上星期我朋友的公司出了一起風(fēng)波。一名會(huì)計(jì)被發(fā)現(xiàn)挪用公款。他連續(xù)幾個(gè)月沒(méi)被發(fā)現(xiàn)，因?yàn)樗龅煤茈[蔽。我們可以用一個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)來(lái)形容他的這種做法，那就是cover one's tracks.

To cover one's tracks意思就是掩蓋行蹤/計(jì)劃。上面的例子中，The accountant was able to?cover his tracks?for a long time before his scheme was finally discovered.（這位會(huì)計(jì)長(zhǎng)期隱瞞證據(jù)，直到他的陰謀被發(fā)現(xiàn)。）下面我們?cè)賮?lái)看一個(gè)例子，看看一名罪犯越獄之后是如何掩飾自己行蹤的：

例句1：The prisoner escaped weeks ago. The police had a hard time finding her because she?covered her tracks. She was careful not to use her real name and she kept traveling from one state to another. When her photo appeared on TV, a viewer reported seeing her. And she was finally captured.

這名犯人幾星期前越獄，警方費(fèi)了好大力氣搜捕她，但是她很好地掩蓋了自己的行蹤。她不使用真名，而且不停在州與州之間轉(zhuǎn)移。直到她的照片被公布在電視上，有人舉報(bào)說(shuō)曾經(jīng)見(jiàn)過(guò)她，才終于把她抓了回來(lái)。

Cover one's tracks也不一定都是干壞事，這個(gè)短語(yǔ)也可以用來(lái)表示“掩蓋計(jì)劃、隱藏證據(jù)等”。

下面的這個(gè)例子里，兄妹倆人為了給他們的媽媽制造一個(gè)驚喜派對(duì)，一直試圖掩飾他們的計(jì)劃。讓我們來(lái)看看他們都做了些什么:

例句2：Mom and Dad have no idea that we're organizing a party to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. So far we've been pretty good at covering our tracks. If we let them think that we and the other guests have other plans that weekend, they won't find out what's really happening. Then it'll be a big surprise!

媽媽和爸爸完全不知道我們?yōu)樗麄?0周年結(jié)婚紀(jì)念日準(zhǔn)備了一場(chǎng)派對(duì)。到目前為止，我們的掩飾工作做得還不錯(cuò)。如果我們能讓他們以為大家在那個(gè)周末都有別的安排，他們就完全不會(huì)知道我們真正的計(jì)劃。那就真是個(gè)大驚喜了！

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（來(lái)源：美國(guó)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ) 編輯：旭燕）

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