Some of the stories we know and like are many hundreds of years old. Among them are Aesop's fables. A fable is a short story made up to teach a lesson. Most fables are about animals. In them animals talk. Many of our common sayings come from fables. “Sour Grapes” is one of them. It comes from the fable “The Fox and the Grapes.” In the story a fox saw a bunch of grapes hanging from a vine. They looked ripe and good to eat. But they were rather high. He jumped and jumped, but he could not reach them. At last he gave up. As he went away he said. “Those grapes were sour anyway.” Now we say, “Sour Grapes!” when someone pretends he does not want something he tried to get but couldn't.
我們都知道許多數(shù)百年的歷史故事,其中包括伊索寓言。寓言是由一個短篇故事構(gòu)成而給我們一個警示。大多數(shù)寓言是關(guān)于動物的。通過這些動物展開談?wù)摗N覀兊脑S多常見的諺語都來自寓言。“酸葡萄”就是其中之一。它來自寓言“狐貍和葡萄”。故事中狐貍看到一串葡萄掛在葡萄樹。他們看起來已經(jīng)熟了而且很好吃。但是葡萄掛的很高。他跳了跳,但是不能碰到他們。最后,他放棄了。當他走了他說:“那些葡萄是酸的。”現(xiàn)在我們說:“吃不到葡萄就說葡萄酸!“當有人想得到卻不能的時候就假裝他不希望得到。