VOA慢速英语:Don't Let the Cat Out of the Bag!

Different people have different ways of saying things -- their own special expressions.
不同的人说话的方式不同——人们有各自独有的表达方式。

Each week we tell about some popular American expressions.
每周我们都会说些流行的美语表达方式。

The bag is one of the most simple and useful things in the world. It is a container made of paper or cloth. It has given the world many strange expressions that are not very simple. Some of them are used in the United States today.
袋子是世界上最简单而实用的物品之一，它是由纸或布料制成的容器。但是随之而来的也有很多奇异的、并不简单的表达。其中的某些如今在美国还在使用。

One is “bagman.” It describes a go-between. The go-between sees to it that money is passed -- often illegally -- from one person to another.
其中之一是“bagman"。 这个短语形容的是一种中间人，这种中间人确保资金得以转手，且通常是以非法的形式。

Another widely-used expression is to “let the cat out of the bag.” It is used when someone tells something that was supposed to be secret. No one can explain how the cat got into the bag. But there is an old story about it…
另一个广泛使用的表达是" to let the cat out of the bag" （真相大白）。当某些人公布了一些本应是秘密的事情时，就可以用这个短语表达。没有人知道猫是如何进入袋子的，但是关于这一点有个古老的故事。

Long ago tradesmen sold things in large cloth bags. One day a woman asked for a pig. The tradesman held up a cloth bag with something moving inside it. He said it was a live pig. The woman asked to see it. When the dishonest tradesman opened the bag, out jumped a cat -- not a pig. The tradesman’s secret was out. He was trying to trick her. And now everybody knew it.
很久以前，商人们做生意的时候把货物放在大的布袋子里。某天一个女人想买一头猪，商人抓起一只布袋子，里面有什么东西在动的样子。商人声称那是头活猪，但女人执意要看。当那不诚实的商人打开口袋时，蹦出来的是一只猫，而非所声称的猪。随后那个商人的秘密就被泄露了。他想骗那个女人，但是现在所有人都知道怎么回事了。

The phrase to be “left holding the bag” is as widely-used as the expression to “let the cat out of the bag.”
习语“to be left holding the bag(被留下背黑锅)”和俗语“to let the cat out of the bag(泄露秘密)”皆被大家广泛使用。

This expression makes the person left holding the bag responsible for an action -- often a crime or misdeed. That person is the one who is punished. The others involved in the act escape.
这个习语表示让某人留下来为某个行为负责，通常为某种罪行或不法行为。这个被留下来的人是要被惩罚的，而其他涉及此行为的人可以逃脱惩罚。

Where the expression came from is not clear. Some say that General George Washington used it during the American Revolutionary War.
这个习语的起源并不明了。有些人说乔治•华盛顿将军在美国独立战争中使用过它。

One of Washington’s officers, Royall Taylor, used the expression in a play about Daniel Shay’s rebellion. The play was in 1781, after Taylor helped to put down Shay’s rebellion.
华盛顿身边的一名官员，罗亚尔•泰勒在一部描述丹尼尔•夏依的叛变的戏剧中用过这个习语。这部戏剧诞生于1787年，在泰勒帮助镇压夏依的叛变之后。

Shays led a thousand war veterans in an attack on a federal building in Springfield, Massachusetts. Guns were in the building. Some of the protesters were farmers who had no money to buy seed. Some had been put in prison for not paying their debts. They were men who fought one war against the King of England, and were now prepared to fight against their own government. Most of the rebels were captured. Shays and some of the officers escaped.
夏依在马萨诸塞州的斯普林菲尔德率领千名老兵袭击了一幢联邦建筑。枪支都在这幢建筑中。部分起义者是买不起种子的农民。有一些是没钱还债而锒铛入狱的人。他们是一群曾参加过对抗英国国王的战争，现在却准备反抗自己的政府的人。大部分叛军都被抓获，只有夏依和他的一些军官逃脱了。

In his play, Taylor describes Shays as disappearing, giving others “the bag to hold.”
泰勒在他的戏剧中将夏依描写为自己消失了却让他人背黑锅（giving others “the bag to hold”）的人。

A bag is useful in many ways. Just be careful not to “let the cat out of the bag,” or someone may leave you “holding the bag.”
“bag”这个词的用法很多。你一定小心不要“let the cat out of the bag(泄漏秘密)”，否则别人可能会“leave you holding the bag（让你背黑锅）”。