases. Mike： John is a dog in the manger.

Jane : Yeah, he's in an important position but without doing what he's expected to. Mike : how can we do away with him?

Jane : I have no idea. Maybe we can pull together and get rid of him by making a protest against his inefficiency in his work.

【日積月累】

1 do away with 去掉，廢除2 have no idea 不知道3 pull together 齊心協(xié)力，通力合作4 make a protest 抗議 (抗議什么東西，在 protest 后面加上against.)5 get rid of 擺脫，除去【對話譯文】

Mike : 約翰是一個占著茅坑不拉屎的人。

Jane: 恩，他身居要職可是沒見他做什么事情。

Mike : 我們?nèi)绾乌s走他呢?

Jane : 不知道，也許我們聯(lián)合起來，通過抗議他不能勝任該工作來除掉他。

Okay, it's time to day goodbye to all my listeners. Thank you for your listening this time , see you next time. 讓我們在歡快的音樂聲中結(jié)束這次節(jié)目吧......