例句-1: "Turn left at the next corner and thenfollow your nose-- you can’t miss it."
“到前面的路口向左轉,然后一直走就到了,你不會看不到的。”
很明顯,這句句子里“follow your nose”的意思就是“一直走”。Follow your nose還可以解釋為利用嗅覺找到什么東西。例如:
例句-2: "You say you’re looking for the French Bakery? Just walk two blocks north, turn left, and you can smell that wonderful smell offresh bread baking: just follow your nose and it will bring you right to the front door.”
“你是說你在找那個法國面包店嗎?往北走過兩條街,然后向左轉,你就會聞到那烤面包的香味。隨著香味走就會把你帶到那面包店的門口了。”
“Follow your nose”在這個句子里著重的是嗅覺,而不是方向。
另一個跟鼻子有關的習語是:Pay through the nose。 Pay就是付錢的意思。按字面上來解釋,pay through the nose就是通過鼻子來付錢,這聽起來似乎很痛苦。而實際上,它的確切意思是付出比真正的價值高得多的錢,或者說付出的錢實在太多而感到心痛。舉兩個例子:
例句-3: "My brother Bob borrowed the money to open his restaurant five years ago when the interest rate was so high, so he’s been paying through the nose ever since."
這個人說:“我哥哥在五年前借錢開他那個飯館的時候正好利率非常高。所以,他從那時起就一直在大筆大筆地還債。”
例句-4: "Life is funny. When the famous Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh was alive, nobody wanted to buy his pictures. But now rich people will pay through the nose for one, sometimes more than five million dollars."
這句話的意思是:“人生實在是很有趣的。當那位有名的荷蘭畫家凡高還活著的時候,沒有人要買他的畫。可是,現在那些有錢人卻愿意出高價買他的畫,有時候一張畫就要五百多萬美元。”