(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
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 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. Bogus means 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 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 from town. So, people who were paid with his checks received nothing. The newspaper said Americans shortened and changed the criminal's name Borghese, to bogus.
People trying to earn money also must be aware of being ripped 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 demonstration 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 hard and tries to get down to brass tacks.
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 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.
文本为51VOA听写整理
译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
词汇解释
1. Money talks：金钱万能;有钱能使鬼推磨。
2. It is a jungle out there：直译为这是一片丛林。形容在做生意时的不安全和危险，处处是陷阱和欺诈。
3. Bogus：虚假的，伪造的
4. Ripped off： 欺骗，敲诈，诈骗
5. Get down to brass tacks：触及实质，开门见山，直击主题。
参考译文
我是苏珊·克拉克，这里是美国之音慢速英语词汇典故节目。
人们通常会说“有钱能使鬼推磨”，意思是有很多钱的人可以做任何想做的事。但要挣到足够多有这个能力的钱却不是易事。
问商界的任何一个人，他们会说这是一片丛林。这个表达的产生，大概是因为丛林里到处都是野生动物和威胁人的未知危险。有的商界人士觉得商业上的竞争像野生动物那样危险，他们觉得，商场的危险危险会威胁到其商业的存活。
要在这片丛林中存活下来，商界人士必须小心翼翼。千万不能被引入虚假投资中，bogus就是指虚假的东西。
没人知道这个词是怎么产生的，不过它最早出现在美国19世纪的报纸上。麻省波士顿的一份报纸称这个词来自一个名叫Borghese的犯人，报纸说此人银行里的钱不够，但还是给人们开支票。该报称Borghese开空头支票，然后逃离该镇。所以，受到他的支票的人什么都没得到，该报称美国人将犯人的名字Borghese缩短改为bogus。
想赚钱的人必须小心欺诈（being ripped off），被欺诈的人丢了东西，或是受到不公平的待遇。
《美国演讲》杂志的撰稿人说，他是1971年首次看到这个说法。出现在一个大学抗议示威中一个学生举的牌子上，牌子上的信息是说，学生感到受骗了。
也许防止商业欺诈的最好办法是不要试图一夜暴富，要取得成功，商界人士必须努力工作、务实（get down to brass tacks）。
Get down to brass tacks这个短语意思是触及某物的底部或最重要的部分，比如，一名销售员会大谈特谈产品就是不谈价格，你会开门见山地问，“听起来不错，价格如何呢？”
词汇专家Charles Funk认为这个表达来自船上的水手，他们清理船的底部，清理完所有污垢后，他们就碰到黄铜钉，这种铜零件能把船连接在一起。
所以，务实的话，我们就能在这片丛林里避免各种欺诈和骗钱手段，当然也要有好运气。
这次“词汇典故”作者Jeri Watson，我是Susan Clark。
