Different people have different ways of saying things – their own special expressions. Each week we tell about some popular American expressions.不同的人以不同的方式讲话---他们自己的表达。我们每星期将一些流行的美国表达式。
The bag is one of the most simple and useful things in the world. It is a container made of paper or cloth. It has given the world many strange expressions that are not very simple. Some of them are used in the United States today.口袋是一种最简单和有用的东西。是用纸或布做的装东西的容器。但他却带来一些不那么简单的特殊表达式。一些在现在的美国使用。
One is bagman. It describes a go-between. The go-between sees to it that money is passed – often illegally – from one person to another.其中之一是bagman。它的意思是中间人。中间人处理经过的钱----一般是违法的----从一个人到另一个人。
Another widely-used expression is to let the cat out of the bag. It is used when someone tells something that was supposed to be secret. No one can explain how the cat got into the bag. But there is an old story about it.另一个应用很广的表达是to let the cat out of the bag。当一个人说出了本该保密的事，就用这个表达。没人知道猫怎样进入袋子的，但有个关于这个成语的故事。
Long ago tradesmen sold things in large cloth bags. One day a woman asked for a pig. The tradesman held up a cloth bag with something moving inside it. He said it was a live pig. The woman asked to see it. When the dishonest tradesman opened the bag, out jumped a cat – not a pig. The tradesman's secret was out. He was trying to trick her. And now everybody knew it.很久以前，商人把商品装在大布袋子里。一天一个女人想要一头猪。商人举起一只布袋，里面有什么东西在动。他说那是一只活的猪。女人想看一下，当这个不诚实的商人打开袋子，里面跳出了一只猫--不是猪。商人的秘密暴露了。他想骗她，现在大家都知道了。
The phrase to be left holding the bag is as widely used as the expression to let the cat out of the bag.习语to be left holding the bag和let the cat out of the bag一样广泛使用。
This expression makes the person left holding the bag responsible for an action, often a crime or misdeed. That person is the one who is punished. The others involve in the act escape.这个表达的意思是让一个人为某事负责，一般是犯罪或不端行为。这个人是受惩罚的那个，其他参与者却逃掉了。
Where the expression came from is not clear. Some say that General George Washington used it during the American Revolutionary War.这个习语从何而来无可考证。有人说乔治华盛顿将军曾在美国革命战争中用过。
One of Washington's officers, Royall Taylor, used the expression in a play about Daniel Shay's rebellion. The play was in seventeen eighty-seven, after Taylor helped to put down Shay's rebellion.华盛顿的一个官员，泰勒，在一处关于沙伊起义的戏剧中用了这个习语。这出戏在1787年上演，在泰勒镇压了沙伊起义以后。
Shays led a thousand war veterans in an attack on a federal building in Springfield, Massachusetts. Guns were in the building. Some of the protesters were farmers who had no money to buy seed. Some had been put in prison for not paying their debts. They were men who fought one war against the king of England, and were now prepared to fight against their own government. Most of the rebels were captured. Shays and some of the officers escaped.沙伊领导一千退伍军人攻击马赛诸赛的春田市的联邦大楼。当时枪支在大楼里。一些起义者是没钱买种子的农民。一些是没钱还债被投入监狱的人。他们是曾参战反对英国，现在他们准备和自己的政府开战。多数叛乱分子被抓获。沙伊和一些官员逃掉了。
In his play, Taylor describes Shays as disappearing, giving others "the bag to hold."在他的戏中，泰勒把沙伊描述为消失了，让其他人拿着口袋。
A bag is useful in many ways. Just be careful not to let the cat out of the bag, or someone may leave you holding the bag.袋子有很多用途，小心不要让猫跑出袋子，也不要让别人留下你拿袋子。
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