And now, Words and
Their Stories, from VOA Learning English. For today’s program, we
invite you to share a meal with us – well, expressions about a meal, that is.
to share a meal with
us: a compartir una comida con nosotros; that is: de eso se trata;
Like most languages,
English is filled with food expressions. Today we will start with two
appetizers, continue with the main dish,
and finish with dessert.
like most: como
la mayoría (de los); filled with: repleto de; appetizers:
aperitivos; main dish: plato principal; dessert: postre;
In other words, we will
take you from soup to nuts – or
from the beginning to the end. With many meals, soup comes first and nuts come
last. So, if you do something from soup
to nuts you do everything from the beginning to the end.
we will take you:
te llevaremos; from soup to nuts: desde la sopa hasta hasta las nueces
(es decir, mucha comida y variedad
de comestibles. Ejemplo: His shopping cart was full. He had everything from soup to
nuts: Su carrito de compras estaba lleno. Tenía de todo, desde sopa hasta
nueces);
APPETIZER
An appetizer is the first
part of a meal. Our first appetizer today is
alphabet soup. When you have a
collection of letters of the alphabet that stand for several words, we can call
it an alphabet soup. These can be
the letters that show a job, such as COO or Chief Operating Officer. They could
be letters that show someone’s education, like an MBA for a Master of Business
Administration and a Ph.D. for a Doctor of Philosophy.
alphabet soup: sopa de letras.
Ejemplo: UNESCO's international activity has a daunting array of jargon and
initialese aptly denominated as 'alphabet soup':
La actividad internacional de la UNESCO tiene una abrumadora variedad de jerga e
iniciales acertadamente denominadas como 'sopa de letras'; that stand for
several words: que representan varias palabras;
Let’s say someone hands
you their business card. After their name are the
letters MBA, Ph.D., and COO. You can say, “Wow, that is quite the
alphabet soup after your name.
But what is it you do exactly?”
let's say:
supongamos (que); hands you their business card: te entrega su tarjeta de
negocios;
SALAD
Now, let’s move on to the
next appetizer: salad. A salad
usually has some kind of vegetables mixed with cheese, egg, meat, nuts, or,
sometimes, fruit. Well, when we have a mixture of words or phrases that are
difficult to understand, we can call it a
word salad.
let's move on to the
next: ahora vayamos al siguiente; mixed with: mezclados con; word salad: mezcla de palabras y frases
(típica de los políticos a quienes poco se les entiende);
Word experts say that in
the past, word salad described
difficult-to-understand spoken language from people with illnesses. However, in
recent years, the expression word salad
has come to simply mean difficult-to-understand language.
difficult-to-understand
spoken language: lenguaje hablado de difícil comprensión;
MAIN DISH
Now, let’s move on to the
main dish – in this case, a sandwich. You can make a sandwich from anything –
meat, cheese, vegetables, tofu, fish, shrimp, or chicken. Just put them between
two pieces of bread and you have a sandwich.
you can make ...
from anything: puedes hacer ... a partir de cualquier cosa;
You can even make a sandwich from … criticism! A criticism sandwich is a way to soften the delivery of bad news. You put the criticism between two nice things – such as praise or approval. Here is an example:
criticism sandwich: comentario crítico (generalmente destructivo) en el cual se combinan dos comentarios positivos con uno destructivo en el medio; to soften: para suavizar; praise or approval: elogio o aprobación;
So, your performance in last week’s sales meeting was great! Thanks for your help. But I’ll need you to clean up the report. I saw a few things wrong with the numbers. But yeah, the client really loved your presentation!
performance: desempeño; to clean up the report: que pulas, organices mejor el informe;
That could also be called a feedback sandwich. But it is made the same way!
feedback sandwich: retroalimentación o emparedado de opiniones;
DESSERT
If you love sweets, you will love dessert. Now, I could use easy as pie or a piece of cake as examples. Both describe something very easy to do or finish. But I am going to use my favorite dessert – cookies!
easy as pie: muy fácil de hacer. Ejemplo: That math problem is easy as pie. I'll show you how to do it: Ese problema matemático es facilísimo. Te mostraré cómo hacerlo; piece of cake: facilísimo, sencillo de hacer o preparar;
Some cookies are formed by hand and their shapes can be very different from one another. However, some people use a device called a cookie cutter when making cookies. With a cookie cutter, every cookie is the same shape with little difference.
shapes: formas; very different from one another: muy diferentes unas de las otras; however: sin embargox; cookie cutter: molde cortador de galletas; is the same shape: tiene forma uniforme, tiene la misma forma;
And that gives us the expression cookie-cutter. It describes something similar to many other things. There is nothing special, extraordinary, or different about things that are cookie-cutter.
cookie-cutter: diseños cortados todos "por la misma tijera";
For example, houses in my neighborhood were made by the same builder. They are all the same size and shape. In other words, the houses in my neighborhood are cookie-cutter houses.
neighborhood: barrio; cookie-cutter houses: casas de producción masiva y todas con la misma apariencia, sin diseño personalizado;
Thanks for joining me for this lunchtime version of Words and Their Stories. Until next time … I’m Anna Matteo.
thanks for joining me: gracias por acompañarme; lunchtime version: versión para la hora del almuerzo; until next time: hasta la próxima oportunidad.
