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.