介绍:
Word of the Week
Xiaohua: Hello, and welcome to Round Table’s Word of the Week. This week we are talking about some New Year related idioms as the New Year is coming.
John: And they almost all have something to do with becoming a new person, using the New Year as a way to realize your goals that you did not actually achieve in the year before. Whether or not this year will be different is of course a different question. But let’s start with, first, ring in the New Year, so basically to celebrate the beginning of the New Year at midnight on Dec 31.
Xiaohua: Ring in the new year就是迎接新年的到来，因为要敲响新年钟声嘛，所以you gotta ring the bell to welcome the New Year and hence ring in the New Year.
John: Right. Then there is turn over a new leaf. It’s time for a fresh start and do something different. Interestingly enough, it has nothing to do with the leaves that fall after the tree rather it has to do with the leaf, in a book, a book leaf.
Xiaohua: Turn over a new leaf 可不是翻开一片新的叶子，而是翻开新的一页书，因为这个leaf指得是书页的意思。
John: Then back to the drawing board, so architects, designers use drawing boards to come up with designs and they are able to translate those designs into a real actual product. The whole idea there is you go back to the drawing board to re-evaluate and re-plan for the New Year.
Xiaohua: Back to the drawing board 也是重新开始的意思，因为建筑师都要有这种画图板来画图，那么重新回到画图板上就是说要重新开始规划一件事情的意思。
John: Then there is start from scratch. So if you haven’t begun one of your New Year’s goals, you must start at the beginning. This is also interesting, because you can make something from scratch, nothing do with New Year, but make something from scratch means, for example, I made some cookies from scratch, which means I didn’t buy them at the store and I didn’t buy a cookie mix, everything all the ingredients, I had to mix all together myself.
Xiaohua: Start from the scratch就是从头开始，从起点开始。那make something from scratch的意思就是我是从最开始的那第一步开始一点一点做起来的。
John: And there is back to square one, so if you started a goal before and it didn’t work out, you can always go back to square one. We are really not sure where this came from, but square one being, you know, the very first place.
Xiaohua: Back to square one也是回到原点的意思，那这个square one在这里就是表示最初的地方，起点。
John: Then there is jump on the bandwagon, so maybe you want to do something that other people have tried to do so, maybe a new diet, writing challenge and hairstyle, so you jump on the bandwagon. So this basically means doing something that other people are doing or have already done.
Xiaohua: Jump on the bandwagon跳上大篷车，这实际上的意思就是说跟随别人的脚步或者跟随一些已经存在的潮流也来做这件事情。
John: Right. Again nothing to do with lifestyle necessarily, you know, with来自星星的你. At first, it wasn’t all that popular, and then it became very popular, but people who hadn’t watched it yet they jumped on the bandwagon and fell in love.
Xiaohua: 有点像赶上这波潮流，赶上这波流行的意思。
John: Then last but not the least, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. I think this one is actually fairly obvious, but somehow a clichéd phrase that we use in English on a regular basis as if it’s something new and it actually means something. But it is just what it sounds like. If you are not successful, just try again.
Xiaohua: 如果刚开始不成功的话，要继续尝试。这听上去好像是中国家长们鼓励小朋友好好学习的这样一句话，but it’s actually used widely across the board. And that’s all we have for this edition of Word of the Week and happy New Year!
John: Happy New Year!
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