What Does A “White Elephant” Mean?
白象意味着什么?
As we all know now, elephants are useful animals. But is a white elephant useful? Has anyone given you a “white elephant”? Do you know what a “white elephant” is?
Many hundreds of years ago, elephants were very much needed in India. The elephants did many kinds of work for the people. Almost all the elephants were gray. But there were some all-white ones, too. Because they were so rare, they were never made to do any work.
All of the white elephants became the king’s elephants. He did not let them work. But he could feed them, anyway, because he was very rich.
If the king became angry with one of his men, he gave the man a white elephant. This was a punishment. The man could not make the elephant work. But he had to feed the elephant anyway. Before long, the man would become very poor for he had to spend a lot of money on food for the elephant.
If you give someone a “white elephant”, you give him something useless. It may be something that gets in one’s way. It is worthless to him.
Now, can you think of something that might be called a “white elephant”?