Afraid of One's Own Shadow——杯弓蛇影

** excessively fearful for no good reason（沒有充分理由而過分害怕）// to be extremely timid（非常膽小）// quickly worried or easily frightened（很快就擔心或容易受到驚嚇）

** People of weak spirits see something like an image of themselves in the surrounding air, and then they think they have seen their own ghosts.

（精神衰弱的人在周圍的空氣中好像看到自己的形象，然後他們以為看到了自己的鬼魂。）

~~ 杯弓蛇影；膽怯；風聲鶴唳；疑神疑鬼；草木皆兵；杯弓蛇影；膽小如鼠；易受驚嚇

~~ afraid of one's shadow // risk averse // cowardly // yellow-bellied

!! In late 400 BC, Socrates says in the Phaedo (On The Soul) of Plato, 'But you, afraid of your shadow, as they say…'

（公元前400年後期，蘇格拉底在柏拉圖的《斐多篇》（論靈魂）中說；“但正如他們所說的那樣，你害怕自己的影子..”）

In 1859, Henry Thoreau used the phrase to describe the timidity of Concord's town selectmen in refusing to toll the parish bell at John Brown's hanging.

（1859年，Henry Thoreau用這個短語來形容Concord鎮市政委員拒絕為John Brown被吊死而鳴鐘的膽怯。）

>> I had been bitten by a wolf dog before, so when I saw a wolf dog, my feet trembled, and my wife said I was afraid of my own shadow.（我以前曾經被狼狗咬過，所以當我一見到狼狗，雙腳就抖震，我的太太說我是杯弓蛇影。）

>> I am worried about the company's personnel reorganization under the epidemic, because I am the most junior in the company, and afraid of my shadow that I will be laid off.（我擔心公司在疫情下人事重組，因我是公司中資歷最淺的，實在害怕會被解僱。）

學勤進修教育中心英語專科導師 李啟文　　教授