背景介绍：英语习语是指一系列特定词的组合，但从字面上看不容易被理解。广义的习语包括短语动词、俚语、谚语、行话等。我们有必要系统学习习语，它可以帮助我们打破英语阅读障碍，间接提高写作、口语表达的能力。

feel like oneself

英文释义：feel well
中文释义：觉得身体状况正常
例文：I am finally over the flu and feel like myself again.
我终于战胜了流感，我的身体又恢复正常了。 知识点：
1、feel like a new person焕然一新，与 feel like oneself 意思相近，表示因某种原因从情绪低落中恢复过来。比如，你收到了一份心仪的工作offer（此前你一直很担心），这时你绷紧的神经一下放松下来，就可以说 I feel like a new person.

feel no pain

英文释义：to be drunk
中文释义：醉倒
例文：After six beers he was feeling no pain.
六瓶啤酒下肚，他醉倒了。知识点：
1、feel no pain需要根据具体语境判断，在习语里，它表示醉倒，但在日常生活中，如果你听到别人这样用，他也可能说的是字面意思，我感觉不到疼痛。

feel the pinch

英文释义：Be affected by hardship, especially straitened finances.
中文释义：手头紧
例文：Some investors on Wall Street are “feeling the pinch” as stocks fall sharply in response to the slowdown in China’s economy, Sept. 2015.
随着中国经济在2015年9月放缓，股市大幅下跌，华尔街的一些投资者感到”手里缺钱”。
（例句来自《路透社》版权归属原作者）知识点：
1、pinch 我们对pinch不会陌生，因为我们见过它很多次了。它表示动词捏?，一撮盐就是 a pinch of salt。2、VOA learning English我每次给人推荐学英语的网站时，都会首推 VOA learning English，它和VOA官网的区别是，官网适合母语者，对初学英语的人来说并不友好。尽管官网的新闻实时性强，但是播报的语速快，并不有利于初学者。VOA learning English 对于将英语作为第二外语的人来讲，实用性更强。比如，feel the pinch 就曾在2015年 Words and Their Stories 这期节目中出现过。我们一起听一下这期节目。我用不同颜色标注出了文中精彩的短语和词汇。feel the pinch来自英语小馆儿00:0005:06Hello, I’m Anna Matteo with the Learning English program Words and Their Stories.In the 1930s, a song, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” was very popular in the United States.It was the time of the big Depression. The song had meaning for many people who had lost their jobs. A dime is a piece of money whose value is one-tenth of a dollar. Today, a dime does not buy very much. But it was different in the 1930s. During that time, a dime sometimes meant the difference between eating and starving.

1.  big Depression 大萧条

The American economy today is much better. Yet, many workers are concerned about losing their jobs as companies re-organize.Americans have special ways of talking about economic troubles.People in business or families may say they feel the pinch. Or they may say they are up against it. Or, if things are really bad, they may say they have to throw in the towel.

1. feel the pinch 手头拮据
2. up against it 身处困境
3. throw in the towel 投降

A pinch is painful pressure. To feel the pinch is to suffer painful pressure involving money.The expression, feel the pinch, has been used since the 16th century. The famous English writer William Shakespeare wrote something very close to this in his great play “King Lear.”King Lear says he would accept necessity’s sharp pinch. He means he would have to do without many of the things he always had.按：李尔王说，他将接受必需品的大幅削减。他的意思是，他会接受失去很多一直拥有的东西Much later, the Times of London newspaper used the expression about bad economic times during the 1860s. It said, “so much money having been spent … All classes felt the pinch.”Worse than feeling the pinch is being up against it. The saying means to be in a lot of trouble.Word expert James Rogers says the word “it” in the saying can mean any and all difficulties. He says the saying became popular in the United States and Canada in the late 19th century. Writer George Ade used it in a book called “Artie.” He wrote, “I saw I was up against it.”Sometimes a business that is up against it will have to throw in the towel. This means to accept defeat or surrender.

1. accept defeat 承认失败
2. surrender 投降

Throwing in the towel may mean that a company will have to declare bankruptcy. The company will have to take legal steps to let people know it has no money to pay its debts.

1. declare bankruptcy 宣布破产
2. take legal steps 走法律程序
3. pay its debts 偿还债务

Another word expert Charles Funk says an 1874 publication called the Slang Dictionary explains throwing in the towel. It says the words probably came from the sport of boxing, or prizefighting. The book says the saying began because a competitor’s face was cleaned with a cloth towel or other material. When a boxer’s towel was thrown, it meant he was admitting defeat.

1. prizefighting 职业拳击?
2. cloth towel 毛巾布

Most businesses do not throw in the towel. They just re-organize so they can compete better.

1.  re-organize 重组

This Words and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson. And I’m Anna Matteo.