Saturday, February 3, 2007

Do you know 马马虎虎ma ma hu hu?

Once upon a time, there was a careless painter. One day, while he was painting a horse, he got an invitation to paint a tiger for a local rich man. He had finished the head of horse and then he went on with the same picture the body of tiger.

When he came back, the elder son asked him what it was. He replied, it was a tiger. When the younger one asked him, he told him it was a horse.

One day, the elder son saw a horse in the street. "Oh, there is a dangerous tiger!" He went to the animal,fought with it and beat it to death. Another day, the younger son saw a tiger in the forest. "What a pretty horse!" He told himself. He tried to ride the animal,however, he was eaten soon.
When he saw the left of his son and the dead horse, the painter couldn't help crying. He lost one of his son and had to pay a lot for the dead horse.

From then on, 马虎mahu has been used to describe a careless or non-serious person. And later, 马马虎虎 got the meaning of so-so because the picture the painter drew was just a so-so one.
 
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