这样一则笑话：一个外宾想上厕所，便对翻译说：“I wonder if I can go somewhere?”(我可以方便一下吗?)而翻译却把somewhere误解为“某处”，因而回答道“Yes, you can go anywhere in China.”(行，中国你哪儿都可以去。)外宾不禁愕然。可见，如不了解英语中“厕所”的一些表达法是会误事的。
1.Public lavatory意为“公厕”， 在公共场所，厕所门上都标有Gent’s(男厕)，或Ladies’(女厕)，有时也标有Men’s, Men’s room, Gentleman’s, Women’s Women’s room.如：Where is the Gent’

奥运会开幕式落下帷幕
Press awards Athens 'gold'
The Greek press is in raptures after the opening ceremony for the Athens Olympics.
Many papers splash the event ri

人之初　性本善　性相近　习相远
　　Men at their birth, are naturally good.
人生之初，禀性（本来）（都）是善良的，
　　解释：
　　英语译成汉语时，主语Men 与 at their birth　合起来一起译，起状语的作用；而 naturally 原为副词起状语的作用，倒变成了名词作为主语来用。这种翻译手法在翻译技巧中称为“转换”Conversion。括号里的词语（本来）（都）是为了符合目标语的行文习惯或译出原文中隐藏的意思另加进去的。这称为“增益”Amplification，也是一种重要的翻译技巧。
　　Their nat

Women, which one to choose?
Want to know which candidate a woman is likely to support for president?
Look at her ring finger.
It may sound like the start of a joke, but the fact is most married women say they'll vote for US President Bush. By nearly 2-to-1, unmarried wome

Denmark Weddings
People in many places of the world usually give their lovers a finger ring or a bundle of flowers as a gift of engagement. But in some areas of Denmark, it is still considered lucky for a young man to present his financee([法语]未婚妻) with the wooden clappers graved with love-poems, bec

UPON the ground where the brave Harold fell, William the Norman afterwards founded an abbey, which, under the name of Battle Abbey, was a rich and splendid place through many a troubled year, though now it is a grey ruin overgrown with ivy. But the first work he had to do, was to conquer the English thoroughly; and that, as you know by this time

HAROLD was crowned King of England on the very day of the maudlin Confessor's funeral. He had good need to be quick about it. When the news reached Norman William, hunting in his park at Rouen, he dropped his bow, returned to his palace, called his nobles to council, and presently sent ambassadors to Harold, calling on him to keep his oath and r

CANUTE left three sons, by name SWEYN, HAROLD, and HARDICANUTE; but his Queen, Emma, once the Flower of Normandy, was the mother of only Hardicanute. Canute had wished his dominions to be divided between the three, and had wished Harold to have England; but the Saxon people in the South of England, headed by a nobleman with great possessions, ca

CANUTE reigned eighteen years. He was a merciless King at first. After he had clasped the hands of the Saxon chiefs, in token of the sincerity with which he swore to be just and good to them in return for their acknowledging him, he denounced and slew many of them, as well as many relations of the late King. 'He who brings me

ALFRED THE GREAT was a young man, three-and-twenty years of age, when he became king. Twice in his childhood, he had been taken to Rome, where the Saxon nobles were in the habit of going on journeys which they supposed to be religious; and, once, he had stayed for some time in Paris. Learning, however, was so little cared for, then, that at twel

THE Romans had scarcely gone away from Britain, when the Britons began to wish they had never left it. For, the Romans being gone, and the Britons being much reduced in numbers by their long wars, the Picts and Scots came pouring in, over the broken and unguarded wall of SEVERUS, in swarms. They plundered the richest towns, and killed the people

IF you look at a Map of the World, you will see, in the left-hand upper corner of the Eastern Hemisphere, two Islands lying in the sea. They are England and Scotland, and Ireland. England and Scotland form the greater part of these Islands. Ireland is the next in size. The little neighbouring islands, which are so small upon the Map as to be mer

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British teens are the mos

     
说起不同的文化，人们往往想到的是差异，中西文化差异，东西方文化差异．因之比较文化多见的是差异的辨识与解析．殊不知，比较的前提，是有可比性．可比性的另一个解释，就是有共同之处．譬如，比较男女，是因为男女都属人类；比较英文中文，是因为皆属于语言．如果有人说比较男人与英语，或者比较女人与中文，大家一定会笑这简直是牛头不对马嘴．换句话说，之所以可比较，是因为有类同．因此，差异与类同是不可分割的．讲文化差异，必须以文化的类同为基