"布朗尼加分"口语课堂:两千三百美元的"Lemon"

嗨，大家好。今天Rose给大家讲的小故事里包含了若干个由食物构成习惯用语，希望您借助上下文，先自行猜测它们的含义，随后再进一步了解它们的用法。好了，一起来听。

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.

故事大概说的是一个人受了骗，买了一辆没法开的二手车的故事。故事一开头就告诉了大家，这辆花三百美元买的旧车是a lemon。Lemon 柠檬。习语中表示something that does not work, usually an electrical appliance or mechanical item，机械类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. 我新买的mp4不好用，我要拿回商店换个新的。

花了三百美元上当，难怪朋友们会说我是个nuts了。Nuts原意指坚果。这里指:very crazy, very upset，疯子。我是疯了才会相信the baloney the seller gave，baloney，熏肠，大香肠这里意思相当于nonsense 废话。也就是疯了才相信卖车人的鬼话呢。是啊。就这样的车卖车小姐还说是selling it for peanuts呢。Peanuts在习语中用于指代 a very small amount of money，很小的一笔钱。意思也就是，这还便宜卖给你了呢。我们再看一个例子：Rose buys used clothes at secondhand stores, and she gets nice-looking clothes for peanuts. Rose在旧货商店买旧衣服。花很少的钱淘到漂亮衣服。

这辆车启动它，是a piece of cake，小事一桩，但是开起来之后，很快我就in a pickle了。Pickle, 腌菜，泡菜。In a pickle意思就是in trouble. 陷入麻烦中。再比如： Bill was in a pickle. After filling his car with gas, he could not find the money to pay. 比尔遇到麻烦了，为自己的车装满油之后才发现身上没钱。

花了三百块买了辆破车。又花了两千给别人修被自己撞坏的车。还真是祸不单行。好在我的朋友Nina was a peach. Peach, 桃子。用来指a very nice person一个非常好的人。她善解人意的将那辆破车送到了garbage dump 垃圾堆，好让我眼不见心不烦。

结束之前问个小问题，Does something that is a lemon work well? Have you ever bought a lemon? 好了，我们下期再见。