美国的商品推销员在不很久以前还是挨家挨户地去推销商品,例如吸尘机、厨房用品、百科全书和圣经等。当一位家庭主妇听到敲门声,把门打开的时候,精明能干的推销员就会把一只脚先伸到门里边,这样可以避免在他还没有机会介绍他的商品之前女主人就把门关上了。这种挨家挨户访问的推销员现在几乎已经消声匿迹了,大多数推销员现在都靠电话来招揽生意。可是,把一只脚先伸到门里边这个说法却成了一个人们经常用的俗语了,在英文里就是: to get a foot in the door。 to get a foot in the door 的意思就是:为了达到一个目的迈出了第一步,尽管你可能离达到目的的距离还很远。下面这个例子是一个学生说的话:
例句-1: "you know that beautiful girl who sits ahead of me in english class? she keeps turning me down for dates, but i finally got a foot in the door today: she met me for coffee after class."
例句-2: "getting into politics is tough. but martin got his foot in the door when he volunteered to go around town putting up posters for the republican candidate for congress."
一整天在电线干上贴标语或招贴画确实是很累的。马丁回到家的时候可能会感到两只脚累得连站都站不动了。这也有一个俗语来形容这种情景的: to be dead on one's feet。美国虽然是最先进的国家之一,但仍然有好多职业需要工作人员站着做的。售货员就是其中之一。站了一天,到了下班的时候,他们必然会感到两只脚很累。下面就是一个售货员在对他的太太讲话:
例句-3: "honey, i've got to sit down and rest before i take you out to dinner. i'm really dead on my feet tonight: we had the big year-end sale on and i was so busy i didn't even have time for lunch."
例句-4: "my parents took me to constitution avenue to see the parade. after standing there for a whole day, my mom was so dead on her feet that she could not even cook dinner for us by the time we got home."