新學期又開始了，是否一切如常？有沒有發生令大家意想不到、驚訝不已的事情？日常生活中，不時會遇到意料之外的事，或者收到意想不到的消息，這時就可以用短語a bolt from the blue形容，即是出人意表、令人詫異的事情。
Thunderbolt喻震驚消息
其中的bolt是「閃電」，即劃過天空出現的一道白光。閃電再加上雷聲thunder，就是thunderbolt。單字thunderbolt是「行雷閃電」的意思，但亦可以解作令人震驚且不太好的消息、事情或想法：
The death of his daughter hit him like a thunderbolt.
女兒的死對他來說猶如五雷轟頂。
The boss dropped a thunderbolt as he said suddenly that the company was losing money and would have to lay off staff.
老闆突然說公司正在虧蝕，可能要裁員，宛如投下一枚震撼彈。
Out of the blue同義
英文blue有很多解釋，而a bolt from the blue中的blue是指蔚藍的天空，而另一個以blue構造的短語out of the blue，也含有相似的意義，同樣形容某些事件或消息非意料之中，突如其來：
They were shocked when their daughter told them out of the blue that she was getting married.
女兒突如其來告訴他們要結婚，令他們大為震驚。
One day, out of the blue, he submitted his resignation and left. Nobody knew why.
一天，毫無先兆下，他提出辭呈，離開了。沒有人知道原因。
故此，a bolt from the blue亦可寫作a bolt out of the blue，連結了bolt與out of the blue兩個涵義，指一件事情驟然發生，完全意想不到，令人十分詫異。晴朗的藍天突然行雷閃電，簡直有如晴天霹靂，防不勝防：
The news that the head of the organization was charged with corruption was a bolt out of the blue.
機構的主管被控貪污的消息十分突然，猶如晴天霹靂。
The idea did not come like a bolt from the blue. It was an action carefully planned.
這個構思並非突然湧現，而是經過仔細規劃的行動。
The sudden dismissal of the manager is for sure a bolt from the blue for the players as well as the fans.
領隊忽然被解僱，對球員和球迷來說肯定是一個晴天霹靂。
世事千變萬化，會有很多意想不到的事情，就如藍天出現了閃電，這就是a bolt from the blue的意思。故此，要常警惕，時常作好準備，不致措手不及。
■Lina CHU [ linachu88@gmail.com ]
隔星期三見報