日本高清色视频在线视频在,国产香蕉97碰碰视频碰碰看,丰满少妇av无码区,精品无码专区在线,久久无码专区免费看,四虎欧美精品永久地址99,亚洲色无码一区二区三区

您現(xiàn)在的位置: Language Tips> Columnist> Zhang Xin  
 





 
When things don't add up
[ 2007-12-21 13:51 ]


Reader question: What does it mean when people say things "don't add up"?

My comments:

Two and two don't add up to five. Two and two add up to four. Five is incorrect.

When numbers don't add up, they don't work out right. For example, if a survey claims that 35 percent of its respondents say "Yes", 35 percent of others say "No" and another 35 percent say "I don't know", those percentages don't add up. 35 percent plus 35 plus 35 equals 105 percent. That's impossible. And what does than mean? Well, something is wrong with that survey – it doesn't know what it's talking about.

When people say things – theories for instance – don't add up, it means they don't make sense. Or in another saying, they don't hold water.

Hold water? Yeah, think of baskets with holes in the bottom. Baskets with holes in the bottom won't hold water. When theories are said to fail to hold water, they don't conform to logic. In the novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mr. Utterson, the lawyer, contemplates the disappearance of Mr. Hyde thus with Poole, the butler:

"This is a very strange tale, Poole; this is rather a wild tale, my man," said Mr. Utterson, biting his finger. "Suppose it were as you suppose, supposing Dr. Jekyll to have been – well, murdered, what could induce the murderer to stay? That won't hold water; it doesn't commend itself to reason."

Here are a few more up-to-date examples of things that don't add up:

1. Iraq's numbers don't add up, U.S. says (latimes.com, November 30, 2007).

2. Maths lessons don't add up for pupils (physorg.com, December 6, 2007).

3. Asian takeovers don't add up: Morgan (theaustralian.news.com.au, December 10, 2007).

4. AIDS figures, funds don't add up (in.news.yahoo.com, December 8, 2007).

5. Sister says findings in brother's death don't add up (knoxnews.com, November 22, 2007).

6. Arithmetic teacher's excuses don't add up (business.timesonline.co.uk, November 27, 2007).

7. Claims of vanishing middle class don't add up (deseretnews.com, December 5, 2007).

8. OOIDA says Mexican truck stats don't add up (tacitus13.newsvine.com, December 6, 2007).

9. My two cents don't add up to a penny on Technorati (technorati.com/blogs/patentpen21.livejournal.com, date unknown, no bother).

Ah well, apparently a lot of things don't add up when you put two and two together.

A lot of times in fact, it depends on how you put two and two together.

我要看更多專欄文章

 

About the author:
 

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

 
 
相關文章 Related Stories
 

 

 

 
 

本頻道最新推薦

     
  “有參考價值”怎么說
  To look or not to look is the question
  When things don't add up
  Words and rhetoric
  “國賓館”怎么說

論壇熱貼

     
  開個題目大家扯:hotel & restaurant
  追求某人
  請教工商年檢如何翻譯
  How to translate “中國老字號”into English?
  "港股直通車"怎么翻譯?
  兩免一補怎么說?




<strong id="xdwva"><div id="xdwva"></div></strong>
<label id="xdwva"></label>

<thead id="xdwva"></thead>
    <label id="xdwva"></label>

  1. 日本高清色视频在线视频在,国产香蕉97碰碰视频碰碰看,丰满少妇av无码区,精品无码专区在线,久久无码专区免费看,四虎欧美精品永久地址99,亚洲色无码一区二区三区 久久九九久精品国产日韩经典 国产国语国拍精品 啊v在线观看高清无码 视频一区二区欧美 久久精品爱爱唉爱