4．5 Cultural Connotations of the Idiomatic Phrases and Their Translation习语的文化内涵与翻译
English idiomatic phrases，including set phrases(成语)，proverbs(谚语)，sayings(格言)，colloquialisms(俗语)，allusions(典故)，and slang(俚语)，are an important part of the English language and English culture．To learners of English as a foreign language they are often hard to understand and harder to use or translate correctly because they are rich language items in culture．To learn them means to learn not only words and grammars but also the underlying culture．This is by no means easy．However，their proper use or translation is often a mark of one＇s command of English．It is worthwhile to make effort to learn how to translate them．
There are a great number of idiomatic phrases in both English and Chinese，which are a very strong nature of culture，the essence of a certain language，and the crystallization of long and practical use of the language．Generally speaking，they are characterized with the qualities of vividness，harmony，rhythm，shortness，easy remembering，and simplicity．