作者︰Kenneth Lau
最近，新聞報道虐畜事件，不僅令愛狗之人痛心疾首，亦令廣大市民感到震驚。畢竟狗被形
容為人類最好的朋友，實在沒有必要承受不必要的苦痛。在現實生活中愛狗者眾，其實英文亦有
不少與狗有關的詞組。
A dog’s life有人認為狗狗生活比人類好，有主人照顧，又不用擔心生活（流浪狗除外）；但又有人認為狗狗一生陪伴主人，其實很孤獨。究竟狗的生活是開心還是不開心，似乎人類難以估計，但a dog’s
life就一定是負面，意思是「艱苦的生活」。
‧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」，如果想用形容詞，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也是負面意思，意思是「充滿競爭、冷酷無情
的世界」。 Dog – eat – dog經常用hyphen連起，因為它主要是形容詞，除了world外，還可形容competition(競爭)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
不過，偶爾與狗有關的英文也是正面的。
我們常說狗狗開心時就會不斷擺尾，英文也有同樣的說法。 Like a dog with two tails就是「非常高興」，類似的英文慣用語是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，談起虐待，最多人知道的是abuse，其實還有mistreat、maltreat。 Abuse既是動詞又是名詞，而mistreat及maltreat的名詞分別是mistreatment及maltreatment。此外，亦可用cruelty，例如animal cruelty、cruelty to animals。
‧Many organisations which promote animal welfare denounce (譴
責) animal abuse.
‧Even if you are not a lover of animals, you will still deprecate (強烈
反對) animal mistreatment /maltreatment.
‧Cruelty to animals is one of the issues that the community is increasingly concerned about.
作者是遵理學校英文科首席講師，大學主修語言學，一級榮譽畢業，熱愛教學。
電郵︰ kenneth@kennethlau.com
