#EZTALK #你不知道的美國大小事 #英文考零分不是用鴨蛋講
Food Idioms 美國生活用語：更多蛋More Eggs 🥚
Everybody loves eggs, so how about some more egg idioms this week? 每個人都喜歡吃蛋，所以這週我們繼續來談更多的蛋。
1⃣ tough/hard egg to crack
2⃣ sb. can’t boil an egg
3⃣ kill the goose that laid the golden eggs
4⃣ goose egg
5⃣ lay an egg
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Remember the expression “tough/hard nut to crack”? Well, 1⃣ “tough/hard egg to crack” has exactly the same meaning. Ex: For many language learners, English is a tough egg to crack.
還記得之前介紹過的tough/hard nut to crack「難搞的人事物」嗎？呃，把nut換成egg也是一樣的意思：For many language learners, English is a tough egg to crack.（對許多英語學習者來說，英語還蠻難搞的。）
Eggs are probably one of the easiest things to cook—just plop them in a pot and boil for three minutes. 2⃣ So if someone “can’t boil an egg,” it means they’re a bad cook, or can’t cook at all. Ex: Lots of millennials can’t boil an egg.
蛋大概是最容易料理的食物──只要把蛋丟進鍋中煮個三分鐘就好。所以，萬一有人是can’t boil an egg「連水煮蛋都不會煮」，那他一定是位很糟糕的廚師，或者根本沒有下廚天份。如：Lots of millennials can’t boil an egg.（許多九年級生連水煮蛋都不會。）
If you’ve read Aesop’s Fables, you know the story The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs. A farmer owns a goose that lays a golden egg every day, and thinks there must be a big lump of gold inside it. So he kills it and cuts it open, only to find no gold. 3⃣ “Kill the goose that laid the golden eggs” therefore came to mean to destroy a source of wealth through stupidity or greed. Ex: Why would he quit his civil service job? That would be killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
如果你有看過伊索寓言，你應該聽過「下金蛋的鵝」這個故事。有位農夫有隻每天會下一顆金蛋的鵝。他心想，這隻鵝身體裡頭一定有塊黃金，所以把鵝給宰了，切開身體，卻找不到任何黃金。所以kill the goose that laid the gold eggs可延伸為「（因貪心或愚笨而）自斷財路」，如：Why would he quit his civil service job? That would be killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.（為什麼他要辭掉那個公務員工作？這根本是自斷財路。）
Speaking of goose eggs, 4⃣ a goose egg can also mean a score of zero in a game/contest or on a test. Ex: I got a goose egg on the quiz this morning. And finally, 5⃣ “lay an egg” can mean to fail in a publicly embarrassing way. Ex: The teacher tried to tell a funny joke, but he laid an egg.
提到goose egg鵝蛋，在英文裡也可以指競賽中沒有獲得任何分數，也就是中文的「零分，拿鴨蛋」意思。如：I got a goose egg on the quiz this morning.（我今天早上小考考了零分。）最後，lay an egg原本指「下蛋」，也可以延伸為「在公共場合下出糗，搞砸事情」，如：The teacher tried to tell a funny joke, but he laid an egg.（那位老師本來想說個笑話，但他搞砸了。）
【✍重點單字】
1. plop「扔」：當動詞。
2. millennial「千禧年世代」：指西元2000年左右出生的一代，相當於台灣的九年級生。
3. lay「下蛋；放置」：其過去式變化為lay-laid-laid。lay也可以當lie「躺著」的過去式，請注意區分。
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