今天要与大家分享的英语习语带有一个共同的词：monkey(猴子)。说到猴子，就会不由地想到它上蹿下跳，好动不安分的样子。而在英语当中，和猴子相关的短语以负面意思的居多，一起来学习下看起来貌似挺无害，但应该没人愿意住。这个短语最初指动物园里猴子的住处，到了20世纪初，也用来指住人的地方。曾被用作讽刺语，暗指诸如国会这样的政治机构，也被用作俚语，指代精神病医院或是监狱。
　　Even though it sounds sort of harmless, no one should want to end up in the monkey house. While the term initially referred to the building in a zoo that houses the monkeys, by the early 20th century it was referring to buildings housing humans as well. Although monkey house has been used as a satirical term for political institutions, such as Parliament, the term has also been used as slang for psychiatric hospitals and prisons.monkey business

　　恶作剧一般来说，这个短语用来指鬼混或者恶作剧，也可以指政治贿赂这样的不法行为。其中monkey是动词，意为“胡闹”或是“做手脚”。
　　Broadly speaking, monkey business refers to fooling around or any sort of mischievous behavior, ranging from bribery in politics to kissing. Related to monkey business is the verb monkey, which means to “behave in a silly or playful way” or “to tamper with.” monkey wrench

　　活动扳手/破坏性因素对于为何要把这种活动扳手称为猴子扳手，说法并不统一。Monkey wrench这个表达形式曾在美国作家、散文家爱德华·艾比1975年出版的小说《故意破坏帮/扳手党》中出现过。讲一帮绰号为"The Monkey Wrench Gang"的环保激进人士部署了一系列破坏行动以表达他们的政治立场，后来人们就用动词monkeywrench来表示“搞破坏，以示抗议”。
　　The exact reasons why this adjustable wrench ended up being called a monkey wrench are still disputed. One person who played off of this phrase is Edward Abbey, an American author and essayist, whose 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang follows a group of radical environmentalists as they protest land development in the American West. Going by the moniker “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” this group deploys sabotages as a method of taking a political stand, and ultimately gives us the verb to monkeywrench, which means to “sabotage (something), especially as a form of protest.” monkey see, monkey do

　　有样学样这个短语用来指机械式的模仿行为，模仿者就是简单粗暴地有样学样，没有真正理解其中的原由或是过程。
　　This phrase refers to an example of basic imitation, in which the imitator learns by copying and does not actually understand the reason or processmore fun than a barrel of monkeys

　　玩得非常开心听起来有点恐怖——让人想到了《勇敢者的游戏》里面的那个场景——不过从19世纪初开始，这个短语就被用来表示有趣的活动。不管前面的容器是一笼、一箱、一袋、一桶还是一大车，只要带有monkeys的都表示非常欢乐。据《牛津英语词典》记载，这个表达和"barrel of laughs(开心果)"有关。
　　While this sounds more like a nightmare – I’m thinking of that scene in the movie Jumanji – people have been referring to enjoyable activities as “more fun than a [insert container of choice] of monkeys” since at least the early 19th century. Whether a cage, box, bag, barrel, or wagonload, monkeys (contained monkeys, anyway) have been the purveyors of joy for quite some time. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes the relationship to the phrase barrel of laughs.monkey's wedding

　　太阳雨这是南非地区的一个常用表达，指太阳和降雨同时出现的情况（晴雨天、太阳雨）。在其它语言中，也有一些类似的词汇会涉及到动物的婚姻。
　　This lovely South African phrase refers to the weather phenomenon of simultaneous rain and sunshine. Several other languages have similar terms also involving animal marriage.a monkey on one's back

　　染上毒瘾这个短语一开始专门用来暗指吸毒问题——这里的monkey指毒瘾或是戒毒过程中产生的病症——后来用以指让人难以摆脱的负担。
　　Although this phrase started off specifically as an allusion to a drug problem – monkey referring to the addiction or the symptoms of withdrawal — it eventually came to refer to any problem or issue that was a burden to someone.

昆明凯伦贝尔外语培训学校
学校地址：昆明市东风西路288号德春电信商务楼6001室（小西门龟背立交桥旁）
联系电话：0871-65308282
官网地址：www.klber.com