blessing in disguise

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

  1. I know full well that “blessing in disguise” means something bad that will at last turn out to be beneficial.
    May I asked if the sequence of the event can be reverted to something sounds like fortunate happened first but eventually lead to negative output? It’s not that I didn’t check with the dictionaries about its validity but sometimes, I just think that dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to be quite true.

  2. I saw a leaflet about cookery promotion with the following words: 3 years warranty with 99 days one-to-one guarantee. What do they (the bold part) mean exactly?

  3. “Read the FAQ so you won’t be framed” or “Read the FAQ and you won’t be framed.” There’s not much difference between them, isn’t there?

2

  1. I can’t think offhand of a suitable opposite phrase, but I have a feeling that some exist.

  2. Presumably if something goes wrong with the product in the first 99 days they will replace it with another brand new one, rather than offer a repair.

  3. No, there isn’t.

3

I suppose tacitly it is true that in our Chinese culture beliefs, if something expected/unexpected good fortune had happened to someone, then the referring of blessing in disguise in that case may imply that whatever happened might backfire on that person. He/she should be ambivalent to it. And he/she must be vigilant. And I wonder what others think about this because “blessing in disguise” in almost every dictionary gives us a very clear picture that it indeed represents a good thing that you don’t recognize at first. However, the following link may be worth a look:
books.google.com/books?id=dwAGNJuQjA0C&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142&dq=chinese+proverb+the+old+man+who+lost+his+horse&source=bl&ots=T7y2dLNz4M&sig=GWVMX0YFY14k_7seaxpTdmABz-o&hl=en&ei=OFOETsChG8TRrQfOzbTfDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CF8Q6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

Got it! You made that very clear for me.

OK.

Beesnees, thanks heartily for your help.