名人教你讲英文：有“长”有“短”的惯用语

名人教英文：有“长”有“短”的惯用语

上周介绍过no less than / nothing less than（简直是），其实同义语还有nothing short of。奥巴马医保计划执行混乱，很多人以“简直是灾难”来形容：the implementation (落实) of obamacare is nothing short of a disaster (灾难).

fall short of something则解作“达不到（目标、期望）”。例如：the company's third-quarter sales fell short of the target.

stop short of可解作“最终没有做某件事（虽然或许差点儿做了）”，例如：he admitted that something went wrong, but he stopped short of spelling out the full details；亦可解作“迹近但未至于”，例如：she accused him of being misleading, but stopped short of saying he lied.

in short即“简而言之”，例如：susan likes swimming, skiing and biking. in short, she is sporty.

for short有“简称”之意，例如：the legislative council is known as the legco for short. 换个说法是：the legco is short for the legislative council.