美國(guó)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)：can't make heads or tails of

Head是頭的意思，tail是尾巴的意思，can't make heads or tails of頭尾都分不清，引伸講就是完全搞不明白。

現(xiàn)在很多年輕人都喜歡聽(tīng)rap說(shuō)唱音樂(lè)。但是這種喋喋不休的歌曲卻讓很多父母感到不解。讓我們聽(tīng)聽(tīng)為什么。

例句-1：When I was younger, I used to listen to a lot of disco. These days my kids listen to rap. I like its rhythm, but don't understand what the lyrics are about at all. Frankly, I can't make heads or tails of them.

這個(gè)父親說(shuō)：我年輕的時(shí)候，聽(tīng)的都是迪斯科disco?，F(xiàn)在我的孩子喜歡聽(tīng)rap說(shuō)唱音樂(lè)。我很喜歡說(shuō)唱音樂(lè)的節(jié)奏，但是卻不知道歌里唱的是什么。說(shuō)老實(shí)話，我完全聽(tīng)不懂歌詞。

我也有同感。I can't make heads or tails of the lyrics neither.

昨天下班路上，有個(gè)拉美裔的男子向我問(wèn)路，他一口的西班牙語(yǔ)，我完全聽(tīng)不懂，you couldn't make heads or tails of what he was saying.

我剛來(lái)美國(guó)的時(shí)候，對(duì)美式橄欖球一竅不通，你想啊，一堆人扎在一起，你拉我扯的，有什么好看? 我真是沒(méi)辦法 make heads of tails of it. 但是，后來(lái)懂了比賽規(guī)則，就開(kāi)始越看越上癮。

還有就是菜譜，尤其是歐洲菜，I can't make heads of tails of these recipes.

好的，讓我們看看下面這兩個(gè)一起開(kāi)公司的小伙子最近遇到了什么難題。

例句-2：My business partner and I thought we'd save some money on furniture for our home office. So we bought a desk, a set of drawers, and some shelving that required assembly. The directions explaining how to put the pieces together looked easy to follow, but we couldn't make heads or tails of them. We finally had to call a store assistant for help.

他說(shuō)：我跟合伙人原以為能省點(diǎn)兒錢，所以買了一個(gè)桌子，幾個(gè)抽屜，外加一些架子，準(zhǔn)備自己裝起來(lái)。組裝說(shuō)明看上去好像也是一目了然，但是我們卻完全沒(méi)辦法按照說(shuō)明把它們裝起來(lái)。最后只好打電話向商店里的人求助。

我的動(dòng)手能力也特別差，組裝指南對(duì)我開(kāi)說(shuō)就像是天書(shū)。其實(shí)，學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)也是一樣，第一次看到或是聽(tīng)到別人用，也許can't make heads or tails of them，但是明白意思之后，就會(huì)逐漸運(yùn)用自如。