[ti:The Good and the Bad of Rain and Clouds]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:07.51]Now, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories.
[00:14.56]On this program we explore common words and expressions in American English.
[00:22.00]Some are very common.
[00:24.68]For example, I'm sure that most of you
[00:27.96]have heard the expression "raining cats and dogs."
[00:32.64]We use it when it is raining very, very hard.
[00:38.44]In other words, when it is pouring!
[00:43.16]Now, we have another useful expression about hard rain:
[00:47.84]"When it rains, it pours!"
[00:50.90]This means that when something bad happens,
[00:54.52]other bad things usually happen at the same time.
[00:59.56]We often use this saying
[01:01.68]after someone describes a lot of bad things,
[01:05.32]one after the other, like in this example.
[01:10.72]Boy, my sister is really having a hard time these days.
[01:15.48]Why? What's wrong?
[01:18.28]First, someone stole her car.
[01:21.24]Then she broke her arm in a biking accident
[01:24.50]and a falling tree cut a hole in her house
[01:28.04]– all in one week!
[01:29.55]That is one unlucky week.
[01:32.84]You know what they say: When it rains, it pours.
[01:37.60]When using this expression,
[01:40.20]know that it can be helpful in any situation.
[01:44.28]You can say it to your best friend or to your employer.
[01:49.76]Also, we often say it in a sing-song way,
[01:53.76]like this – "When it rains ... it pours."
[01:58.56]Now, the Merriam-Webster dictionary says that English speakers
[02:02.95]use this idiom for a series of bad things.
[02:06.68]However, other websites say
[02:09.48]you can also use it to describe many good things.
[02:14.36]While I have heard it used to describe many good things,
[02:19.28]more often than not,
[02:21.00]the "rain" in this expression represents bad things.
[02:26.60]So, even though we mostly use "When it rains, it pours"
[02:31.53]for bad situations, you can also use it in good ones.
[02:36.96]However, we only use the next one in bad times.
[02:42.20]If a person is under a cloud,
[02:45.32]they are thought to have done something bad or dishonorable.
[02:50.48]A person might even be a under a certain type of cloud,
[02:54.72]such as a cloud of suspicion.
[02:59.04]If you are living under a cloud of suspicion,
[03:02.48]other people believe that you have done something wrong.
[03:06.96]But, we use this expressions for companies
[03:10.56]and organizations as well – not just people.
[03:15.80]For example, currently many scandals surround
[03:20.05]some women's gymnastic organizations
[03:23.20]and some universities in the United States.
[03:26.96]They are under a cloud of suspicion.
[03:31.04]However, if you add a few extra words to the phrase,
[03:35.28]the meaning changes greatly.
[03:39.00]If I am living under a dark cloud,
[03:42.44]it means I am depressed and sad all the time.
[03:47.96]We can make this phrase even more descriptive by saying
[03:52.00]"living under the dark cloud of depression"
[03:55.16]or "living under the dark cloud of poverty."
[03:59.36]So, you see -- there are different types of dark clouds you can live under.
[04:06.04]But even people for people living under a dark cloud, there is hope.
[04:09.60]There is always hope.
[04:13.14]And that brings us to our last expression:
[04:16.12]Every cloud has a silver lining.
[04:20.84]This expression means there is always something hopeful
[04:24.72]in even the most difficult or unhappy situation.
[04:30.28]A silver lining on a cloud shows that the sun is behind it.
[04:35.56]Even a really terrible, bad event
[04:38.80]may produce something happy or hopeful.
[04:42.60]For example, let's say a friend of yours is in a car crash.
[04:49.08]She is not badly hurt but her car is too damaged to fix.
[04:54.88]When the tow truck driver comes to take her car off the road,
[04:58.88]she starts talking to him.
[05:01.56]They find out that they share a love of old cars.
[05:05.48]So, they plan to meet the following weekend at a car show.
[05:10.48]Soon they become great friends.
[05:14.24]When she tells this story to her friends and family,
[05:17.72]they often say the same thing:
[05:20.84]Every cloud has a silver lining!
[05:24.32]And that's the end of this Words and Their Stories!
[05:28.16]I'm Anna Matteo. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[05:30.00]I want to know have you ever seen the rain
[05:37.28]I want to know have you ever seen the rain
[05:45.80]Comin' down on a sunny day
[05:51.04]Song: Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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