动物的美好故事

Bell the cat
给猫系上铃铛
Now the VOA Special English Program Words and Their Stories.
Our expressions today all contain the word cat. “To bell the cat” means to do something dangers, something that might end in disaster.
The expression comes from an old story. A family of mice could not live at hole to get food because of its fear of a cat. The mice decided to tie a bell around the cat’s neck. The bell would ring as the cat moved. So the mice would always know where the cat was. All agreed it was a wonderful plan. That is until one wise old mouse asked, “Who will bell the cat?”
Another cat expression is “to grin like a Cheshire cat.” Many people have read those words in the book “Alice Adventures in Wonderland” by British writer Lewis Carroll. In the story a little girl named Alice finds a cat smiling or grinning from ear to ear. She is very surprised. She does not know cats can grin. “Ah,” she is told, “this cat is special; it comes from Cheshire”--- that is a county in England.”
Whenever the Cheshire cat leaves, its tail disappeared first, then its body, its wide grin is the last thing you see.
Some word experts say the mysterious smile of Cheshire cats was known long before Lewis Carroll wrote his book. It seems a man painted a picture of a smiling lion on the sign in Cheshire. It was a strange smile indeed, for he was trying to paint an angry lion.
Another expression not often used now is “to be somebody’s cat’s paw.” It means to be fooled in to doing someone else’s dirty work. It comes from an old story about a monkey. He wants some nuts heating on a fire. The monkey tries to steal the nuts. But he burns his fingers. So, he seizes the foot or paw of a cat and he uses that to pull the nuts out of the fire.
The expression “Fat Cat” describes someone who is rich. You often hear it during political campaigns. Some fat cats give lots of money to politicians they hoped will be elected. American jazz musicians have used the word “cat” to mean a man. A sharp cat, for example, is a man who is dressed in the latest fashionable clothing. The great American horn player Louis Armstrong used the expression this way many years ago. Armstrong said, “I had on a new cowboy hat, a fine black suit, and new shining leather shoes. I was a sharp cat.”
This VOA Special English Program “Words and Their Stories” was written by Hal Burman. The narrator was Maurice Joyce. I’m Warren Scheer.
Bell the cat?给猫系上铃铛,这当然是没什么难的,但如果联想一个古老的寓言里,"给猫系上铃铛"还是一件很冒险的事情呢!故事的发生是这样的：一窝老鼠因为怕猫,结果饿的要命.于是它们认为最好的办法是在猫的脖子上系一个铃铛.这样铃铛一响,它们就知道猫来了.大家都觉得this is a great idea."这是个好主意",但是有一只比较聪明的老鼠说到"这个想法是好,但是谁去给猫系上铃铛呢?".当然"老鼠给猫系铃铛"是奢谈,但如果真的有个老鼠敢为猫系上铃铛,那它也算是"为救众多的老鼠而奋身不顾"了.所以bell the cat就表示"为众人的利益承担风险"的意思. 不知道现在的社会中是不是It's very diffcult to get a man who can bell the cat."很难找到危险时刻能够挺身而出的人"了.
所以bell the cat就表示"为众人承担风险、替别人冒险"的意思.