爱华网【英语习语】
put the brakes on
佳中
奥巴马在一次讨论美国经济问题时曾说：Thisand other difficult butimportant
steps that we have taken over the last six months have helped us putthe brakes
on the recession.在过去六个月里，我们采取的这次和其他艰难而重要的措施已经帮助我
们制止住了经济衰退。
在日本发生核事故后，媒体新闻中也用了《Put the BrakesOnNew Nuclear
Reactors Following Japanese Disaster》这样的标题。
put the brakes on（something）是英语习语。brake 是刹车的意思，因此这个习语
的字面意思很好理解， “对……进行刹车”，即含“阻止”、“遏制”、“缩减”、“延
缓”、“抑制”、“停止”等意思。 英语注释是： If youput the brakes on something,
you stopit or slow it down.
我们来看一些例子：
1）The runaway inflationwould seem to put the brakes on such atrend.
失控的通货膨胀似乎阻止这一趋势的发展。
2）Obamawill sayBernanke haddealtwith thefinancial crisiswith "
bold actionandoutside-the-box thinkingthat hashelped putthe
brakeson our economicfreefall."奥巴马将表示，伯南克在应对金融危机
时，“采取果敢和创新之举，帮助刹住美国经济自由落体般的下降势头”。
3）They're hoping toput the brakes on the world's acceleratingeconomic
crisis.他们希望能遏制越来越严重的世界金融危机。
4）Many companies areputting the brakes on new investment until theeconomy
improves.
许多公司已经叫停了新的投资，等到经济好转。
5）Thegovernment has to put the brakes on the watertreatment project until
the corruptionenquiry is over.
政府不得不必须中止水处理项目，直至腐败案调查结束。
6）We’ve got to putthe brakes on our spending habits.
我们必须遏制我们的消费习惯。
7）Themanager had to put the brakes on the Wilsonproject due to lack of
funds.
由于资金缺口，经理只好停止威尔逊项目。
8）There is some concernabout the present economy recession which hasput
the brakes on someof their acquisition thinking.
对目前的经济担忧使他们收购的念头打消了一些。
● put the brakes on 也可接somebody，意思是“阻止”、“抑制”、“打压”
某人。
1）The boss had to put the brakes onGerald, who was trying too aggressively
to get promoted.
老板杰只好打压拉尔德，因为他太张扬要晋升。
2）We are going to have to put thebrakes on you if you make any more
difficulties.
如果你制造更多麻烦的话，我们就不得不制止你。
