BBC 6分钟英语学习 对现代习语感到困惑吗？

English

from BBC Learning English. Hello. This is 6 min English from BBC, learning English.

I'm Rob, and I'm Sam. Can you wait a 2nd?

Rob? I have to um, spend a penny.

What's your going shopping now? Are you?

Which is about to start the program?

No, no, I have to, um, you know, spend a penny.

Haven't you heard that expression before?

Spend a penny means go to the toilet.

It's an old idiom, from the days when it cost a penny to unlock the door of a public toilet.

OK, I see, well you're showing your age there, sam.

Most young people today wouldn't know what that phrase meant, and there aren't many public toilets left nowadays.

Anyway, language changes fast, and new words and phrases are being created all the time.

In this program, will be learning some modern idioms, new expressions that have been introduced to English through the Internet, TV and social media.

And of course, we'll be learning their meanings as well.

Great. I am rareing to go.

Another idiom there. But 1st, as usual, I have a question for you, sam.

Many well known Idioms come from the world of sport, e.g.

throw in the towel, which means give up or surrender.

But which sport does the idiom throw in the towel come from?

Is it a football? B tennis or C boxing?

I think I know this one.

It's C boxing. OK, sam, I'll reveal the answer at the end of the program.

So just hold your horses for now.

Ah, another Idiom layer of Hold your horses, meaning stop and think for a moment.

That's an idiom that Garreth Carroll might teach his university students.

Doctor Carroll is the author of a new book, dropping the Mike and Jumping the Shark.

Where do modern idioms come from?

He became interested in idioms when he realized that he didn't know many of the expressions his students used in their everyday speech.

Modern idioms like Jump the Shark.

Here is Gareth Carol telling BBC Radio four program word of mouth about one source of many modern idioms the movies.

So Groundhog Day, I think, more or less, has the meaning of Dejjavu now, and it's completely embedded in the language.

Actually. That's probably one of the 1st phrases that got me thinking about these modern idiums in the 1st place.

Because it is so ubiquitous. It's used in a huge range of context.

And one of the things that that kind of made me set up at take notice is I had, I had a number of students who know the phrased Groundhog Day, but had no idea it was a film.

In the film Groundhog Day, the main character wakes up to live the same day over and over again.

Gradually, the movie title itself became an idiom.

Groundhog Day meaning a situation in which events that have happened before happen again.

In exactly the same way. It's similar in meaning to another expression, dejavu.

When phrases the move is used develop into idioms.

It's often because they are ubiquitous.

They seem to appear everywhere. And one of the ways they appear everywhere is, of course, the Internet.

He is Garreth Carroll again telling more to Michael Rosen, presenter BBC radio for program Word of mouth, the vocabulary of the Internet, even the word Internet, is relatively modern.

The idea of breaking the Internet is now a phrase, I think people would use and recognize.

So something that causes such a stir online that metaphorically, so many people rush to a website that it threatens to bring it down, something like that, early days, we had go viral, which was stayed with us, hasn't it?

Yes. So the idea of something going viral is is certainly very much in in the vocabulary now.

But things like Twitter have have lent sort of phrases, so the the idea of 1st world problems at meaning, sort of, ironically, things that we complain about, but actually compared to other parts of the world, may well be relatively minor.

That started life as a Twitter hashtag, E.G.

Another modern idiom is breaking the Internet, causing so much excitement about something online that too many people visit the website at the same time, making a crash.

Social media outlets like Twitter have also created their own idioms, including 1st world problems, a trivial problem that does not seem very important when compared to the serious problems faced by people in poorer parts of the world.

If you don't know some of these idioms, don't worry.

Unlike general vocabulary and native speakers, full knowledge of idioms takes longer to develop, usually at around the age of 30 to 40.

Meanwhile, you can still rely on classic English idioms, like Pull my leg, kick the bucket and throw in the towel, which I think comes from the source of boxing.

Rub Yes. In my question, I asked which sport gave birth to the phrase Throw in the towel, and sam's answer was correct.

Well done. The idiom throw in the towel comes from boxing, where the coach of the losing boxer would literally throw a towel into the ring to surrender.

OK, let's recap the rest of the idioms.

Old anew that we've learned today to spend a penny is an old fashioned way of saying, go to the toilet.

Groundhog Day describes a situation in which events that have happened before happen again.

Exactly the same way. If something is ubiquitous, it seems to appear everywhere.

The modern idiom break the Internet means to cause so much excitement about something online that you can make the website crash.

And finally, a 1st world problem is a problem that does not seem very important when compared to the serious problems faced by people in poorer parts of the world.

Unfortunately for us, our 6 min are up by fi.

Now, bye, bye.

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