Inside story 内幕

例如：The inside story behind Jack Ma and the creation of the world's biggest online marketplace意思就是：马云和全球网上市场创建背后的故事，这里的inside story就是内幕消息或者真实情况，当然这里的world's biggest online marketplace指的就是alibaba（阿里巴巴）了。

与inside相对应的是cover，但cover还有封面的意思，所以cover story可以用来指a story in a magazine whose subject matter appears on its front cover（封面故事）。Cover story往往是最重要的报道中的精彩镜头。然而cover还可以指用来隐藏遮盖事实真相的幌子。这样cover story就另有其它的意思了。

This secret agent married a woman just to get close enough to watch her and her friends. The cover story he told her was that he was a newspaper reporter.

这个特务为了监视她和朋友们的活动而和这位女士结了婚。他为了掩盖真相对太太编造了他的身份，说自己是一份报纸的记者。

除此以外，cock and bull story也可以用来表示“虚构不实而且近乎荒谬的托词”。这种说法起源于17世纪初的一个童话故事。故事里主角，公鸡和公牛都通晓人类的语言，能说人话来相互交谈。当然，连小孩子都知道这是虚构的故事，于是就产生了cock and bull story这个习惯用语。我们来看一个例子，琢磨一下它的含义。

After Bill didn't come home for three days he told his wife he was away on a secret mission for the government. But that's just a cock and bull story: he was actually off with some woman.

Bill三天没回家。事后他对妻子说他外出为政府执行秘密使命去了。其实这完全是无稽之谈，他是在外面和别的女人鬼混。