shut the stable door after the horse has bolted

Hi there, students. Have you ever heard the phrase 'to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted'? Ok, so the door of the stable, a stable is a building where a horse lives. Yeah, it's a building where the horse lives, so the horse lives in a stable. And you shut the stable door after the horse has bolted, has run away. So what does this expression mean? This expression means about a problem after the problem has really been serious. Yeah, for example, to build houses  that are resistent to earthquakes, after the earthquakes, not before, but after. It is to (protect?) preventative meansures against an accident after this accident happened. To shut the stable door after the horse has bolted, so you shut the door of the stable after the horse has run away. So the horse isn't in the stable anymore, you are shutting the door so it doesn't run away, but you are too late. Now let me tell you a little story to help remember this expression.  It's one by Aesop and it is called "The sunbird and the bat". Once upon a time, there was a sunbird hanging in a cage in a window. And one day a bat flew up to the bird and asked the bird why do you only sing at night, why do you never sing during the day? The bird said "I have my reasons. The reason is one day I was singing during the day. And the man caught me. After that I promised to myself that I will never ever sing during the day. And I would only sing at night. "And the bat said to the bird: "but that's no use. You have already been captured. You should have been on guard before the man caught you. " Moral to the story, it's no use shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Yeah, the bird stops singing during the day because he was captured during the day. But the bird has already been captured, so it's too late. He is trying to take preventative measures, shut the stable door, after he has been caught, after the horse has bolted. Ok, so anyway, I hope you enjoy this video and the story. If you did, give the video a rating, subscribe to my channel and I will see you soon. Bye for now.


各位!你們有沒有聽過‘shut the stable door after the horse has bolted’這句短語？ the door of the stable,是指馬圈的門，stable是馬住的地方，馬圈的意思。當馬都跑出去以後，你才將馬圈的門關上，這句究竟想表達什麼意思？它想表達一個問題在變得嚴重之後，你才開始采取行動。比如，在地震之後才開始建防震的房屋，這種行動應該是在地震之前就開始，就是說在意外發生之後才去采取防御措施預防意外。你在馬匹跑出馬圈之後才將門關上，但馬匹已經不在馬圈裡面了，馬跑走了，你的行動太遲了。我給你講一個短的故事幫助你記憶這個短句。這是一個伊索寫的語言，叫做“太陽鳥和蝙蝠”。從前，有一只太陽鳥呆在一個掛在窗戶上的鳥籠裡。一天，一只蝙蝠飛過來問太陽鳥：“你為什麼只是在夜晚唱歌，而從不在白天唱呢”？太陽鳥說：“我這樣做是有原因的。因為有一天我正在白天唱歌的時候，有個人把我抓住了。自此之後，我對自己發誓，再也不在白天唱歌了，要唱就在夜晚唱。”蝙蝠說：“但是這已經沒有任何意義了，你已經被抓住了。你應該在那個人抓到你之前提高警惕”。這個故事的寓意是：在馬跑出馬圈之後關門已經沒有意義了。太陽鳥在白天不唱歌僅僅因為它是在白天被抓住了，但它已經被抓住了，現在不唱歌已經太遲了。它試圖在被抓住之後采取預防措施，關上馬圈的門。我希望你喜歡這個錄像和故事。如果你喜歡，留下一個‘喜歡’評級；訂閱我的頻道，我將很快和你又見面。