不能坐以待斃的英文（坐以待斃逆來順受）

2023-09-19 11:36:28 1

這裡背景是Thomas之前偷酒被Bates意外發現，因為兩人一直是死對頭。 因為擔心被告發，Thomas先下手為強，聯合Mrs O去Carson那裡告發Bates是小偷。於是Carson找Bates談話問詢，Bates很難過。傍晚的時候一個人坐在院子裡，Anna過來問候他：

A：Can’t you just explain about Thomas?

B: Not now. It would sound like a false accusation.

A：You can’t take it lying down. Because you are not guilty of any wrong.

知識點：

1，false accusation 誣告；栽贓；不實指控

2，take sth lying down ：to submit to insult or oppression without resistance （遭受侮辱或壓迫卻不去抵抗）→ 「坐以待斃；逆來順受」

出處：The image conveyed by this expression is that of a cowed animal, which accepts its unhappy fate instead of jumping up in protest. This metaphor appeared first in the late nineteenth century and is most often put negatively. It was so used by Shaw in Androcles and the Lion (1914): 「I should feel ashamed if I let myself be struck like that, and took it lying down.」

這個表達傳達的形象是母牛類的動物，它接受不幸的命運，而不是跳起來抗議。這個隱喻最早出現在19世紀後期，並且經常用於表達否定的含義。肖博納在他的小說 《 Androcles and the Lion》（1914年）中這樣使用 ↓

「I should feel ashamed if I let myself be struck like that, and took it lying down.」 如果我讓自己那樣被打倒還逆來順受，我定然羞愧不已。