突破英語口語練習：老外說“go south”，居然不是“去南方”？

看到go south，字面意思就是“去南方”
聯(lián)想起無數(shù)人糾結(jié)是要北上還是南下工作，難道外國人也有類似的隱喻？
其實這個短語的解釋還不止一個，我們來一一認識一下
 
go south 是什么意思?
1. To escape; to vanish or disappear. (Not necessarily in a southerly direction.)
去逃跑；逃走不見或消失（并不一定是往南逃）
例：
Everyone in the gang went south when they learned that the police had discovered their hideout.
那幫人聽說警察發(fā)現(xiàn)了他們的藏身之處，便紛紛逃走不見了。
The dog has gone south into the night.
狗已消失在夜色中了。
 
2 .To fall or drop; to depreciate; to lose quality or value. (Especially related to finances or stock exchanges.)
下降或落下；貶值；失去質(zhì)量或價值(尤指與金融或股票交易有關(guān)的。)
這個意思可能和地圖上的“上北下南”有關(guān)，南方就是下方，往南走就是下降的趨勢。
例：
The company's stock profile continued going south for the third day in a row today.
該公司的股票今天連續(xù)第三天下跌。
It seems like all our moral standards have just gone south.
看來我們的道德標準都下降了。
 
3 .To cease working or functioning; to quit, fail, or fall apart.
停止工作或運作；退出，失敗或分崩離析。
例：
Talks between the labor union and the construction firm went south yesterday, so it looks like workers will be on strike again soon.
工會和建筑公司昨天談崩了，所以看起來工人很快就會再次罷工。
My computer is only a month old, and it's already gone south.
我的電腦才用了一個月，就已經(jīng)壞了。
總的來說，go south都有一個趨勢上的不好，由此我們也可以猜出go north作為它的反方向也就表示了一個好的趨勢。
例：
I hope the talk will go north this time.
我希望這次的會談取得成功。