Chinese Practice
有目共睹
(you3 mu4 gong4 du3)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
照片:維基共享資源
As everyone with eyes can see
水是冷的,火是熱的,金屬和石頭都是硬的──這些是大家都知道的,並不需要再詳述其屬性──東漢末文學家徐幹在其政論《中論》中如此寫道。他的觀點是,人們把自己長期以來所觀察到的一貫性視為真實。然後他引孔子的話說,「欲人之信己也,則微言而篤行之」(如果你希望別人相信你,你應該要少說嘴,多做事,讓行動來說明一切)。徐幹繼續寫道,如果你這樣做,「則有目者莫不見也」(有眼睛的沒有看不出來的)。這也就是成語「有目共睹」的由來,其字面意思是每個有眼睛的人都看得到。
這成語的文字更直接地來自元朝李翀的《日聞錄》,其中一句寫道:「日月東出而西沒,有目者所共睹」(太陽和月亮都是由東邊升起,在西邊落下,這是有眼睛的人都看得出來的。)
在英語中也有類似說法「anyone with eyes in their head can see that…」(任何有眼睛的人都可以看見...)另外還有一個講法是表示某事物很清楚明顯,可以說它「as plain as the nose on your face」(就像你臉上的鼻子一樣清楚明瞭)。
這句話是源自十六世紀英格蘭的說法「as plain as a pikestaff」。pikestaff 是過去小販用來搬運用具的矛桿。小販持著矛桿,使得其身影從遠處就可以辨認得出來。後世隨著這樣的小販變得越來越少見,pikestaff這個字就被改成packstaff──這是一種拐杖;再後來packstaff這個字又漸不使用了,所以又改成 the nose on your face。
(台北時報編譯林俐凱譯)
我國在半導體產業上的發展是有目共睹的。
(Everyone knows how developed Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has become.)
陳老師多年來栽培的學生在各行各業都有優秀表現。她對教育的貢獻有目共睹。
(For many years now, Ms Chen’s students have found outstanding success in many fields. Her contribution to education is there for all to see.)
英文練習
anyone with eyes in their head can see that…
as plain as the nose on your face
Water is cool; fire is hot; metal and stone are hard. Everyone knows this to be the case, without the need for these properties to be explicitly stated. So wrote the late Han Dynasty scholar Xu Gan in his political treatise zhong lun, the Balanced Discourses or Discussions on the Mean Way (where “mean” is used in the sense of “average” or “non-extreme”). His point was that people trust what they observe to be consistently true over an extended period of time. He then quotes Confucius as saying 欲人之信己也,則微言而篤行之: “If you want others to trust you, you should allow your actions to speak for you (or, speak sparsely; just act). If you do this, writes Xu, 則有目者莫不見也: "there is nobody with eyes in their head that cannot see this [to be true].” From this we get the idiom 有目共睹: literally, “everyone with eyes can see.”
That formulation more directly derives from a Yuan Dynasty text — the riwenlu (Records of Daily News) — by Li Chong, who writes 日月東出而西沒,有目者所共睹: “The sun and the moon rise in the east and set in the west, as everyone with eyes can see.”
In English, we also say “anyone with eyes in their head can see that….” There is another expression, however, to say that something is very clear or obvious: It is “as plain as the nose on your face.”
The original version of this expression, dating to 16th century England, was “as plain as a pikestaff.” A pikestaff was a stick peddlers used to carry their wares with, the sight of which would have made their identity apparent even from a distance. As peddlers became less common, “pikestaff” was changed to “packstaff” — a walking stick — and later to “the nose on your face” as the word “packstaff” itself fell into disuse.
(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
Anyone with eyes in their head can see that he’s in love with her.
(任何人只要長了眼睛,都可以看得出他戀著她。)
That would be a huge mistake. It’s as plain as the nose on your face.
(這真是大錯特錯。這是顯而易見的。)
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
It’s no secret that Japanese people have a deep affection for noodles. Like in the rest of East Asia, noodles are an important staple food, second only to rice. Japanese people have enjoyed noodles for over 1,000 years. The first noodles came from China and were introduced around 800 CE. As time passed, noodles in Japan not only became widespread but also developed some unique Japanese characteristics. The three most popular types of noodles in Japan are ramen, soba, and udon. Ramen, typically made from wheat flour, is usually thin and firm. The dough is kneaded and left to
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
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