Listen 聽(tīng)一聽(tīng)

Exercise 練一練

1. To blow your top means:

a) to suddenly become excited

b) to slowly become excited

c) to suddenly become angry

d) to slowly become angry

2. What does Nina think of when she/he hears the expression blow your top?

3. Which other English expression means 'it makes me very angry'?

Script 文本閱讀

You’re listening to British Council’s English Online and I’m Nina. Today on Language Snacks we take a look at the expression blow your top. Let’s listen to the dialogue.
您現(xiàn)在收聽(tīng)的是英國(guó)領(lǐng)事館英語(yǔ)在線欄目，我是尼娜。今天的語(yǔ)言小點(diǎn)心節(jié)目我們來(lái)學(xué)一下blow up your top 這個(gè)短語(yǔ)，一起來(lái)聽(tīng)下面的對(duì)話。


A: Oh no! Quick, get a cloth!
A:啊，不要啊！快，快那塊布來(lái)。


B: What's the matter?
B：出什么事了？


A: I've spilt my coffee all over Mark's papers!
A：我把咖啡打翻全灑在馬克的文件上了。


B: Here you are. Oh dear, I'm afraid these papers are in a bad way. Will Mark be angry?
B：給你。不是吧，這些文件恐怕全給毀了。馬克會(huì)生氣嗎？


A: He's going to blow his top! He told me not to touch anything on his desk!
A：他非氣瘋了不可！他說(shuō)過(guò)讓我別碰他桌子。


If you blow your top, you lose your temper, or suddenly become very angry. When I hear this expression, I think of a volcano erupting, suddenly shooting fire and smoke up into the air. However, I think the more common image is of boiling water blowing the top off a cooking pan. In both cases, the idea of heat and boiling is connected with the feeling of anger.
如果你blow up your top，意思就是怒氣沖天，或者突然大發(fā)雷霆。當(dāng)我聽(tīng)到這個(gè)短語(yǔ)的時(shí)候，我腦子里想到的就是火山噴發(fā)，突然火光迸發(fā)，濃煙滾滾，還有一種更為常見(jiàn)的場(chǎng)景，那就是熱鍋里水開(kāi)了汩汩地冒出來(lái)熱氣把鍋蓋都頂開(kāi)了。這兩個(gè)例子中，熱氣和滾水用來(lái)形容生氣的樣子。


This connection is also true in other English expressions. For example, if something 'makes your blood boil', it makes you very angry. You could say, it makes you blow your top! Interestingly, a friend of mine from Turkey recently told me that the expression has a different meaning in Turkish, where if something 'makes your blood boil', it makes you excited.
這種比喻在其他英語(yǔ)諺語(yǔ)中也有。比如，某事makes your blood boil，意思是這件事讓你很生氣。我們也可以說(shuō)，這件事blow your top。有趣的是，我的一位土耳其朋友最近跟我說(shuō)起來(lái)這句俗語(yǔ)在土耳其語(yǔ)中的意思不一樣，"makes your blood boil"意思是讓你感到興奮、激動(dòng)。


And that’s it for now – join us again for some more Language Snacks.
好了，今天的節(jié)目就到這里，歡迎大家繼續(xù)關(guān)注下期語(yǔ)言小點(diǎn)心。


You’ve been listening to English Online – the podcast for English learners in China.
您正在收聽(tīng)的是英語(yǔ)在線，中國(guó)英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者的英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)播客。

Key 參考答案

1. c

2. a volcano

3. 'it makes my blood boil!'

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