- A+
#英语丰富多彩的习语#
对于每个人，成长都是一部简史，当长大成人以后回头去细细品味时，往往都能感受到五味杂陈，领略到悲欢离合，这或许就是所谓的成长的烦恼，但是人总归得长大，得进步，因此无论过去如何，都请珍惜当下，向往未来。
成人一般指 adult，指法律上能为自己的行为负责的人，相当于 grown-up；跟其他短语动词一样，grown-up 是由短语动词 grown up 衍生过来的，因此它们三个都可用来表示长大成人，例如：
1. adult:
Children must be accompanied by an adult.
儿童必须要有大人陪同。
He was a young 
man on the verge of becoming an adult.
他是一个即将成年的年轻人。
2. grown-up:
The grown-ups sat inside while the children played in the yard.
孩子们在院子里玩耍时，大人们坐在里面。
If you're good you can eat with the grown-ups.
你要是听话就可以跟大人一起吃饭。
3. grow up:
Growing up with three older brothers probably did a lotto shape my personality.
和三个哥哥一起长大可能对我的性格有很大影响。
All the children have grown up and the parents are left with a lot of debts.
孩子们都长大了，父母也欠了很多债。
其中 adult 和 grown-up 还可作形容词；adult 指人或动物生理上发育成熟的，只作定语；也指待人接物具有成年人特点的，grown-up 指已长成大人的，或外表举止像成年人的，例如：
1. adult:
This is an adult tiger.
这是一只成年的老虎。
She spent most of her adult life in prison.
她成年后大部分时间都在监狱里度过。
2. grown-up:
He seems very grown up for a ten-year-old.
对于一个十岁的孩子来说，他似乎已经长大了。
She has two grown-up children who work in the family business.
她有两个在家族企业工作的成年子女。
长大成人主要体现在年龄上，也就是 age，那么长大成人可以用 come of age 来表示，或 overage 表示超过规定年龄的，对应的未到达法定年龄是
under age 或 underage；come of age 还可以用来表示”成熟，发达“，例如：
come of age:
Communities across the world have diverse traditions to celebrate the coming of age of their young ones.
世界各地的社区都有不同的传统来庆祝年轻人的成年。
When he comes of age, he would get a large inheritance from his grandfather.
当他成年时，他会从祖父那里得到一大笔遗产。
After his first few books received lukewarm response, his writing finally came of age when he published this trilogy which went on to become a bestseller.
在他最初的几本书受到冷淡的回应之后，当他出版这部三部曲并成为畅销书时，他的作品终于成熟了。
His early films used tobe of low quality, but with this film, he has certainly come of age as a director of high repute.
他早期的电影质量不高，但有了这部电影，他无疑成了一位声名显赫的导演。
overage 或 over-age:
She had toleave the youth team when the coaches discovered she was overage.
当教练们发现她年龄过大时，她不得不离开青年队。
He was a couple of months over-age for the youth team.
他年龄大了几个月，进不了青年队。
under age 或 underage:
Because she 
was under age, her parents were still responsible for her.
因为她还未成年，她的父母仍然应为她负责。
Underage youths can obtain alcohol from their older friends.
未到法定年龄的青少年可以从年龄较大的朋友那里弄到酒。
趁年轻多做一些自己想做的事情，那么在你老去的时候，从过去的记忆能搜寻到的更多的是美好的回忆。
词或词组辨析：
on the verge of 意为“濒于；接近于；行将“
lukewarm 意为”微温的，无兴趣的，不热情的“等
trilogy 意为”三部曲“
