英语和汉语一样都有成语，都译成idiom，每个单词你都认识，但是合到一起的意思你不一定知道在讲什么。
除了用法、寓意，有的短语和谚语适合书面说法，有的只在口语中使用，有的涉及比喻，有的源自故事，有的是名人名言，有的英国人说，美国人不说，还有的不同的国家有不同的说法……
所以学短语和谚语是一件很有趣的事。希望你读我的系列文章不仅能够记住这些英文短语和谚语，而且能够从相关的故事中体会到异国文化，一些书本上没有，生活里必知的知识。
公鸡
有的时候公鸡被用来指男人；有的时候公鸡被用来指“自负的人”，那么关于公鸡的短语有哪些说法呢？
1
Rooster games
**不是电子游戏，也不是斗鸡（cock fight)
意思：就是光知道打架，而不去解决问题。
2
Hen-pecked - nagged
单词：母鸡－啄－唠叨
意思：对老婆俯首帖耳、有求必应，有点儿过分地听老婆的话。
《生活大爆炸》里的Howard就是这种类型,老婆的话就是圣旨，“Yes dear”挂在嘴边。
Howard: Your wife pushes you around? But you're a big scary cop!
Mr. Rostenkowski: Well you're an astronaut and your wife pushes you around. And she's only four feet tall!
— The Big Bang Theory
3.
The rooster may rule the roost but the hen rules the rooster.
The rooster makes all the noise, but the hen rules the rooster.
roost就是鸡睡觉的地方
意思：男人征服世界,女人征服男人。你也可以理解成“枕边风”、“爱江山更爱美人”......
4.
～The cock may crow, but it’s the hen who lays the egg.
～It is the hen that lays the egg, and the rooster crows about it.
～Roosters crow; hens deliver.
～The rooster may crow but the hen delivers the goods.
～The rooster may crow, but this hen lays the egg!
～The most useful lay member of society is not the rooster who does the crowing.
公鸡打鸣叫Crow，母鸡叫Cluck
这5句话都是一个意思，最早是1987年萨契尔夫人说的。
意思：男人光说话不办事儿，都是女人在做事。
Above all, Thatcher never hid her belief that women are better than men at getting things done. She brought to government “the tendency of the indefatigable woman to suppose that nothing would be done right, unless she personally saw to it”. “The cocks may crow, but it’s the hen that lays the egg,” I heard her proclaim at a private dinner party in 1987. Men are the talkers, the dreamers: Women are the doers.
下一篇文章：英文短语和言语的故事（二）Hen
