【英语习语】

a bolt from the blue

【习语注释】

该习语中的bolt表示“闪电”，the blue是指“蓝天（the blue sky）”，其字面意思是“来自天空的闪电”，主要用来喻指“a complete surprise”，即“完全出乎意料”，相当于汉语里的“晴天霹雳；出人意表；出乎意料之外；令人大吃一惊；令人大感意外；让人深感突然”。

【习语运用】

His decision to leave the team just on the eve of the intercollegiate tournament was certainly a bolt from the blue.

在校际锦标赛前夕他竟然决定离队，这实在太令人感到突然了。

The news that the firm was closing down sown came as a bolt from the blue to the staff.

公司要倒闭的消息传来，对全体职员来说犹如晴天霹雳。

The news that the president was murdered came like a bolt from the blue for many people in this country.

总统被谋杀的消息对于这个国家的许多人来说就如同一个晴天霹雳。

We had been sure he was in New York, so his sudden appearance was a bolt from the blue.

我们大家都认定他现在在纽约，因此他的突然出现完全出乎我们的意料。

【闲话习语】

该习语有多种变体版本，如“out of the blue”或“a bolt out of the blue”。其书面使用最早可追溯到Thomas Carlyle的作品《The French Revolution》（1837年）中：

"Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of the Blue, has hit strange victims."

但该习语很有可能是Thomas Carlyle从罗马抒情诗人Horace的作品《Ode 34》中翻译借用的：

"My prayers were scant, my offerings few,While witless wisdom fool'd my mind;But now I trim my sails anew,And trace the course I left behind.For lo! the Sire of heaven on high,By whose fierce bolts the clouds are riven,To-day through an unclouded sky"

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那么，你还知道英语里“晴天霹雳”的其它说法吗？欢迎留言探讨。