英語(yǔ)文化陷阱系列 (17)

　　17. Whipping boy

　　大家可能對(duì) “scapegoat”的意思非常熟悉，但是對(duì) “whipping boy ”可能并不熟悉，實(shí)際上二者的意思非常接近。

　　Whipping boy 的比喻義就是“充當(dāng)替罪羊的人或物，代人受過”。這個(gè)短語(yǔ)在實(shí)際中用途頗多。如：“ one 'right' way to teach reading……To support phonics instruction and make the advocates of 'whole language' the whipping boy does a disservice to our schools and teachers” (摘自1997年《時(shí)代周刊》);

　　又如：“Building 31 also is not immune from the siege mentality that generally can mark Microsoft. 'We're very much a whipping boy in the academic community'”