英语如何表达：哑巴啦，你怎么不说话？（呼应尹文兄的英语笑话文）

 
英语中，如果一个人不吭声，或因紧张，或害羞的时候一时不知该说什么，我们就可以调侃道：Cat got your tongue？（use to tease someone when they are expected to speak and do not）

字面意义是：猫咬住你的舌头吗? 而实际意思是：Why don't you say something? 干嘛不说话呢？

 例句：Didn't you hear what I just said? What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue ?你没听到我刚刚说的吗?怎么啦?你怎么不说话?

据说，早在16世纪伊丽莎白时代，隔着网球拍对人吐舌头是一种侮辱性暗示。而在当时，网球拍的弦线由猫的肠子加工提炼而成。于是，善于发挥的人类就发明了颇为怪异的表达“Cat got your tongue”（字面意：猫抓住了你的舌头吗）。不过，词源学家并不认同这种观点，虽然很遗憾，他们自己也说不清这句口语的出处。

请各位看官精读下文学习Cat got your tongue?，以及其他地道美语表达。生活中发生这么尴尬搞笑的事情，一点都不奇怪，男士引以为鉴喔。


We've all had trouble with our animals, but I don't think anyone  can top this one: Calling in sick to work makes me uncomfortable. No matter how legitimate my excuse, I always get the feeling that my boss thinks I'm lying.

On one recent occasion, I had a valid reason but lied anyway, because the truth was just too darned humiliating. I simply mentioned that I had sustained a head injury, and I hoped I would feel up to coming in the next day. By then, I reasoned, I could think up a doozy to explain the bandage on the top of my head. The accident occurred mainly because I had given in to my wife's wishes to adopt a cute little kitty.

Initially, the new acquisition was no problem. Then one morning, I was taking my shower after breakfast when I heard my wife, Deb, call out to me from the kitchen. 'Honey! The garbage disposal is dead again. Please come reset it.'

'You know where the button is,' I protested through the shower pitter-patter and steam. 'Reset it yourself!' 'But I'm scared!' she persisted. 'What if it starts going and sucks me in?' There was a meaningful pause and then, 'C'mon, it'll only take you a second.'

So out I came, dripping wet and butt naked, hoping that my silent outraged nudity would make a statement about how I perceived her behavior as extremely cowardly. Sighing loudly, I squatted down and stuck my head under the sink to find the button. It is the last action I remember performing.

It struck without warning, and without any respect to my circumstances. No, it wasn't the hexed disposal, drawing me into its gnashing metal teeth. It was our new kitty, who discovered the fascinating dangling objects she spied hanging between my legs. She had been poised around the corner and stalked me as I reached under the sink. And, at the precise moment when I was most vulnerable, she leapt at the toys I unwittingly offered and snagged them with her needle-like claws. I lost all rational thought to control orderly bodily movements, blindly rising at a violent rate of speed, with the full weight of a kitten hanging from my masculine region.

Wild animals are sometimes faced with a 'fight or flight' syndrome. Men, in this predicament, choose only the 'flight' option. I know this from experience. I was fleeing straight up into the air when the sink and cabinet bluntly and forcefully impeded my ascent. The impact knocked me out cold.

When I awoke, my wife and the paramedics stood over me. Now there are not many things in this life worse than finding oneself lying on the kitchen floor butt naked in front of a group of 'been-there, done-that' paramedics.

Even worse, having been fully briefed by my wife, the paramedics were all snorting loudly as they tried to conduct their work, all the while trying to suppress their hysterical laughter......and not succeeding.

Somehow I lived through it all. A few days later I finally made it back in to the office, where colleagues tried to coax an explanation out of me about my head injury. I kept silent, claiming it was too painful to talk about, which it was. 'What's the matter?' They all asked, 'Cat got your tongue? ' If they only knew!