"It is raining cats and
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"It is raining cats and
"It is raining cats and
"It is raining cats and
这是雨下的很大 倾盆大雨 瓢泼大雨 的意思\x0d--------------------------------\x0d其实,最初人们的确用过to rain pitchforks,to rain shovels,darning needles,chicken coops和hammer handles来描述“持续的大雨”.“To rain cats and dogs”最早出现在理查德-布罗姆1652年创作的剧本《都市智慧》中：“It shall rain dogs and polecats.” Polecats 是一种类似于雪貂的猫,但是这个词后来在乔纳森-斯威夫特的笔下变成了Cats.1738年,斯威夫特在《礼仪对话》一书中所使用的短语就是如今我们所熟悉的这种形式：“I know Sir John will go,though he was sure it would cats and dogs.”\x0d《词汇短语起源故事百科全书》(Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins) 中收录了对其起源的一种解释.书中说“17世纪的英格兰在下大雨的时候,一些城市的街道就会水流成河,而且这些污水中还会飘浮着大量的死猫死狗.”（During heavy rains in 17th century England,some city streets became raging rivers of filth carrying many cats and dogs.）\x0d布鲁尔在其所著的《成语寓言大辞典》(Dictionary of Phrase and Fable)中说,这个短语起源于北欧：“在挪威的神话中,猫被认为可以影响天气.驾着风暴而来的女巫据说就是化身为猫的.” 而狗和狼则是风暴神欧丁的随从,其中狗是“风的象征”("In Norse mythology,the cat is supposed to have great influence on the weather.Witches that rode on storms were said to assume the form of cats." Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin,the god of storms,and the dog "is a signal of wind.").\x0d关于这个短语起源的另一种说法是说它来源于一个古老的法语词“catdoupe”,这个词的意思是“waterfall or cataract”.而法语中“catdoupe”的发音和“cats and dogs”有些相像,所以就有了 “to rain cats and dogs”.\x0d最后,单独的“cats and dogs”这个短语有自己的用法,意思是“ 价值低的股票,不值钱的、卖不掉的商品”（low priced,highly speculative stock）.