提要
在台灣,同學上台表演時你祝他:「break a leg」,別人會認為你「唱衰」他摔斷腿,你就成了「烏鴉嘴」的壞人;但是到了英美地區,在別人上台表演之前,你說:「break a leg」,則表示「祝好運、順利成功」。
以下的故事非常簡單,勤勞用功的學生,平時認真學習,考試理所當然就輕鬆愉快。文中用了八個包括「break a leg」在內的idioms(成語),不妨找找看。
Once upon a time, there was a wonderful class of very hard-working and well-educated boys and girls in an amazing school in a far, far, far away fairytale land.
Definitely not couch potatoes, these boys and girls were, in fact, full of beans. Their teacher, Mr. Oldkool, admired them, however, for their hard work and often called them his eager beavers.
The eager beavers loved to learn. They spelled, they read and they wrote. They added, they subtracted and they multiplied.
When Mr. Oldkool told them about a new and fascinating subject, like the apple snail, they were all ears. When he gave them assignments to do, they took them home eagerly and were as busy as bees.
One day, Mr. Oldkool surprised the eager beavers with a math test. It was 10 pages long and had the most difficult questions on it that you could imagine. He handed out the test papers and told the boys and girls to put their thinking caps on.
"Break a leg"he said to the students as he walked back to his desk and started working on another lesson plan on the fascinating world of the apple snail.
Looking at the math tests, the children's faces, surprisingly, did not look troubled. Remaining cool as a cucumber, they picked up their pencils and went to work.
It turned out that all of the eager beavers passed the test and, for some, it was even a piece of cake. To celebrate, the kids got to watch a two-hour movie on the apple snail as an aquarium pet.
解說
很久很久以前,在一個童話般的地方,有一群勤勞又守規矩的孩子。
無論男生女生,這些孩子絕不呆坐著死讀書,他們兢兢業業,他們努力不懈。他們的老師—歐德酷先生,羨慕他們精力充沛,常稱他們為「勤勞的海狸」。
「勤勞的海狸」熱愛學習。他們閱讀、拼字、學寫作,他們練習加減乘除。
當歐德酷先生宣布以「蘋果螺」(福壽螺)當研究主題,他們全神貫注地傾聽,並且把作業帶回家準備時時觀察,像蜜蜂一樣快樂而忙碌。
有一天,歐德酷先生抽考數學。十頁的考卷上,列著可說是最困難的問題。他邊發試卷,邊提醒孩子們,要仔細思考。 他對學生說:「break a leg」表示「祝好運、順利成功」之後,走回自己的辦公桌,並開始沉浸於研究福壽螺的迷人世界。
看著厚厚的數學測驗卷,孩子們的臉上沒有「困擾」的神情,紛紛拿起鉛筆,仔細作答。
結果「勤勞的海狸」全部通過了測試,對某些孩子來說,甚至「易如反掌」。
得到好成績,孩子們看了兩個小時的電影慶祝,一部「福壽螺作為水族箱寵物」的電影。
文中八個idioms(成語),有馬鈴薯、豆子、海狸、黃瓜、蛋糕……舉例鮮活,運用在日常生活中,可以增添不少會話的樂趣。
WOW! 原來如此
break a leg
上台表演前祝表演者「break a leg」,可以追溯到二十世紀初,其中一種說法,是舞台演員迷信上台前將壞事說破,就不會發生了;另一種說法則是舞台演員表演成功,腿一前一後鞠躬謝幕時,看來就像只有一條腿。
香港人祝賀朋友生日快樂,除了「年年有今日、歲歲有今朝」,還會唱:「恭祝你生日磕破頭……還磕掉大~門牙」,也是乍聽嚇一跳,其實是祝福壽星家中的長輩健康長壽,才有「磕不完的頭」。
couch potato
couch potato意思就是指那些整天坐在couch(沙發)上看電視的人,因為除了按遙控器轉台,一動也不動,活像個種在坐墊的potato(馬鈴薯)似的,也可直接稱呼為lazy bone(懶骨頭)。
cool as a cucumber
常聽到崇拜偶像的「粉絲」說:「He is so cool!」(他好酷喔!) 是覺得某明星藝人「跩」或「帥」意思。
但是 cool應解釋為:「涼快或冷」。 本文中cool的意思是「冷靜」。上課突然宣布要考十頁數學,沒準備、不用功的人恐怕會氣得搥胸或嚇得發抖,平時就努力的人就能keep his cool(保持鎮靜)。
Cucumber是黃瓜。To be cool as a cucumber是:「像黃瓜一樣涼爽」,也就是當碰到困難和麻煩時,仍能冷靜、放鬆。
a piece of cake
piece 是指「一片」 或「一塊」, cake 是「蛋糕」。 a piece of cake 的意思除了指 「一塊蛋糕」也是形容「這件事太容易了!」
例如某企業的工作人員,猶豫了好久、鼓足了勇氣,向老闆提加薪的要求,出乎意料地,老闆馬上同意還肯定他的工作表現,於是歡天喜地回到家對太太說:「Honey, I finally asked Mr. Jones for my raise. And it was a piece of cake!」
full of beans & eager beaver
full of beans means to be in high spirits, to be full of energy, health and enthusiasm.(full of beans不是擁有大量的豆子,而是in high spirits,充滿了能量與熱忱,精神抖擻的意思。 )
例如:My classmates are always full of beans when they get up in the morning.(我們班同學早上起床總是精力充沛。)
另外,beaver(海狸)號稱「水下工程師」,為自己和家人建造「水下宮殿」時,僅憑囓齒,幾分鐘就能把一棵直徑十厘米的小楊樹咬倒。eager beaver是努力不懈的海狸,也是充滿了能量與熱忱、精力充沛的意思。
put their thinking caps on & all ears
put thinking caps on 就是to start thinking in a serious manner. (戴上用來思考的帽子,開始認真想!)
如果想像有一頂「用來思考」的帽子,戴上之後就會讓你「深思熟慮」的話,何妨試試。
all ears就是very eager to hear what someone is going to say.(非常想聽某人將要說的內容),好比「全部的耳朵都準備好了」,譬如別人問:「我要說一個秘密,想聽嗎?」你可以回答:「I'm all ears.」
找出隱藏的字
Finding words
A C E R I M D L K A O M T
S T C A R T B L S W W U C
S E I D E A G E R E R G A
I E R M R T I P W S P I R
G F K I P G E S Z O A T T
N G E R N D R P Y M J E B
M K L E P F L Z K E B S U
E O E U C U C U M B E R S
N N F A S C I N A T I N G
T A Q U A R I U M E V A S
R O O T V Q Z G F P I V X
G Y E L A T Y R I A F V J
※因為是「找字遊戲」,所以有些字沒按照傳統英文字「由左到右」的規矩,有的由右到左,有的字上下排列。
你至少可以找到十個字,這些字都在內文中出現過。
解答
Finding words
A C E R I M D L K A O M T
S T C A R T B L S W W U C
S E I D E A G E R E R G A
I E R M R T I P W S P I R
G F K I P G E S Z O A T T
N G E R N D R P Y M J E B
M K L E P F L Z K E B S U
E O E U C U C U M B E R S
N N F A S C I N A T I N G
T A Q U A R I U M E V A S
R O O T V Q Z G F P I V X
G Y E L A T Y R I A F V J
你至少可以找到fairytale;subtract;fascinating;eager;spell;cucumber;aquarium;pet;assignment;admire等十個字。這些字都可以在內文之中找到。
(※若只找十個字不過癮,可以挑戰更多,例如倒數第三列可以找到awesome,倒數第二行可找到root.)