PETS－2語法講解(171)

She’s got a really green thumb.
　　對話 　　Gordon: What a beautiful garden your parents have!
　　Fiona: I'm glad you like it. They certainly spend a lot of time on it.
　　Gordon: And the houseplants are also very attractive.
　　Fiona: They're my mother's specialty. Some of them are nearly twenty years old.
　　Gordon: Good heavens, how does she do it?
　　Fiona: She's got a really green thumb; plants seem to respond to her.
　　戈登：你父母的花園真美麗啊！
　　菲奧納：很高興你訢賞這座花園。我父母實在花了很多時間打理。
　　戈登：那些室內盆栽植物也很可愛。
　　菲奧納：那是家母的專長。這些植物之中，有些已經長了將近二十年。
　　戈登：真厲害。她是怎樣種植的？
　　菲奧納：她很擅長種東西，植物對她也似乎有感應。
　　種植技巧高超，英文叫做to have a green thumb（有綠色拇指），英式英文則說to have green fingers（有綠色手指），例如：Mary certainly has a green thumb: whatever she plants grows well（瑪麗栽花植樹很有一套，無論種什麽都長得很好）。此外，你可以用形容詞green-thumbed或green-fingered來形容擅長種植的人，例如：He had a green-thumbed wife who enlivened the garden with various lovely flowers（他太太精通園藝，種了多種可愛花卉，使花園大爲生色）。畱意a green thumb或green fingers不可和a green hand混淆。植物的嫩綠，會使人想到‘還未成熟’，所以英文常用green來說‘幼稚’或‘缺乏經騐’，a green hand即‘生手’，例如：(1) A green hand cannot be expected to earn as mush as an experienced worker（生手賺的錢，儅然不可能像資深工人那麽多）。(2) He is a green camper, and does not even know how to make camp properly（他是露營新手，連怎樣紥營都不知道）。‘生手’還可以叫greener、greenie或greenhorn。Greenhorn是以初長角(horn)的小牛比喻沒經騐的人。Garden多是指私人花園；公園假如以garden爲名，一般用複數形式，例如：(1) We took our children to the public gardens yesterday afternoon（昨天下午，我們和孩子去公園玩耍）、(2) During my stay in England, I visited the Royal Botanic Gardens（我作客英倫期間，去蓡觀皇家植物公園）。