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摄人心魄

English translation: shocking

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Chinese term or phrase:摄人心魄
English translation:shocking
Entered by: Caroline Moreno

02:50 Sep 16, 2007
Chinese to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Archaeology / General Conversation?
Chinese term or phrase: 摄人心魄
Hello,

I don't understand why the 摄 is there.

Here's the context: 史前灾难现场摄人心魄

Your suggestions are appreciated as always!
Caroline Moreno
United States
Local time: 20:05
shocking
Explanation:
感觉这里主要是令人震惊的意思
Selected response from:

Jinhang Wang
China
Local time: 11:05
Grading comment
I understand the meaning of this phrase and how to use it so much better now, thanks to you all! "Shocking" is best for my context, but I'm sure there are other situations where the other suggestions would be more appropriate.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +2terrify somebody
redred
4 +1caught all of sudden with tremendous shock
James_xia
4 +1shocking
Jinhang Wang
3to shatter one's heart
franksf


Discussion entries: 4





  

Answers


40 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
terrify somebody


Explanation:
The accident scares people.

redred
China
Local time: 11:05
Native speaker of: Native in ChineseChinese

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Xiaoping Fu
50 mins
agree  James_xia: a direct way to explain it
1 hr
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

52 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
caught all of sudden with tremendous shock


Explanation:
The phase 摄人心魄 itself is an idom, usually dilvering some kind quite speical sensation at something suddenly caught in the eyes.

摄 in 摄人心魄 means converged or caught all of sudden with tremendous shock. Sometimes in the Chinese classical novel, we might read: 此女有一种摄人心魄的美， refering a kind of amazing beauty of a lady, that can immediately catch the eyeballs of the watcher.

Hope this can be a bit helpful for your understanding of this phrase:)

James_xia
China
Native speaker of: Chinese

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Xiaoping Fu
38 mins
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
shocking


Explanation:
感觉这里主要是令人震惊的意思

Jinhang Wang
China
Local time: 11:05
Native speaker of: Chinese
PRO pts in category: 8
Grading comment
I understand the meaning of this phrase and how to use it so much better now, thanks to you all! "Shocking" is best for my context, but I'm sure there are other situations where the other suggestions would be more appropriate.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Xiaoping Fu: Or breathtaking?
1 hr
neutral  Bin Tiede (X): breathtaking can only be applied in a positive way. It is not proper in the context.
14 hrs
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17 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
to shatter one's heart


Explanation:
to shatter one's heart

franksf
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in ChineseChinese
PRO pts in category: 8
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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