(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
And that brings us to the end of another Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English.
Just kidding!
To kid. To tease. To joke and fool around. They all mean about the same thing. If you kid, you make fun in a playful way. Teasing can be playful or mean spirited. It depends.
To joke around is to have fun with someone. To fool someone is to try to make them believe something that is not true. And that is the purpose of April Fools' Day.
April 1st is known as the day to fool people with practical jokes, pranks or harmless tricks. But how did this tradition begin? Some say April Fools' Day began as one big mistake.
Many centuries ago, people in the Western world used the Julian calendar. They celebrated the New Year on April 1st. However, when people began using the Gregorian calendar, the New Year was moved to January 1st.
Those who forgot the change and tried to celebrate New Year's Day on the wrong date were teased and called "April fools."
This is just one of the many theories behind the origin of April Fools' Day. But the tradition remains the same – trying to fool someone.
The fool is a common character in art, music and literature. William Shakespeare is famous for his fools. And fools make for great pop songs.
Fools are found in many words, expressions and proverbs.
To be foolhardy means to do something that are too dangerous or risky. For example, it is foolhardy to hike up a mountain during a heavy snowstorm.
If something is foolproof, it is planned or made so well that nothing could go wrong. Not even a fool could mess it up.
"Look, I don't want to get into trouble. This plan of yours sounds risky."
"My plan is foolproof. Nothing will go wrong as long as you do exactly as I say."
There are many expressions using the word "fool."
If you are on a fool's errand you are doing something that is pointless. For example, asking a friend who has no money for a loan is a fool's errand.
Fool's gold is iron pyrite. Iron pyrite is a brassy yellow mineral that is often mistaken for gold. Miners who did not know much about the properties of gold would often mistake iron pyrite for the real stuff.
A fool's paradise is not a vacation spot for fools. It is a state of being happy for foolish or unfounded reasons.
Here is an example:
"Monica is so happy these days. She thinks she is getting a raise at work."
"But she is always late. She misses her deadlines. And her boss doesn't really like her."
"I know. She is living in a fool's paradise."
Even a smart and reasonable person can be a fool at times. You can be a fool for love, a fool for money or a fool for success. Basically, you can be a fool for anything that causes you to lose control or lose touch with reality.
In this song, Connie Francis sings that everybody's somebody's fool.
"And there are no exceptions to the rule. Yes, everybody's somebody's fool."
Fools also find themselves in many common proverbs.
For example, "A fool and his money are soon parted." This means that if you are not careful with your money you will soon not have any.
Another proverb is, "There is no fool like an old fool." This means if an older person behaves foolishly, it seems worse than when a younger person does the same. An older person should know better.
Then there is the proverb, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." This means that if you are tricked once by someone, they are to blame for fooling you. But if you let the same person fool you again, the blame is all your own. When George W. Bush was president, he infamously messed up this proverb in a speech.
We end this show with yet another "foolish" proverb, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." English poet Alexander Pope wrote this line in his 1709 poem An Essay on Criticism. Songwriter Johnny Mercer turned it into a classic song.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread ..."
Share a "foolish" expression from your language. Or practice using one of these expressions in the Comments Section.
I'm Anna Matteo.
"So open up your heart and let this fool rush in..."
I'm Anna Matteo.
重点解析
1.lose control 失控
Deprive a person of all, will make you lose control of these inpiduals.
剥夺一个人的一切，将会使你失去对这个人的控制。
2.go wrong 出毛病；弄错；发生故障
But then things started to go wrong.
但是，事情从此开始走向错误。
3.get a raise at work 得到加薪
I think I should get a raise for my dedication.
我认为我应该为公司的贡献而获得加薪。
4.shame on 羞愧于
Such behavior can only reflect shame on you.
这样的行为只能给你带来羞愧。
参考译文
又到了我们另一个VOA学英语的《词汇掌故》节目的尾声了。
开个玩笑！
开玩笑，戏弄，说着玩，愚弄人，它们意思都差不多。如果你开玩笑，你用有趣的方式来取乐。戏弄可以是有趣的，也可能是卑鄙的，视情况而定。
“To joke around”意思是和某人开玩笑。“To fool someone”是指试着让别人相信一些不真实的事情，这也是愚人节的目的。
众所周知，4月1日是用恶搞，恶作剧或无害的小把戏来愚弄人的日子。但是这个传统是怎么开始的呢？愚人节是从一个大错误开始的。
很久很久以前，西方人使用儒略历。他们在4月1日庆祝新年。然而，当人们使用公历的时候，新年被改成了1月1日。
那些忘了新年日期改动，仍然按照错误日期过新年的人被人们嘲笑，并称之为“四月的愚人”。
这只是愚人节来历的众多说法之一，但传统仍是一样的，都是愚弄人。
傻瓜这个形象在艺术，音乐和文学里比较常见。莎士比亚擅长塑造傻瓜人物。傻瓜也能制作出伟大的流行歌曲。
傻瓜出现在许多词语，表达和谚语中。
“To be foolhardy”是指做某事太危险或者太冒险。例如，冒着暴风雪爬山实在是太鲁莽了！
如果说某事万无一失，是说这件事计划得很好或者做得很好，不会出什么问题。即使是一个傻瓜也不会搞砸。
“听着，我不想惹麻烦。你的这个计划似乎很冒险。”
“我的计划万无一失。你只要按照我说的做，绝对不会出错。”
有许多表达含有单词“fool”。
如果你在做傻事，那你正在做一件毫无意义的事情。举个例子，向一个没有钱的朋友借钱是徒劳的。
“Fool's gold”是指黄铁矿。黄铁矿是有着黄铜色的黄色矿物，人们经常把它误认成金子。那些不了解金子属性的矿工常常把黄铁矿当成是真金子。
“A fool's paradise”可不是傻瓜度假的景点。它是指一种因可笑或者无厘头的原因而开心的状态。
这里有个例子：
“莫妮卡这些天很开心。她觉得她要涨工资了。”
“但她经常迟到，不按期完成工作任务。她老板不是很喜欢她。”
“我了解。她在做黄粱美梦。”
即使是聪明人和理性的人有时也会犯傻。你可能成为爱情的傻瓜，金钱的奴隶或者追求成功的愚人。总的来说，你可能成为任何让你失去理智，或者脱离现实的事物的傻瓜。
这首歌里，康妮·法兰西斯唱到，每个人都是其他人眼中的傻瓜。
“无一例外，是的，每个人都是其他人眼中的傻瓜。”
傻瓜也出现在一些常用的谚语中。
例如，“A fool and his money are soon parted”，意思是如果你不小心花钱，你很快就会身无分文。
另一个谚语“There is no fool like an old fool”，它的意思是同样一件蠢事，老人做相对于年轻人来说更让人觉得糟糕，因为老年人应该懂得更多。
这儿还有个谚语，“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me。”这个谚语的意思是如果你被人骗了一次，应该责备欺骗你的人，但如果你被同一个人骗了，你应该怪自己。当乔治·沃克·布什当总统的时候，他被诟病在一次讲话中把这个谚语说混了。
今天节目最后一个表示“愚蠢的"谚语，“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”英国诗人亚历山大·蒲柏在1709年的诗歌《论批评》中写下了这句话。作词(曲)人强尼·莫瑟将这句谚语变成了一首经典歌曲。
“天使裹足不前，愚人横冲直入······”
分享一个你的语言里的关于“愚蠢的”表达，或者在评论区用今天学到的一个表达进行练习。
安娜·马特奥
“所以打开你的心扉，让傻瓜闯入······”
