英语动物词鼠牛.pptVIP

In China, there are many folks about how the mouse became the leader of the Twelve Animal Signs. The most popular folk is that the God held a running race and the one who first reached the finishing line would be the leader. On the way, the mouse persuaded the ox to let him on its back by tricks. When the ox was about to reach the finishing line, the mouse slid from the ox’s nose and he became the winner. 老鼠过街，人人喊打 When a rat runs across the street everybody cries, kill it! From the folk, we can see how shrewd the mouse is in human beings’ mind. On the other hand, mouse lives in obscure corner to secretly eat people’s food. So the word mouse is always associated with derogatory sense, such as timid, suspicious, and narrow-minded. In English, the word mouse doesn’t have so many negative meanings as the Chinese character 鼠does. At the very beginning, it was the symbol of timid and weakness, which has the same cultural connotation with that in Chinese. In modern cartoon films, mouse is the brave fighter to defeat the cat. Therefore, the mouse now shares the image of bravery, smart, loveliness, such as Mickey Mouse in Mickey and Donald Duck, Jerry in Tom and Jerry, and Stuart Little. According to Chinese legend, in the contest which decided the sequence of the twelve animals in the Twelve Animal Signs, the pig ended up last because of its laziness. Pig is regarded as a dirty, ugly, lazy, greedy and clumsy animal in Chinese eyes. Zhu Bajie, who is a famous pig image in Journey to the West puts these characteristics into full play. Also, Zhu Bajie is always used to derogate person who is eager to eat . pig-headed刚愎自用 to be a pig about something 贪婪 to make a pig of oneself 大吃大喝 to teach a pig to play on a flute 对牛弹琴 ox is considered as hard-working animal to the Chinese. Phrases contained ox have positive associations, such as老黄牛，猛牛，壮牛. In China, people are willing to compare themselves to 牛, just as LuXun said “俯首甘为孺子牛”. In westerners’ mind, the h