Do you have an enemy? Hopefully, you don't. Anenemy is someone who hates you and you hate themback. An enemy threatens you, attacks you or triesto harm you.
In some languages, there are different words for a personal enemy versus an enemy of war, political enemy or enemy of the state.
In English, however, they are all called the same -- enemies.
We do have other words to describe an enemy. Adversary, foe and opponent are the mostcommon.
However, if you do have enemies, I have some advice for you.
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Many believe the Chinese military genius, Sun Tzu, wrote something like this in his book The Art of War. Others say Machiavelli wrote thissentence in The Prince.
We may not know for sure who said it first. But many know who said this line in the movie TheGodfather II. Gangster boss Michael Corleone advises a member of his crime "family" on how todeal with an enemy who is causing trouble.
"My father taught me many things here. He taught me in this room. He taught me, ‘Keep yourfriends close but your enemies closer.'"
Here is another piece of advice, "An enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Let's say you have two enemies who also hate each other. If you are smart, you may be ableto use their hatred of each other to get what you want.
Let's say you don't have a formal enemy. But what if you have a friend who treats you badly? People around you might say, "With a friend like that who needs enemies?" This expressionmeans that if a friend treats you badly, they behave as an enemy. It also means you should getanother friend.
We are supposed to hate our enemies. But when something is so bad, so terrible, we often say, "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy." For example, "I was so sick last weekend! I wouldn'twish that flu on my worst enemy."
Public Enemy No. 1 is a status given to the worst criminals in the United States. During theGreat Depression, John Dillinger was named Public Enemy No. 1. He was a killer, bank robberand the most feared gangster in the U.S. A gangster works in a group of people, like anetwork, or system.
Throughout the years several artists have borrowed this expression.
In 2009, Johnny Depp plays the famous gangster John Dillinger in the film titled PublicEnemies.
An earlier film made in 1931 titled The Public Enemy is also a gangster film starring JamesCagney.
Public Enemy is also a famous hip hop group that came out of Long Island, New York in the1980s.
If you have many enemies, you may have to rank them in order of importance. Yourarchenemy is your main enemy. For example, "The two politicians were archenemies."
A great word that means the same as your archenemy is nemesis. A nemesis is an opponentthat is very difficult to defeat. Your nemesis is always looking to destroy you.
Sometimes you don't need an enemy. Some people fail on their own. These types of peoplesometimes do not realize they are making things hard for themselves -- that they are their ownworst enemy.
So, if you know someone like this, you can say to them, "Life is hard enough. Don't be yourown worst enemy."
词汇精讲：
1.cause trouble 制造麻烦；搞事情
The real question is this: What happens if we try tocause trouble?
实际的问题是：如果我们企图制造麻烦，会发生什么情况呢？
2.worst enemy 最大的敌人
Unfortunately, I was my own worst enemy.
不幸的是，最大的敌人是我自己。
3.in order of 按...的顺序
The "good habits" are listed in order of priority, from most-important to least-important.
这些“好习惯”是按照优先顺序排列的，从最重要的习惯开始。
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