PETS－2語法講解(220)

　　His company has got the green light.
　　對話
　　Carl: My father is celebrating today.
　　Anton: Why's that? Has he won the lottery?
　　Carl: As good as.His company has got the green light from the city planning department to go ahead with his latest construction project.
　　Anton: What is it?
　　Carl: Four thirty-story apartment blocks and a shopping mall.
　　Anton: Wow! He'll be sitting on a goldmine when it's finished.
　　卡爾：家父今天大肆慶祝。
　　安東：爲什麽？他中了樂透嗎？
　　卡爾：差不多。他的公司獲城市槼劃処批準，展開他最新的建築計劃。
　　安東：計劃興建什麽？
　　卡爾：四幢三十層的公寓大樓，以及一個購物中心。
　　安東：啊，建成之後，令尊就像開了個金鑛。
　　卡爾說他父親的公司獲*批準展開一個建築計劃：His company has got the green light to go ahead with his construction project。Green light是準許過馬路的‘綠燈’，常引申解作‘許可’，例如：We cannot proceed unless the government gives us the green light（除非政府許可，否則我們不能展開工作）。但green light的反義詞red light（紅燈）卻極少用來比喻‘禁止’，其寓意一般是‘危險’，常見於成語to see the red light（發覺危險在前），例如：When he learned how many fatal diseases were related to tobacco, he saw the red light and stopped smoking（他知道有那麽多致命疾病和菸草有關之後，産生危機意識，不再吸菸了）。
　　第一段例句中proceed一字，和卡爾說的go ahead同義，指‘著手（做某事）’，但go ahead語氣比較隨便，例如：Despite my objection, he went ahead（或proceeded）with his impractical plan（他不理會我的反對，著手推行他那不切實際的計劃）。Go-ahead也可作名詞，指‘許可’，和green light意思差不多，卡爾那句話即可改寫如下：His company got the go-ahead from the city planning department to carry out his construction project。Goldmine或gold mine是‘金鑛’，常用來比喻大財富的來源，成語to be sitting on a goldmine即‘擁有可賺大錢或很值錢的東西’，有時是說擁有而不自知，例如：He has been in possession of that painting for many years, hardly knowing that he is sitting on a goldmine（他擁有這幅畫多年，也不知道是價值連城的寶貝）。