核心畫面

Picture a handful of long thin things, string or wire or hair, that have crossed each other so many times that no end can be found. Two things are true at once: they are joined in a mess, and pulling them apart will cost you. English keeps both of those when it lifts the word off objects and puts it on ideas, so a tangled story is one whose lines run into each other and will cost you to follow.

可以想成一把細細長長的東西:繩子、電線、頭髮。它們交叉了太多次,已經找不到頭也找不到尾。這個畫面同時說了兩件事:一是更多收起可以想成一把細細長長的東西:繩子、電線、頭髮。它們交叉了太多次,已經找不到頭也找不到尾。這個畫面同時說了兩件事:一是它們纏成一團,二是要弄開得花力氣。英文把這個字從摸得到的東西搬到摸不到的東西上時,這兩件事都跟著搬過去了。所以一個 tangled 的故事,就是線索互相交纏、要跟上得很費神。

Two branches

摸得到的:東西纏成一團

畫面的原地:真的有幾條線交叉在一起。

adjective · B1

Twisted together into an untidy mass, so that the parts cross over each other and are hard to pull apart or straighten out.

糾纏的;打結的

摸不到的:事情糾結難懂

同一團線,換成故事、規定、金流和心情。看不見,但一樣找不到頭尾。

adjective · B2

Complicated and confusing, because many parts are mixed together in a way that makes them hard to follow, separate, or understand.

錯綜複雜的

原始詞典資料3 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

tangledadj/ˈtæŋ.ɡəld/

  • 1

    Mixed up, interlaced.

    • tangled knot
    • Troubled, 'wilder'd, and forlorn, / Dark, benighted, travel-worn, / Over many a tangled spray, / All heart-broke I heard her say
  • 2

    Intricate.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形:

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。