Expressions about water are almost as common as water itself. But many of the expressions using water have unpleasant meanings.

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问题     Expressions about water are almost as common as water itself. But many of the expressions using water have unpleasant meanings. The expression "to be in hot water" is one of them. It’s a very old expression.
    "Hot water" was used five hundred years ago to mean being in trouble. It can be any kind of trouble, serious or not so serious. A person who breaks a law can be in hot water with the police. A young boy can be in hot water with his mother if he walks in a house with dirty shoes. One story says it got the meaning from the custom of throwing extremely hot water down on enemies attacking a castle. That no longer happens but we still get in hot water.
    "To keep your head above water" is a colorful expression that means "stand out of debt". A company seeks to keep its head above water during economic hard times. A man who loses his job tries to keep his head above water until he finds a new job.
    "Water over the dam" is another expression about a past event. It’s something that is fi nished and cannot be changed. The expression comes from the idea that water has flowed over a dam, cannot be brought back again. When a friend is troubled by a mistake she has made, you might tell her to forget about it. You say "It’s water over the dam".
    Another common expression "to hold water" is about the strength or weakness of an idea or opinion that you may be arguing about. It probably comes from a way of testing the condition of a container. If it can hold water, it is strong and has no holes in it. If your argument can hold water, it’s strong and does not have any holes. If it does not hold water, it’s weak and not worth debating.
    "Throwing cold water" is also an expression that deals with ideas or proposals. It means "do not like an idea". For example, you want to buy a new car because the old one has some problems, but your wife throws cold water on the idea, because she says "A new car costs too much".
This passage is most likely to be taken from a______.

选项 A、report about words and their stories
B、dictionary
C、textbook on water
D、research paper on water

答案A

解析 纵观全文,本文主要是讲了几个表达方式的含义、来源及应用语境,因此A是最佳选项。
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本试题收录于: 英语题库普高专升本分类
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