﻿ Crocodile tears 鱷魚的眼淚 - Taipei Times
Tue, Nov 14, 2006 - Page 13　News List

Crocodile tears 鱷魚的眼淚

This crocodile in Mexico is over 2.4m long and weighs more than 100kg.
墨西哥的這隻鱷魚長度超過二點四公尺，體重逾一百公斤。 (照片：歐新社)


Have you ever seen a crocodile? Crocodiles spend much of their time hiding under water with just their eyes showing above the water. This helps them to surprise their prey.

A long time ago people who saw crocodiles eating their prey saw something very strange. The crocodile cried while eating its prey! Tears would fall from its eyes as it ate an animal or sometimes even a person.

Of course people didn't believe that a crocodile could really be sad about killing and eating its prey. So if someone's tears seem to be just for show— if you don't believe they are really sad or sorry — in English you can say they are crying crocodile tears.

Now zoologists have found that crocodiles cannot swallow their prey under water or they will drown. So they have to eat their prey on land. When they have been out of the water for a few minutes their eyes become dry. So the "tears" are just the way that a crocodile looks after its eyes.

(Catherine Thomas, Staff Writer)



當然，人們可不相信鱷魚真的是因捕食獵物而難過。所以，假使某人的眼淚似乎只是為了表演，而你不相信他們是真心難過或抱歉，在英文中，你就可以說他們是「cry crocodile tears」。



Today's Words 今天單字

1. prey n.

獵物 (lie4 wu4)

例: The cat lay in wait for its prey.


2. tear n.

眼淚 (yan3 lei4)

例: Sally just kept crying. Tear after tear slid down her face.


3. zoologist n.

動物學家 (dong4 wu4 xue2 jia1)

例: Ben wants to be a zoologist when he grows up.


This story has been viewed 4671 times.
TOP top