作者︰Kenneth Lau
最近，新闻报道虐畜事件，不仅令爱狗之人痛心疾首，亦令广大市民感到震惊。毕竟狗被形
容为人类最好的朋友，实在没有必要承受不必要的苦痛。在现实生活中爱狗者众，其实英文亦有
不少与狗有关的词组。
A dog’s life有人认为狗狗生活比人类好，有主人照顾，又不用担心生活（流浪狗除外）；但又有人认为狗狗一生陪伴主人，其实很孤独。究竟狗的生活是开心还是不开心，似乎人类难以估计，但a dog’s
life就一定是负面，意思是“艰苦的生活”。
‧I’ve led a dog’s life since the moment I walked down the aisle!
‧You think she has a rosy future, but believe me – it’s been a dog’s life for her after promotion.
Go to the dogs
Go to the dogs是“衰落”，如果想用形容词，也可以用crumbling，例如 acrumbling
economy、a crumbling business。
‧The restaurant had been going to the dogs for months until
they hired a world-famous chef last
month.
‧The global economy is expected to go to the dogs if world wars break out.
‧I’ve considered closing the company because of the crumbling business, but my partner was still quite optimistic about the future.
A dog-eat-dog world
A dog-eat-dog world也是负面意思，意思是“充满竞争、冷酷无情
的世界”。 Dog – eat – dog经常用hyphen连起，因为它主要是形容词，除了world外，还可形容competition(竞争)本身。
‧We are now living in a dog-eat-dog world where competitors are
not likely to show mercy.
‧There are many successful companies in the market, and it might be difficult for your budding business to survive dog-eat-dog competition.
Like a dog with two tails
不过，偶尔与狗有关的英文也是正面的。
我们常说狗狗开心时就会不断摆尾，英文也有同样的说法。 Like a dog with two tails就是“非常高兴”，类似的英文惯用语是on cloud nine、walking on air、in seventh
heaven。
‧My brother was like a dog with two tails when I gave him his
Xmas present.
‧When I received the offer letter from a multinational giant, I was like a dog with two tails.
Abuse / mistreatment /maltreatment / cruelty
又，谈起虐待，最多人知道的是abuse，其实还有mistreat、maltreat。 Abuse既是动词又是名词，而mistreat及maltreat的名词分别是mistreatment及maltreatment。此外，亦可用cruelty，例如animal cruelty、cruelty to animals。
‧Many organisations which promote animal welfare denounce (谴
责) animal abuse.
‧Even if you are not a lover of animals, you will still deprecate (强烈
反对) animal mistreatment /maltreatment.
‧Cruelty to animals is one of the issues that the community is increasingly concerned about.
作者是遵理学校英文科首席讲师，大学主修语言学，一级荣誉毕业，热爱教学。
电邮︰ kenneth@kennethlau.com
