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When it rains heavily, we say that it is 'raining cats and
dogs'. Two persons who always quarrel or fight are said to be
like 'cats and dogs'. A person is 'as cunning as a wolf' or 'as
blind as a bat'. The English language is ___1___
to animals. The origins of such phrases are often ancient
beliefs and superstitions. It is puzzling that 'raining cats
and dogs' should mean heavy rain as cats and dogs have nothing
to do with rain. But the weathermen of long ago somehow believed
that these animals caused rainstorms. Old German pictures
___2___ showed the wind in
the form of a dog, and a cat symbolized the rain. Therefore,
dogs and cats together would bring heavy rain.
A 'white elephant' nowadays describes something which is more
costly to keep than it is worth. The story of a ___3___
of ancient Siamese kings tells how this expression ___4___.
When a king of Siam (now Thailand) wanted to get rid of a
nobleman, the king ___5___
him from the court. Instead, the king presented him with a white
elephant, which is considered holy. The nobleman ___6___
the elephant, for it would insult the king and offend the gods
if he refused it. The feeding of the elephant was so expensive
that in the end the nobleman would be ___7___.
There is a widespread belief that a red flag ___8___
a bull. We describe anything that makes us angry to be 'like
waving a red flag at a bull'. But the ___9___
that the color red excites a bull is untrue as bulls, like all
other animals, are ___10___.
It is the waving of the cape and not the color that annoys the
bull. The phrase probably comes from Spanish bull-fighting,
where the bull-fighter waves a red cape in front of the bull.
If someone put a 'flea in your ear', it would surely cause
you to be very irritated. Thus, it is apparent that 'to put a
flea in one's ear' means to annoy someone. The story about how
it originates dates back to the medieval times in England. |
