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[00:06.16]And now, Words and Their Stories,

[00:10.92]from VOA Learning English.

[00:14.08]Have you ever gone to a farm

[00:23.16]or an orchard to pick fruit?

[00:27.20]Was all of the fruit easy to pick,

[00:30.92]or were some pieces easier to reach than others?

[00:36.52]Perhaps there were some apples in a tree

[00:39.92]that were too high for you to reach.

[00:44.12]And maybe you saw that others had picked

[00:48.32]the easiest fruit to reach before you.

[00:52.88]Today's Words and Their Stories, however,

[00:56.12]is not about fruit, but about ideas.

[01:01.20]If you are the first person to arrive

[01:04.76]at an apple tree during harvest time,

[01:08.28]you can easily find some low-hanging fruit.

[01:13.00]These are the apples that are on the branches

[01:16.28]closest to the ground.

[01:19.32]Low-hanging fruit describes the most obvious

[01:23.24]or easiest things to do to help you reach a goal.

[01:29.40]The problem with low-hanging fruit

[01:32.72]is that it is easy for others to get there first, too.

[01:39.56]People who try to create new music,

[01:42.68]TV shows, or movies

[01:45.88]sometimes face this problem.

[01:49.68]They might believe that the best melodies

[01:53.00]and story ideas have already been taken.

[01:58.56]Some songwriters or scriptwriters

[02:01.88]might say that the creative low-hanging fruit

[02:06.32]has already been picked.

[02:09.52]When most of the fruit, ideas,

[02:12.96]or things that we desire have already been taken,

[02:17.88]we can say that the remains are slim pickings.

[02:24.32]This means there are only a few

[02:27.52]useful things left to choose from.

[02:31.56]And, when almost nothing of value remains,

[02:36.80]we are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[02:41.56]That means we are trying to get the last little bits.

[02:47.12]There is nothing but scraps left.

[02:50.64]"Scraps" are small, unwanted pieces

[02:54.64]that remain at the end of a process,

[02:57.64]like bits of food remaining after making

[03:01.72]or eating a meal.

[03:04.96]The scraps are often

[03:06.52]given to animals or thrown away.

[03:10.40]So, if you have nothing but scraps,

[03:14.24]it means you have the least valuable things,

[03:18.44]worth almost nothing to most people.

[03:23.92]When there is nothing left of something we need,

[03:28.16]like water, we must solve the problem.

[03:33.92]One answer is to dig a well

[03:36.92]to reach water underground.

[03:40.56]Some wells can last for many years,

[03:43.88]but others run dry.

[03:48.08]When the well has run dry,

[03:50.84]there is nothing left.

[03:54.76]Paul Simon is a famous American songwriter.

[04:00.16]In 2007, he told a reporter,

[04:04.88]"I think there's a certain reservoir of melody

[04:09.00]that you are born with,

[04:10.92]and in the beginning, you draw on that.

[04:14.64]And then after a while,

[04:17.56]a relatively short while, you use it up."

[04:22.28]A reservoir is a place where water is stored,

[04:27.12]such as a pool, a pond, or a lake.

[04:33.00]Simon added that

[04:35.16]when the artist has used all that is in the reservoir,

[04:39.56]he or she needs to expand their skills.

[04:45.20]Otherwise, their creative well

[04:48.32]is going to run dry.

[04:51.64]So far, we have talked about running out of ideas.

[04:57.44]But what happens if you get lucky

[05:00.52]and find a lot of something valuable,

[05:04.20]like oil or gold?

[05:08.16]In those cases, you have hit the mother lode.

[05:14.12]The term mother lode came from California

[05:17.76]after gold was discovered there in 1848.

[05:23.88]It describes a narrow area of rock in the state

[05:28.08]about 190 kilometers in length.

[05:33.32]This rock was the source, or "mother,"

[05:37.84]of the gold found in rivers

[05:40.48]and streams in the area.

[05:44.44]Is VOA Learning English

[05:46.76]your mother lode for learning

[05:49.28]new idioms and expressions?

[05:51.68]Let us know in the comments below.

[05:56.40]And be sure to keep reading

[05:58.88]Words and Their Stories!

[06:02.48]I'm Andrew Smith.

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Words in This Story

pick -v. to select and take something

orchard -n. an area of land on which fruit trees are grown

branches -n. the parts of a tree that grow from its trunk and have leaves, fruit, or flowers on them.

obvious -adj. easily seen or understood

melody -n. the main notes that make a song or tune

draw on -v. (phrasal) to utilize or to take from a quantity or source

pond -n. a small body of water