第1个回答 2022-07-31
Life is happy and sad, and of course there is vocabulary to represent highs and lows of life. Today, we are going to look at some of the low vocabulary. The expression is about being demotivated, discouraged, or disappointed.
使（某人）泄气；使（某人）不坚定
Here the sails is the cloth part on a boat that allows the boat to move with the wind. The wind blows the sail, and pushes the boat along the water. So, if someone took away that wind, than the boat cannot move. This sort of gives us a hint has to the meaning of this expression. If you have the wind taken out of your sails, it just means that you are discouraged, or demotivated. You lost your motivation to do something.
In this analogy, your motivation to do something is like the wind. So, if someone takes away that wind, you have no motivation to do what you are doing. I think everybody has had this happened to them at some point, when they are super excited about an idea or excited about doing something, you want to share that idea with your friend or colleague, and their reaction is just very blasé(司空见惯). Then you become demotivated, and you are like I am so excited but my friend doesn’t like that idea. Let’s look at a couple examples now.
A: So, I ran that new idea that I had by my boss,
B: Oh, nice. I’m sure he’d love it, right?
A: Nope, he shut it down.
B: What? Why? It would save the company a ton of money.
A: Yeah, that’s what I thought too, but I don’t know. Anyway, it really took the wind out of my sails.
In the conversation, we see that two colleagues are talking about an idea that would have saved their company a ton of money, when it was pitched to their boss, it was shut down, which means it was rejected. When the guy who pitched this idea to his boss was shut down, it took the wind out of his sails. He’s demotivated to continue working hard and thinking of new ideas for the company.
对（某人）说…（以听取对方意见）；向（某人）征求对…的看法；就…请教（某人）Would you run your idea by me one more time?你能不能再跟我说一遍你的想法？ Let’s move on to example two.
A: So, are you all pumped up for the camping trip this weekend?
B: I don’t know, man. I might change my mind. I am not sure if I still want to go.
A: What? Come on. If you are not going, then others might too. Don’t take the wind out of my sails like this. I’ve been planning this trip for weeks.
B: All right, all right. I’ll go.
A: Yeah, there we go.
In this example, two friends are talking about a camping trip the following weekend. One friend says he might change his mind. His friend responds by saying don’t take the wind out of my sails, meaning don’t do this to me, don’t discourage me, and I’m very excited for this trip right now.