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9. Carrots help you see in the dark.胡萝卜有助于提高夜视能力This was part of World War II propaganda. The British had invented radar and we began bombing the Germans at night. The Germans, confused as to how we bombed them at night, started researching how we were doing it.
这是二战期间的一个宣传。英国人发明了雷达并开始在夜晚轰炸德国。德国人就对英国人是如何在夜晚进行轰炸作业感到很好奇,并开始研究英国人是如何做到夜间瞄准的.
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The British government began to spread the rumor that it was the carrots in our ration packs that helped us see in the dark (Note: "in order" is rarely needed) to put the Germans off our trail. They figured it out eventually, but by that time, the rumor had already stuck.
英国政府就散布谣言说他们食用一定数量的胡萝卜来提高夜视能力来迷惑德国人。德国人最后发现了这只是个谣言,但到那时是这一说法已经被广泛接受了。
(严格来说现在这个也不算是迷信了,毕竟有医学家已经证明胡萝卜里边的胡萝卜素确实有这个作用,有点神奇。)
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10. Spilling salt is a bad omen.盐洒出来是不吉利的Spilling salt is bad luck because in Roman times, salt was so valuable that soldiers were paid in salt rather than money. Spilling it was equal to burning money. I'm not sure where throwing a pinch of salt over your left shoulder negates the action of spilling, but I can tell you that it is where the word 'salary' came from.
盐洒出来是不吉利的象征。因为在古罗马时代盐是很珍贵的,士兵们的薪酬领的是盐而不是钱。洒出盐意味着烧钱。我不确定是否可以通过在左肩上撒点盐来消除背运或盐洒出的影响,但是我可以告诉你“薪水”(salary)一词来源于盐(salt)。
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如果你还知道西方国家一些其他的迷信知识,欢迎留言交流哦!