Bolt 是閃電，blue 在這兒是指藍(lán)色的天空。 Like a bolt out of the blue 的意思就是晴天霹靂，也就是出乎意外、沒(méi)料想到。有時(shí)，你花幾個(gè)小時(shí)也解不開(kāi)一道數(shù)學(xué)題。可是，當(dāng)你不再去想它的時(shí)候，你腦子里突然出現(xiàn)了答案。人們還經(jīng)常用 like a bolt out of the blue 來(lái)形容車(chē)禍。來(lái)看下面這個(gè)例子：

A driver may testify that he was going the normal speed limit when a truck appeared in front of him out of the blue and he did not have time to stop. 一個(gè)開(kāi)車(chē)的人可能會(huì)在作證時(shí)說(shuō)，正當(dāng)他以正常的速度行駛的時(shí)候，一輛卡車(chē)突然出現(xiàn)在他面前，他來(lái)不及剎車(chē)。

我們?cè)倏纯聪旅孢@個(gè)學(xué)生講的話:

The announcement that the president of our university was quitting to go to another school hit us like a bolt out of the blue. He’s always said he liked it here so much he would stay until he retired. 我們大學(xué)校長(zhǎng)宣布他決定辭職到另外一個(gè)學(xué)校去工作。我們都感到很突然，因?yàn)樗鲜钦f(shuō)他很喜歡這個(gè)學(xué)校，要一直在這兒工作到退休。