Have you ever watched children in a classroom when their teacher leaves for a few minutes? When the cat's away, the mice will play means people sometimes misbehave when there is no supervision.
● “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.”猫儿不在,老鼠成精(大王外出, 小鬼跳粱)。 意指在人们在缺乏监督时,有时会行为不当,胡作非为。
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If your home is very small, you might say there is not enough room to swing a cat. But you probably should not try this at home!
● “There is not enough room to swing a cat.”的意思不难理解,连猫都难以行走,说明空间之狭小,根本没有转身的余地。
If you ever had cats as pets, you know it is difficult to train them or to get them to do something. Cats are not like sheep or cows that can be moved in a group. So we say a difficult or impossible job is like herding cats.
● 猫是以喜欢自由出名的,向来不喜欢被驯服,因此要驯服一只猫绝非易事。如果做什么事情“like herding cats”,那说明这件事有极大难度,很难做到。比如说,南加州大学的校长就曾说过这句话:Managing people is like herding cats.(管理人简直难于登天。)
You may have heard this expression: Curiosity kill the cat. This means being too concern about the things that aren't your business might cause problems.
You may have heard this expression, "Curiosity kill the cat", this means being too concerned about things that are not your business might cause problems.