三级aa视频在线观看-三级国产-三级国产精品一区二区-三级国产三级在线-三级国产在线

 





 
Neither here nor there?
[ 2006-12-08 11:21 ]

Vinnie asks: What's "neither here nor there?"

My comments:
First of all, you've done well to even notice a phrase like this. Neither here nor there - simple and familiar words they are, so familiar that we sometimes ignore them.

That's why people say familiarity breeds contempt - that's me at my most penetrating, eh (lol)? Seriously though, in English language learning, familiarity breeds, well, familiarity.

It's tempting to ask you to give an example, providing some context in which you found this lovely phrase because then I could smugly reply with: Well, can you guess?

But that's neither here nor there now. We cannot deal with what-ifs. We must deal with what is - and what is is that you've raised a question without giving examples.

I'll give examples instead.

This passage is from the opening chapter of The Odyssey by Homer:
"Now Neptune had gone off to the Ethiopians, who are at the World's end, and lie in two halves, the one looking West and the other East. He had gone there to accept a hecatomb of sheep and oxen, and was enjoying himself at his festival; but the other gods met in the house of Olympian Jove, and the sire of gods and men spoke first. At that moment he was thinking of Aegisthus, who had been killed by Agamemnon's son Orestes; so he said to the other gods:

"'See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly. Look at Aegisthus; he must needs make love to Agamemnon's wife unrighteously and then kill Agamemnon, though he knew it would be the death of him; for I sent Mercury to warn him not to do either of these things, inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home. Mercury told him this in all good will but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in full.'

"Then Minerva said, 'Father, son of Saturn, King of kings, it served Aegisthus right, and so it would any one else who does as he did; but Aegisthus is neither here nor there; it is for Ulysses that my heart bleeds, when I think of his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island, far away, poor man, from all his friends.'…"

Leave all those Greek gods alone for the moment. Can you guess the meaning of "neither here nor there", Vinnie?

From the Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, this passage:
"Ay, ay," said the little man, "very good, very good, indeed; but you should have suggested it to me. My dear sir, I'm quite certain you cannot be ignorant of the extent of confidence which must be placed in professional men. If any authority can be necessary on such a point, my dear sir, let me refer you to the well-known case in Barnwell and…"

"Never mind George Barnwell," interrupted Sam, who had remained a wondering listener during this short colloquy; "everybody knows what sort of a case his was, though it's always been my opinion, mind you, that the young woman deserved scragging a precious sight more than he did. However, that's neither here nor there. You want me to accept of half a guinea. Very well, I'm agreeable: I can't say no fairer than that, can I, sir?"

Have you figured it out, Vinnie? Or perhaps one more example will make a difference.

In the news (old news, I shall say), this passage from an Economist article titled Taxing the Internet back on March 23, 2001: "In some respects, a further ban on new Internet taxes is neither here nor there, because the real problem is the difficulty of collecting those old taxes that should already apply to e-commerce."

Well, again, Vinnie, can you guess? Or have all these examples been in vain, irrelevant, changing nothing and making no difference?

Anyways, this is one way to mastering idiomatic English without consulting a dictionary. Meet it. See it in the eye. See through it. If once doesn't do it, then do it twice, thrice. Eventually you'll be able to get acquainted with it. You'll be able to make friends with it. You'll be able to use it. You'll be able to use it well.

But remember, do it with respect. Don't allow familiarity to breed disrespect.

 

About the author:
 

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

 
 
相關文章 Related Stories
 
         
 
 
 
 
 
         

 

 

 
 

48小時內最熱門

     

本頻道最新推薦

     
  Neither here nor there?
  Cutthroat, breakneck
  Double take on success
  Home record, road record
  Double jeopardy

論壇熱貼

     
  福娃英文名更改,為何事先不考慮好?
  男扮女裝,女扮男裝?
  請教高人:關于社保方面的詞匯
  評頭論足之妙語連篇
  常用英語口語1000句
  翻譯:老鄉見老鄉,兩眼淚汪汪




主站蜘蛛池模板: 免费人成网站在线高清 | 伊人久久久久久久久香港 | 免费网站看v片在线成人国产系列 | 色婷婷亚洲精品综合影院 | 国产一区二区三区 | 中文字幕亚洲无线码 | 麻豆精品久久精品色综合 | 黄片毛片免费观看 | 激情视频网站在线观看 | 国产精品国产三级国快看 | 日韩大片免费在线观看 | 夜色在线影院 | 久久久久爽亚洲精品 | 九草视频在线 | 午夜影皖普通区 | 沈樵在线观看国产专区 | 性视频网站在线 | 欧美看片 | 国产三级在线视频观看 | 成年人的毛片 | 欧美日韩一二三区 | 色99在线 | 国产欧美日韩中文字幕 | 婷婷激情亚洲 | 成人在线一区二区 | 欧美性三三影院 | 在线国产毛片 | 一区二区三区在线视频观看 | 中文字幕伊人久久网 | 好吊妞gao988在线播放 | 久久精品成人免费网站 | 99精品欧美一区 | 午夜在线观看cao | 在线播放国产色视频在线 | 免费h片在线观看 | 亚洲精品高清视频 | 久久99毛片免费观看不卡 | 久久国产精品自由自在 | 97视频在线免费 | 欧美一级毛片做受 | 黑人干日本人 |