a Pandora’s box（潘多拉之盒——灾难、麻烦、祸害的根源）——指看上去有用却引起祸害的礼物或其他物品。在希腊神话中第一个妇女潘多拉因受惩罚，被众神谪下凡间。宙斯给她一个盒子，让她带给娶她的男人。当盒子最后打开时，所有的罪恶、不幸、灾难等都跑了出来，从此给人类带来无穷的祸害。如：The project, which seemed so promising, turned out to be a Pandora’s box.

　　a Damocles sword (the sword of Damocles)，即将临头或无时不在的危险——达摩克里斯（Damocles）是赛拉丘斯（Syracuse）暴君狄俄尼索斯（Dionysius）的廷臣。达摩克里斯贪图钱财，追求享乐，羡慕主子的生活。有一次，他对狄俄尼索斯极力恭维一番，羡慕之情十分明显。狄俄尼索斯邀他赴宴，但在达摩克里斯头上用一根头发悬挂着一把剑。在宴会过程中达摩克里斯坐在剑下，恐惧万分。狄俄尼索斯意在告诉他，当国王并不享福，而是时刻都有生命危险。如：The terrorists had been caught and jailed. But the two leaders had escaped with machine guns and explosives. This fact hung like the sword of Damocles over the police commissioner’s head.

　　to not get to first base（没有取得初步成就）——原指棒球击球手没有跑到第一垒，转义为一开始或很快就失败了。如：She attracted him at first sight and he made elaborate plans to court her, but he didn’t even get to first base.

　　to have two strikes against on（三击中已有两击不中）——原指棒球击球手已击两球不中，如第三击再不中，就要出局。转义为处境不利、形势不妙。如：When he applied for the job, he already had two strikes against him: he didn’t have a college diploma like the other applicants, and he was ten minutes late for his interview.

　　to carry the ball（负主要责任）——原指橄榄球运动员执球，转义为对完成某项任务负主要责任。如：The negotiations are the key to the undertaking, we’d better ask Mumford to carry the ball.

　　an armchair quarterback（坐在扶手椅上的指挥者）——quarterback原指橄榄球赛指挥进攻的四分卫，加了armchair一词，往往指局外人大谈应如何做某事而未身体力行也不用负任何责任。如：It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback but your idea wouldn’t have worked at all!