PETS－2语法讲解(171)

She’s got a really green thumb.
　　对话 　　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：你父母的花园真美丽啊！
　　菲奥纳：很高兴你欣赏这座花园。我父母实在花了很多时间打理。
　　戈登：那些室内盆栽植物也很可爱。
　　菲奥纳：那是家母的专长。这些植物之中，有些已经长了将近二十年。
　　戈登：真厉害。她是怎样种植的？
　　菲奥纳：她很擅长种东西，植物对她也似乎有感应。
　　种植技巧高超，英文叫做to have a green thumb（有绿色拇指），英式英文则说to have green fingers（有绿色手指），例如：Mary certainly has a green thumb: whatever she plants grows well（玛丽栽花植树很有一套，无论种什么都长得很好）。此外，你可以用形容词green-thumbed或green-fingered来形容擅长种植的人，例如：He had a green-thumbed wife who enlivened the garden with various lovely flowers（他太太精通园艺，种了多种可爱花卉，使花园大为生色）。留意a green thumb或green fingers不可和a green hand混淆。植物的嫩绿，会使人想到‘还未成熟’，所以英文常用green来说‘幼稚’或‘缺乏经验’，a green hand即‘生手’，例如：(1) A green hand cannot be expected to earn as mush as an experienced worker（生手赚的钱，当然不可能像资深工人那么多）。(2) He is a green camper, and does not even know how to make camp properly（他是露营新手，连怎样扎营都不知道）。‘生手’还可以叫greener、greenie或greenhorn。Greenhorn是以初长角(horn)的小牛比喻没经验的人。Garden多是指私人花园；公园假如以garden为名，一般用复数形式，例如：(1) We took our children to the public gardens yesterday afternoon（昨天下午，我们和孩子去公园玩耍）、(2) During my stay in England, I visited the Royal Botanic Gardens（我作客英伦期间，去参观皇家植物公园）。