【2008/09/08】Bread and butter, Cream of the crop 和 Bottom of the barrel

发表于: 2008-9-08 03:54 作者: helenayf 来源: 『原版英语』

今天看The Bucket List，出现了Kick the bucket 和a ringside seat

a) Bread andbutter
1. Means ofsupport; livelihood. 生计；生存之本
【例句】John's job is the family's bread andbutter.
Our customers are our bread and butter, so treat them with respect.
2. The essential sustaining element or elements; the mainstay 主要部分；中流砥柱
【例句】Just explain the bread and butter of yourreport. You don't have to go into details.
The quality of theschools is the bread and butter of town property values.
3. Ordinary,routine 例行公事
【例句】Don't worry about it; this is just a breadand butter assignment.
【语源】面包上抹黄油是欧美国家的主食，尤其在以前。

b) Cream of thecrop
【意思】the best of a particular group 最好的
【语源】‘奶油’一词从16世纪起就有了‘最好的’的意思。相对应的法语是
la crème de la crème ("the cream of the cream")，《欲望都市》里出现过。‘Cream of something’本身就是’最好的’的意思，‘the crop’加了一个范围限定，“一批作物里最好的’，意思里‘of a particular group’就是来自‘the crop’。
【例句】We hired the cream of the crop to entertain us at the Christmas party.
These artists are the best of this year's graduates - the cream of thecrop.
The apples from this orchard are definitely the cream of the crop.

c) Bottomof the barrel
【意思】the worst or least able members of a particular group. 最差的，最弱的
【语源】桶的最底部，寓意自明。与cream of the crop正相反
【例句】He described them as the bottom of the barrel of American society.
There were only 40 students in the new class, and I think the admissions office was getting to the bottom of the barrel.

填空练习：

1. Unemployment and taxes are the ____ issues of this campaign.

2. This editorial staff isn't the ____, but it's not as bad as you say.

3. I think the awards committee is really scraping the ____ if they're giving this award to me.

4. As ever, politics, vulgarity and sentimentality were the ____ of the Academy Awards.

5. The students at this university are the _____.

公布答案：
*** Hidden to visitors ***

[ 本帖最后由 helenayf 于 2008-9-8 22:03 编辑 ]

收藏：

我也来说两句查看全部回复

推荐给好友 上一篇 | 下一篇