VOA慢速英语2013 Words and Their Stories: Money Talks
时间：2019-01-12 作者：英语课 分类：2013年VOA慢速英语(六)月
Words and Their Stories: Money Talks
I’m Susan Clark with Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.
People often say that money talks. They mean that a person with a lot of money can say how he or she wants things done. But it is not easy to earn enough money to gain this kind of power.
Ask anyone in a business. They will tell you that it is a jungle out there. The expression probably began because the jungle is filled with wild animals and unknown dangers that threaten people. Sometimes people in business feel competing businesses are as dangerous as wild animals. And they feel that unknown dangers in the business world threaten the survival 1 of their business.
People in business have to be careful if they are to survive the jungle out there. They must not be led into making bogus investments 2. Bogus means 3 something that is not real.
Nobody is sure how the word got started. But it began to appear in American newspapers in the eighteen hundreds. A newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts said the word came from a criminal 4 whose name was Borghese. The newspaper said Borghese wrote checks to people although he did not have enough money in the bank. After he wrote the checks, he would flee 5 from town. So, people who were paid with his checks received nothing. The newspaper said Americans shortened 6 and changed the criminal's name Borghese, to bogus.
People trying to earn money also must be aware of being ripped 7 off. A person who is ripped off has had something stolen, or at least has been treated very unfairly.
A writer for the magazine “American Speech” said he first saw the expression used in 1971. It was on a sign that a student carried during a protest 8 demonstration 9 at a university. The message on the sign was that the student felt ripped off, or cheated.
Perhaps the best way to prevent getting ripped off in business is to not try to get rich quickly. To be successful, a person in business works 10 hard and tries to get down to brass 11 tacks 12.
This expression means to get to the bottom or most important part of something. For example, a salesman may talk and talk about his product without saying the price. You get down to brass tacks when you say, “it sounds good, but how much does it cost?”
Word expert Charles Funk thinks the expression comes from sailors on ships. They clean the bottom of a boat. When they have removed all the dirt, they are down to the brass tacks, the copper 13 pieces that hold the boat together.
So, if we get down to brass tacks, we can prevent ripoffs and bogus ways of earning money in that jungle out there. And, some good luck will help, too.
This Words and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson. I’m Susan Clark.
- The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
- The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。
- With the markets being so volatile, investments are at great risk. 由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- All their money was tied up in long-term investments. 他们所有的钱都搁死在长线投资上了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
- We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。
- He is a habitual criminal.他是一个惯犯。
- We captured the criminal.我们捕获了那个犯人。
- Why does she always flee any kind of responsibility?她为什么总是逃避责任？
- He was lucky to flee the burning hotel.他很幸运逃出了失火的旅馆。
- She shortened the skirt by an inch. 她把裙子缩短了一英寸。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Vacations have lengthened and the work week has shortened. 假期延长，工作周就缩短了。 来自辞典例句
- I can't pass the matter by without a protest.我不能对此事视而不见，我要提出抗议。
- We translated his silence as a protest.我们把他的沉默解释为抗议。
- His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
- He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。
- We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
- The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。
- Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
- Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
- Never mind the side issues, let's get down to brass tacks and thrash out a basic agreement. 别管枝节问题，让我们讨论问题的实质，以求得基本一致。
- Get down to the brass tacks,and quit talking round the subject. 谈实质问题吧，别兜圈子了。