2STORYa description of interesting or exciting things that happened to someone, often one which is not completely true about every detail 〔未必完全真实的〕陈述;传说,传闻
tale of/about
tales of her life in post-war Berlin
有关她在战后柏林生活的传闻
tale of/about how
He was in the middle of telling me a long tale about how he once met Bob Dylan.
他正在和我絮絮叨叨地讲他有一次遇见红人队主教练的事。
3tell talesBritish EnglishBrELIE to tell someone in authority about something wrong that someone else has done 打小报告SYN American English tattle
tell tales to
Don’t go telling tales to the teacher!
不要向老师打小报告!
Examples from the Corpus
tell tales• Daisy Venables, you naughtygirl, have you been telling tales again?• According to the children, telling tales on each other was as bad as cheating.• Nearly anyone who had been in an ironlung could tell tales of being stranded without breathinghelp.• Edwin was long on charm but short on substance, was the feeling; he told tales a bit too deftly.• "Mum, Daniel's broken a plate." "Don't tell tales, dear."• Of course, Albee is quite accustomed to telling tales about vicious people stuck in broken relationships.• No child should be put in the powerfulposition of having to tell tales on another child.• No one to tell tales, then.• I don't want to tell tales out of school.
b)a series of bad things that happened to someone 连续发生的不幸
The England team’s tale of woe continued, and they lost the next three games.
英格兰队的悲剧继续上演,接下去的三场比赛他们又输了。
Examples from the Corpus
tale of woe• He bore a tale of woe from the Old World.• His morose ruminations were interrupted by Benny Katz, who wanted anyone he could find to listen to his tale of woe.• Their musicaltales of woe and spiritualimport were needed more than ever.• I spend a lot of time recountingtales of woe from friends and readers, but this one is my own.
cautionary tale• As a cautionary tale this book works very well.• Tootle seems to be essentially a cautionary tale, warning the child to stay on the narrow road of virtue.• It is a cautionary tale told with sadhumour on the border between innocence and togetherness.• That is why she offers a cautionary tale about the parent traps facing all women.• I suspect it was a cautionary tale.• Other revelations serve as cautionary tales about the importance of subordinatingmilitary officials to civilianauthority.• Thank you for your cautionary tale Richard.
ADJECTIVE | VERB + TALE | TALE + VERB | PREPOSITION | PHRASESADJECTIVE➤long, rambling冗長的/沒頭沒腦的冗長故事▸➤familiar熟悉的故事▸➤amazing, bizarre, curious, extraordinary, fantastic, magical, marvellous/marvelous, strange令人驚異的故事;奇異的傳說;不可思議的故事;奇妙的傳說▸➤awful, sad, sorry, terrible, tragic令人不快的/淒慘的/令人難過的/駭人的/悲慘的故事◇the sorry tale of his marriage breakdown他婚姻破裂的傷心往事➤chilling, gruesome, hair-raising, harrowing, horror, macabre令人不寒而慄的/駭人聽聞的/令人汗毛直豎的/令人痛不欲生的/恐怖/令人毛骨悚然的故事▸➤lurid, sordid, tawdry聳人聽聞的/骯髒的/粗俗的故事▸➤dark陰鬱的故事◇a dark tale of sexual obsession關於性痴迷的淒慘故事➤mysterious, spooky神秘的/陰森恐怖的故事▸➤funny, humorous, witty (especially BrE) 妙趣橫生的/幽默的/詼諧的故事▸➤fascinating, interesting引人入勝的/有趣的故事▸➤heart-warming暖人心房的故事▸➤simple簡單的故事▸➤fanciful, incredible, tall, unlikely (especially BrE) 虛無縹緲的/難以置信的/荒誕不經的/不大可信的故事◇a tall tale that would fool no one一個沒人會信的荒誕故事➤true真實的故事▸➤old wives'無稽之談▸➤coming-of-age, rags-to-riches成長的/白手起家的故事◇the rags-to-riches tale of an orphan who becomes a star一個孤兒由貧到富成為明星的故事➤epic, heroic史詩/英雄故事◇an epic tale of courage and heroism一個充溢着勇氣和英雄氣概的史詩故事➤cautionary, moral, morality警世/寓言/道德故事▸➤classic, folk, old, traditional經典/民間/古老/傳統故事▸➤childhood童年故事▸➤fairy (oftenfigurative) 童話故事◇Winning the French Open was a fairy-tale end to her career.法國公開賽折桂為她的職業生涯書寫了一個童話般的結局。➤gothic, romantic哥特式/浪漫故事▸➤original原來的故事VERB + TALE➤narrate, recount, regale sb with, relate, tell (sb)講故事;以故事逗某人開心;(給某人)講故事◇She regaled us with tales of her wild youth.她講述她青年時的荒唐事,逗我們開心。➤hear聽故事▸➤make up, spin, weave虛構/編造/杜撰故事▸➤read, write閱讀/寫作故事▸➤begin開始一個故事TALE + VERB➤begin故事開始▸➤unfold故事展開▸➤concern sb/sth, involve sb/sth故事與⋯相關;故事牽涉⋯▸➤be set in...故事發生在⋯◇a tale set in 19th-century Moscow發生在 19 世紀莫斯科的故事➤be based on sth故事以⋯為基礎PREPOSITION➤tale about關於⋯的故事◇a tale about a hungry snake飢餓的蛇的故事➤tale of⋯的故事◇tales of adventure冒險故事◇the strange tale of the man who sold his hair一個賣掉自己頭髮的男人的離奇故事PHRASES➤a tale of woe (= about failure, bad luck, etc.)(有關失敗、厄運等的)悲慘故事▸➤(have) a tale to tell有故事要講◇Each of the survivors had a terrible tale to tell.每一個幸存者都有一個恐怖的故事可講。➤tell tales (= to say things about sb that are untrue or that they would prefer to be secret) (BrE) 搬弄是非;揭人隱私