8. Wild Goose Chase: 復(fù)雜又無果的追尋或搜索；徒勞無果

How Shakespeare used it:

In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio likens the rapid exchange of jokes between Romeo and himself to the cross-country horse race of Shakespeare's time, known as the wild goose chase, in which any number of riders tried to keep up with and accurately follow the lead rider's course:

"Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done; for thou / hast more of the wild goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I / have in my whole five." (Act 2, Scene 4)

莎士比亞原文：在《羅密歐與朱麗葉》中，馬庫修將他和羅密歐之間機智的笑話比拼比做莎士比亞時期的跨境賽馬，即“追野鵝”，比賽中所有騎手都要盡力追上并精準跟隨在騎手領(lǐng)袖的陣型中：“不行啊，如果咱們倆的智商比拼像追野鵝那樣的話，我就完蛋了，因為你任何一個智慧陣型中的野鵝都比我全部5個陣型里的多。”（第2幕第4場）

現(xiàn)代例句：

"Seriously just went on a wild goose chase for a place to study. Everything is packed so I found an empty classroom in the math building." — TheHeartquake on Twitter, May 11, 2009