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na the word “petrel” is associated with braving hardship and adversity, advancing with perseverance and courage. The spirit is well reflected in the poem petrel written by Gorky, a famous Russian writer. To English people, if a magpie (喜鹊) flies near a window, it is a symbol of bad luck. There are two explanations in The Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary: (a) person who collects or hoards things (爱收藏或贮藏东西的人), (b) person who chatters a lot (爱饶舌的人). All these explanations are figurative with derogatory meanings. On the contrary, a magpie is a symbol of good luck in China. If a magpie sings in a tree near houses, people would think some happy things would happen. So Chinese people often say, “Magpie sings, happy thing comes.” What’s about the animal word “fish”? “fish” and “鱼” has quite different cultural figurative meanings in English and Chinese. In English “fish” has derogatory meaning that refers to bad things and persons, e.g.: “a poor fish (可怜虫)”; “a loose fish (生活放荡的女人)”; “fish in the air (水中捞月)”. In Chinese the letter “鱼” and “余” are homophones. Therefore, in the important festivals such as Spring Festival, Chinese people would like to use “fish” as an indispensable dish to symbolize “abundance”. [7] In China, “elephant (象)” is a mascot. Many places in China are named for the letter “象” such as “象山” in Zhejiang province, “象州”, “象鼻山” in Guangxi province, “象河” in Tibet, etc. “Elephant” also symbolizes status. For example, in remote antiquity, the noble ladies wore clothes with designs of elephants (象服); The emperors rode on elephants. The “elephant” is doted by Chinese people because of the Buddhist legends. It is said that the Buddhist patriarch was the reincarnation of white elephant. On the contrary, in English white elephant (白象) is likened to things that are useless and often expensive. The allusion is originated from a folk story that in Siam (now Thailand), the king would give a white elephant as a present to a subject that he did not like. The subject would have to spend all his money on looking after the rare animal. Therefore, there exist such expressions in English, “elephantine (笨拙)”, “elephant humor (蹩脚的幽默)”, “elephant task (累赘的活儿)”.[8] 2.2.2 Some animal words with commendatory figurative meaning in English, but with derogatory figurative meaning in Chinese Let’s take our familiar animal word “dog” for example. The dog is very interesting and closely related with people. Most of the “dog” expressions possess a commendatory sense or at least a neuter sense in English. It is all right to refer to certain people as “big dog (重要人物)”, “top dog (优胜者)”, “lucky dog (幸运儿)”, etc. in English. “To help a lame dog over the stile” means “to help someone in difficulty”. “To let sleeping dogs lie” means “to make no trouble” or “not to disturb people”. “Every dog has its day,” means “every person will some day succeed or become fortunate.” Such usage does not contain derogatory meaning. But figures of speech like these are not proper in Chinese as the word “狗” in most Chinese phrases is associated with some derogatory meanings, as is reflected in sayings like “狗胆包天、狗急跳墙、狗头军师、狗腿子、狗血喷头、狼心狗肺、狗眼看人低、丧家之犬、狗嘴吐不出象牙”, etc., even though most Chinese now think the dog is man’s faithful friend. [9] However, in some cases the word “dog” may have derogatory sense in English, as is shown in the following examples: “yellow dog (卑鄙之人)”, “dirty dog (龌龊之人)”, “sly dog (阴险之人)”, “dead dog (无用的人)”, and some vulgar languages: “son of