"布朗尼加分"口語課堂:兩千三百美元的"Lemon"

嗨，大家好。今天Rose給大家講的小故事裏包含了若干個由食物構成習慣用語，希望您藉助上下文，先自行猜測它們的含義，隨後再進一步瞭解它們的用法。好了，一起來聽。

The used car I bought for three hundred dollars was a lemon. My friends said I was nuts to believe the baloney the seller gave. The seller said that the car was like new, with only ten thousand miles on it. she said she was really selling it for peanuts.

Starting the engine of the car was a Piece of cake. I just turned the key—no problem. However, soon I was in a pickle: the brakes didn't work! I hit a car and had to pay two thousand dollars to repair it. But my friend Nina was a peach. She took my car to the garbage dump so that I didn't have to see it again.

故事大概說的是一個人受了騙，買了一輛沒法開的二手車的故事。故事一開頭就告訴了大家，這輛花三百美元買的舊車是a lemon。Lemon 檸檬。習語中表示something that does not work, usually an electrical appliance or mechanical item，機械類的用具不再好用的意思。再比如：The new MP4 I bought was a lemon, and I'm going to take it back to the store for a new one. 我新買的mp4不好用，我要拿回商店換個新的。

花了三百美元上當，難怪朋友們會說我是個nuts了。Nuts原意指堅果。這裏指:very crazy, very upset，瘋子。我是瘋了纔會相信the baloney the seller gave，baloney，薰腸，大香腸這裏意思相當於nonsense 廢話。也就是瘋了才相信賣車人的鬼話呢。是啊。就這樣的車賣車小姐還說是selling it for peanuts呢。Peanuts在習語中用於指代 a very small amount of money，很小的一筆錢。意思也就是，這還便宜賣給你了呢。我們再看一個例子：Rose buys used clothes at secondhand stores, and she gets nice-looking clothes for peanuts. Rose在舊貨商店買舊衣服。花很少的錢淘到漂亮衣服。

這輛車啓動它，是a piece of cake，小事一樁，但是開起來之後，很快我就in a pickle了。Pickle, 醃菜，泡菜。In a pickle意思就是in trouble. 陷入麻煩中。再比如： Bill was in a pickle. After filling his car with gas, he could not find the money to pay. 比爾遇到麻煩了，爲自己的車裝滿油之後才發現身上沒錢。

花了三百塊買了輛破車。又花了兩千給別人修被自己撞壞的車。還真是禍不單行。好在我的朋友Nina was a peach. Peach, 桃子。用來指a very nice person一個非常好的人。她善解人意的將那輛破車送到了garbage dump 垃圾堆，好讓我眼不見心不煩。

結束之前問個小問題，Does something that is a lemon work well? Have you ever bought a lemon? 好了，我們下期再見。