1. INTRODUCTION Language is the carrier and container of cultural information. Human beings have been interacting with the world and accumulated their experience and knowledge about the world, which are represented in language. As a result, it is inevitable that in human language there exist a plenty of animal words that are often used as kinds of association vehicles. Human beings often associate their feelings and emotions with various animals according to animals' features such as their appearances, habits and characteristics so that the names or images of animals possess specific cultural connotations. Through a comparative study of English and Chinese idioms, one will not only find ideas that are different in both cultures, but one can discover many areas where people in both cultures have had similar experiences and hold similar perspectives. Sometimes these ideas that are held in common are expressed in different ways that reflect the particular genius of each culture.
