論“黑”——“black”義多端

程永健

在英語中，表示色彩的詞，black，red，white，yellow，orange，indigo，violet等，除了用來表示事物的顏色外，還常常被引申表達(dá)某些特定的含義。由于色彩是日常生活的一部分，這些由表示色彩的詞匯構(gòu)成的詞組或短語更富有表現(xiàn)力，更生動形象。了解和掌握這些詞組或短語，不僅能增加我們的詞匯量，也有益于提高我們的英語表達(dá)能力。首先讓我們看一看black及其構(gòu)成的一些詞組和短語。

black意為“黑色”或“黑暗的”。black out意為“熄滅燈火”、“停電”，也引申為“扣發(fā)”（文章）和“封鎖”（新聞）。

The last snowstorm caused a blackout in several counties.

上次的暴風(fēng)雪造成許多縣停電。

In 1997 the New York City was blacked out for hours because of a power failure.

1997年一次斷電事故使紐約全城一片漆黑，長達(dá)數(shù)小時之久。

A number of his articles were blacked out by the censors.

他的一些文章被審查人員扣發(fā)。

There was a complete blackout on information.

消息被完全封鎖了。

He blacked out the passages he didnt like.

他抹掉了他不喜歡的段落。

black out也作“昏厥”或“失去知覺”解。

The pain was intense that he blacked out for several minutes.

劇烈的疼痛使他昏迷過去好幾分鐘。

After the fall he blacked out and could not remember what happened.

他摔倒之后失去了知覺，不記得后來的事情。

go black則是說人昏倒之時，眼前一片漆黑。

Suddenly everything goes black and thats the last thing I can remember.

我突然眼前一片漆黑，別的什么都不記得了。

日常生活中，黑色是不受歡迎的色彩，通常與“陰郁不快”、“倒霉”、“不吉利”等概念聯(lián)系在一起。

Things look black.

事情看起來不妙。

He was black in the face.

他臉色鐵青。

She was black with rage.

她怒容滿面。

She cast a black look at the box in the corner of the room and left.

她厭惡地看了一眼墻角的方盒就走開了。

I saw his wife giving him a black look when he brought out a second bottle of whisky.

我看見他拿出來第二瓶威士忌酒時，他的妻子瞪了他一眼。

It would be a black day for this country if everyone else takes the same hopeless attitude as you do.

如果人人都像你那樣不求上進(jìn)，這個國家就完了。

The black day I can remember was in the 1976 when a terrible earthquake ruined the whole city in a matter of seconds.

我所記得的最不吉利的一天是在1976年，那天一場大地震使全城在頃刻之間化為廢墟。

This is not the time to ask him a favor. Hes been in a black mood since yesterday.

這會兒別請他幫忙，他從昨天起一直情緒很壞。

a black spot則指經(jīng)常發(fā)生惡性交通事故的路口或路段。路標(biāo)上常用醒目的黑體字寫上Accident black spot，以提醒開車者小心開車。

Drive with care. Accident black spot！

小心開車，這是事故多發(fā)地段！

black 還含有“毀壞”或“玷污”的意思。paint sb. black就是蓄意把某人說得一無是處，說某人壞。

She is not as black as she is painted.

她不像人們傳說的那么壞。

Dont black my good names by spreading lies.

別散布流言蜚語詆毀我的聲譽(yù)。

black sheep指的是損壞家庭聲譽(yù)的敗家子，或者是玷污團(tuán)體榮譽(yù)的害群之馬。

She has come from a selfish and often ruthless New Orleans family， with its black sheep and its white wolves.

她出身于一個自私自利，常常是冷酷無情的新奧爾良家庭。這個家庭出過敗家子，也出過出類拔萃的人物。

Now every profession has of course got its black sheep.

現(xiàn)在任何一個行業(yè)中都有敗類。

黑色常常又意味著“暗中進(jìn)行的”、“不正當(dāng)”甚至是“非法的”，因而就有了blacklist（黑名單），blackmail（訛詐），blackmailer（訛詐者），black market（黑市），black marketeer（黑市商人）等詞。

He was blacklisted for political reasons in the 70s.

70年代他因政治原因被列入了黑名單。

The man was put on the blacklist at the police station as he was a suspect in a number of crimes.

他是一系列罪案的嫌疑犯，被列入警察局的黑名單。

She demanded $5，000 blackmail from him for not turning the evidence over to the police.

她向他勒索五千美元作為不把證據(jù)交給警方的條件。

Dont think you can blackmail me （into doing that）. Ill report you to the police.

別以為你能威嚇我（做這事），我要報告警方。There has always been buying and selling of American dollars on the black market.

黑市上一直有買賣美元的交易。

black在下面的例句中作“皮膚青紫”解（因挨打或摔跌所致）。

If he says that again， Ill give him a black eye.他要是再說我就讓他烏眼青。

The young fool got both eyes blackened when he picked up a quarrel with a man into the pub.

這個年輕傻瓜在酒吧與人爭吵被打得兩眼青紫。

Linda was all black and blue after she fell from the stairs.

琳達(dá)從樓梯上跌下，摔得渾身青一塊紫一塊。

black and white這個詞組原義是只有黑白兩色，而沒有其他顏色。這個短語多用來指黑白照片、影片、水墨畫，或黑白電視機(jī)。在下列例句中black and white作“黑字白紙”解。black指書寫文字的墨跡。

Id like to see this contract in black and white as soon as possible.

我想盡快見到書面合同。

I want you to give assurance in black and white.

我要你做出書面保證。

在賬本中以紅筆記錄虧損（稱“赤字”），黑筆記錄“盈余”。詞組in（the）black就成了“盈余”、“有盈余”的意思。

The restaurant is well managed and has always been in black.

這個飯館經(jīng)營得不錯，一直是賺錢的。

He took charge of the shop when it was losing money and with half a year he put it in the black this year.

這間店虧本時他接管過來，半年時間他就扭虧為盈了。

當(dāng)然，black也與“莊重”、“嚴(yán)肅”分不開。be dressed in black意思是“著黑色喪服”。a black tie dinner是很正式的聚餐會，與會者必須穿禮服，系黑色領(lǐng)帶。