His company has got the green light.
對(duì)話
Carl: My father is celebrating today.
Anton: Why's that? Has he won the lottery?
Carl: As good as.His company has got the green light from the city planning department to go ahead with his latest construction project.
Anton: What is it?
Carl: Four thirty-story apartment blocks and a shopping mall.
Anton: Wow! He'll be sitting on a goldmine when it's finished.
卡爾：家父今天大肆慶祝。
安東：為什么？他中了樂(lè)透嗎？
卡爾：差不多。他的公司獲城市規(guī)劃處批準(zhǔn)，展開(kāi)他最新的建筑計(jì)劃。
安東：計(jì)劃興建什么？
卡爾：四幢三十層的公寓大樓，以及一個(gè)購(gòu)物中心。
安東：啊，建成之后，令尊就像開(kāi)了個(gè)金礦。
卡爾說(shuō)他父親的公司獲*批準(zhǔn)展開(kāi)一個(gè)建筑計(jì)劃：His company has got the green light to go ahead with his construction project。Green light是準(zhǔn)許過(guò)馬路的‘綠燈’，常引申解作‘許可’，例如：We cannot proceed unless the government gives us the green light（除非政府許可，否則我們不能展開(kāi)工作）。但green light的反義詞red light（紅燈）卻極少用來(lái)比喻‘禁止’，其寓意一般是‘危險(xiǎn)’，常見(jiàn)于成語(yǔ)to see the red light（發(fā)覺(jué)危險(xiǎn)在前），例如：When he learned how many fatal diseases were related to tobacco, he saw the red light and stopped smoking（他知道有那么多致命疾病和煙草有關(guān)之后，產(chǎn)生危機(jī)意識(shí)，不再吸煙了）。
第一段例句中proceed一字，和卡爾說(shuō)的go ahead同義，指‘著手（做某事）’，但go ahead語(yǔ)氣比較隨便，例如：Despite my objection, he went ahead（或proceeded）with his impractical plan（他不理會(huì)我的反對(duì)，著手推行他那不切實(shí)際的計(jì)劃）。Go-ahead也可作名詞，指‘許可’，和green light意思差不多，卡爾那句話即可改寫(xiě)如下：His company got the go-ahead from the city planning department to carry out his construction project。Goldmine或gold mine是‘金礦’，常用來(lái)比喻大財(cái)富的來(lái)源，成語(yǔ)to be sitting on a goldmine即‘擁有可賺大錢(qián)或很值錢(qián)的東西’，有時(shí)是說(shuō)擁有而不自知，例如：He has been in possession of that painting for many years, hardly knowing that he is sitting on a goldmine（他擁有這幅畫(huà)多年，也不知道是價(jià)值連城的寶貝）。