#EZTALK #你不知道的美國大小事
#五十步笑百步 英文怎麼說 #打開看全文加強實力
本週🇺🇸美國大小事改來介紹煮菜少不了的鍋具啦！！
pot 跟 pan 平平都是「鍋」，但pot指「深鍋」，pan指「淺鍋」
今天先介紹跟pot有關的諺語 4 個～
順便搭上最近很夯的 #正義聯盟 四小時導演剪輯版作為例句
對 #syndercut 有興趣的讀者，不要錯過下週的 #編輯聊英文 podcast！
--正文開始
Have you ever noticed that it seems to take forever for water to boil if stand in front of the stove waiting?1⃣This is the source of the expression “a watched pot never boils,” which means that when you want something to happen, paying close attention will make the wait seem much longer. Ex: Don’t just sit there next to the phone waiting for Lisa to call—a watched pot never boils.
不知道你有沒有注意到，煮水的時候你要是一直站在爐火前等，這等待的時間彷彿就像永遠一樣長？這種感覺正好是諺語a watched pot never boils「某事是急不得的」的由來，意思是：當你越希望某件事情能發生，給它越多關注，那件事情就似乎越晚才會發生。如：Don’t just sit there next to the phone waiting for Lisa to call—a watched pot never boils.（不要只是坐在電話旁邊等麗莎打給你──心急吃不了熱豆腐。）
Pots and kettles left on the stove for a long time tend to turn black. So if the pot calls the kettle black, well, the pot is probably black too. 2⃣ So this idiom is used to describe people criticising another person for a fault they have themselves. Ex: Robert accused me of being selfish—talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
要是把鍋跟煮水壺放在爐火上越久，顏色就會變深變黑。所以如果鍋子笑水壺黑，嗯，鍋子自己也是黑的啊。因此，諺語the pot calls the kettle black就是「五十步笑百步」的意思：Robert accused me of being selfish—talk about the pot calling the kettle black!（羅伯罵我自私──拜託，他是五十步笑百步好嗎！）
When you prepare meat to make a stew, you cut it up into tiny pieces and put in the pot. 3⃣ So the phrase “go to pot” came to mean “deteriorate, decline, be ruined.” Ex: Their business went to pot during the recession.
如果你要燉肉，你會把肉切成小塊再放入鍋裡，因此入鍋（go to pot）延伸有「毀壞、衰弱、完蛋」的意思，像是：Their business went to pot during the recession.（經濟蕭條期間，他們的公司也一起完蛋。）
4⃣But not all pots are made for cooking—like chamber pots, for example. You’d have to be pretty poor not to be able to afford a chamber pot, so if someone “doesn’t have a pot to piss in,” it means they’re very poor. Ex: Steve can’t lend you the money—he doesn’t have a pot to piss in.
不過呢，並非所有的鍋子都是用來煮飯的──像便壺（chamber pot）就不是。便壺這種東西，除非你是非常窮，否則不太可能買不起，因此，如果你說某人doesn’t have a pot to piss in（沒有便壺可小便），就是在暗示那個人非常窮困。如：Steve can’t lend you the money—he doesn’t have a pot to piss in.（史提夫不可能借你錢──他自己都窮到快被鬼抓走。）
--
🔔 按下「搶先看」，每週五【美國大小事】，由 Judd 編審分享最即時美國新鮮事！想知道更多美國文化，請看 👉 http://bit.ly/EZTalk嚴選
