a stepping stone

基本解釋

To offer her my head as a stepping-stone
把頭顱獻(xiàn)給她做腳踏石；
As when youths leave home for college, the Moon can become a schooling place, a stepping-stone to the boundless horizons of human destiny.
正如大學(xué)是年輕人求知的必由之路一樣，對(duì)於整個(gè)人類(lèi)而言，月球也將會(huì)成爲(wèi)一個(gè)開(kāi)濶眼界增長(zhǎng)知識(shí)的新的場(chǎng)所，它是人類(lèi)通往嶄新天地的漫漫長(zhǎng)路中一塊踏腳石。
Walmart plans to use Massmart, which has stores in 14 African countries, as a stepping-stone into a fast-emerging continent.
邁斯瑪在14個(gè)非洲國(guó)家擁有分店，沃爾瑪計(jì)劃利用邁斯瑪挺進(jìn)這個(gè)快速崛起的大陸。

The defence ministry is a parking place for weak ministers or a stepping-stone for strong ones.
ECONOMIST: The war in Afghanistan
Jacobs thinks most companies will use PORTAL as a stepping-stone to the public markets, not a substitute for them.
NPR: Turbulent Mortgage Market Ensnares Top Retailers
After all, the government is publicly committed to full-blooded reform, towards which the expulsion of the hereditaries is just a stepping-stone.
ECONOMIST: The end of the peer show