And I’m Sam. Can you wait a second, Rob? I have to spend a penny.
我是山姆。你能等一下吗，罗伯？我必须花一分钱。
Rob(罗伯)
What! You’re going shopping now, are you? We’re just about to start the programme!
什么！你现在要去购物了，是吗？我们即将开始该计划！
Sam(山姆)
No, no, I have to… you know, ‘spend a penny’. Haven’t you heard that expression before? Spend a penny means ‘go to the toilet’. It’s an old idiom from the days when it cost a penny to unlock the door of a public toilet.
OK, I see. Well, you’re showing your age there, Sam – most young people today wouldn’t know what that phrase meant, and there aren’t many public toilets left nowadays anyway.
Language changes fast, and new words and phrases are being created all the time. In this programme, we’ll be learning some modern idioms – new expressions that have been introduced to English through the internet, TV and social media. And of course, we’ll be learning their meanings a well.
Great, I’m ‘raring to go’ – another idiom there. But first, as usual, I have a question for you, Sam. Many well-known idioms come from the world of sport, for example ‘throw in the towel’ which means ‘give up’, or ‘surrender’. But which sport does the idiom ‘throw in the towel’ come from? Is it: a) football? b) tennis? or; c) boxing?
OK, Sam. I’ll reveal the answer at the end of the programme, so just hold your horses for now!
好的，山姆。我会在节目结束时揭晓答案，所以现在就抱住你的马吧！
Sam(山姆)
Ah, another idiom there, Rob - hold your horses meaning ‘stop and think for a moment’. That’s an idiom that Gareth Carrol might teach his university students. Dr Carrol is the author of a new book, ‘Dropping the Mic and Jumping the Shark: Where Do Modern Idioms Come From?’ He became interested in idioms when he realised that he didn’t know many of the expressions his students used in their everyday speech, modern idioms like ‘jump the shark’.
啊，另一个谚语，罗伯 - hold your horses 的意思是“停下来想一会儿”。这是加雷斯·卡罗尔可能会教给他的大学生的一个谚语。卡罗尔博士是一本新书的作者，“放下麦克风，跳鲨鱼：现代习语从何而来？当他意识到他不认识他的学生在日常演讲中使用的许多表达方式时，他对谚语产生了兴趣，比如“跳鲨鱼”等现代谚语。
Rob(罗伯)
Here is Gareth Carrol telling BBC Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth, about one source of many modern idioms – the movies.
这是加雷斯·卡罗尔告诉BBC Radio 4节目“口碑”的，关于许多现代习语的一个来源 —— 电影。
Dr Gareth Carrol(Gareth Carrol 博士)
So, Groundhog Day I think more or less has the meaning of ‘déjà vu’ now, and it’s completely embedded in the language… actually, that’s probably one of the first phrases that got me thinking about these modern idioms in the first place because it is so ubiquitous, it’s used in a huge range of contexts, and one of the things that made me sit up and take notice is, I had a number of students who know the phrase, Groundhog Day, but had no idea it was a film.
In the film, Groundhog Day, the main character wakes up to live the same day over and over again. Gradually, the movie title itself became an idiom, Groundhog Day, meaning a situation in which events that have happened before, happen again in exactly the same way. It’s similar in meaning to another expression – déjà vu.
When phrases the movies develop into idioms it’s often because they are ubiquitous – they seem to appear everywhere.
当电影的短语发展成成习语时，通常是因为它们无处不在 —— 它们似乎无处不在。
Sam(山姆)
And one of the ways they appear everywhere is, of course, the internet. Here’s Gareth Carrol again, telling more to Michael Rosen, presenter of BBC Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth:
当然，它们无处不在的方式之一就是互联网。这是加雷斯·卡罗尔再次向BBC Radio 4节目《口碑》的主持人迈克尔·罗森讲述更多信息：
Dr Gareth Carrol(Gareth Carrol 博士)
The vocabulary of the internet, even the word ‘internet’, is relatively modern… the idea of breaking the internet is now a phrase I think people would use and recognise, so something that causes such a stir online that metaphorically so many people rush to a website that it threatens to bring it down, something like that…
In the early days we had ‘go viral’ which has stayed with us, hasn’t it?
在早期，我们有“病毒式传播”，它一直伴随着我们，不是吗？
Dr Gareth Carrol(Gareth Carrol 博士)
Yeah, so the idea of something going viral is certainly very much in the vocabulary now… But things like Twitter have leant sort of phrases, so the idea of first-world problems, meaning sort of ironically things that we complain about but actually, compared to other parts of the world, may well be relatively minor, that started life as Twitter hashtag, for example.
Another modern idiom is breaking the internet – causing so much excitement about something online that too many people visit the website at the same time, making it crash.
另一个现代谚语是打破互联网 —— 在网上引起如此多的兴奋，以至于太多人同时访问该网站，使其崩溃。
Sam(山姆)
Social media outlets like Twitter have also created their own idioms, including first-world problems - a trivial problem that does not seem very important when compared to the serious problems faced by people in poorer parts of the world.
If you don’t know some of these idioms, don’t worry. Unlike general vocabulary, a native speaker’s full knowledge of idioms takes longer to develop, usually at around the age of thirty to forty.
Meanwhile, you can still rely on classic English idioms, like ‘pull my leg’, ‘kick the bucket’, and ‘throw in the towel’ – which, I think, comes from the sport of boxing. Rob?
Yes, in my question I asked which sport gave birth to the phrase ‘throw in the towel’, and Sam’s answer was correct! Well done! The idiom ‘throw in the towel’ comes from boxing where the coach of losing boxer would literally throw a towel into the ring to surrender.
OK, let’s recap the rest of the idioms, old and new, that we’ve learnt today. To spend a penny is an old-fashioned way of saying ‘go to the toilet’.
好了，让我们回顾一下我们今天学到的其余新旧习语。花一分钱是“上厕所”的老式说法。
Rob(罗伯)
Groundhog Day describes a situation in which events that have happened before, happen again exactly the same way.
土拨鼠日描述了一种情况，在这种情况下，以前发生的事件以完全相同的方式再次发生。
Sam(山姆)
If something is ubiquitous, it seems to appear everywhere.
如果某件事无处不在，它似乎无处不在。
Rob(罗伯)
The modern idiom break the internet, means to cause so much excitement about something online that you make the website crash.
现代谚语打破了互联网，意思是对在线某事引起如此多的兴奋，以至于您使网站崩溃。
Sam(山姆)
And finally, a first-world problem is a problem that does not seem very important when compared to the serious problems faced by people in poorer parts of the world. Unfortunately for us, our six minutes are up! Bye for now!
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