搜索历史
热门搜索
电影
00:00/00:00
下载地址
https://www.xzmp3.com/down/d74ee12be61d.mp3
点击复制
I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program Words and Their Stories
(MUSIC)
The Italians have an old saying Il dolce far niente The words mean it is sweet or
On weekends and during holidays many of us enjoy doing nothing But most of the time we
enjoyable to do nothing
have to work And to keep our jobs we must work hard Our employer will not like it if we do
nothing
American workers often call their employers bosses The word boss comes from the Dutch
word baas meaning master
Sometimes company bosses are called the brass They also are sometimes called top brass
or brass hats
Experts disagree about how these strange expressions started But they may have come from
Britain Leaders of the nineteenth century British army wore pieces of metal called oak leaves
on their hats The metal brass has a color similar to that of gold So a leader or commander
came to be called a member of the brass Or he might have been called a brass hat Or
even the top brass
By the nineteen forties the expression had spread beyond military leaders It also included
civilian officials
A newspaper in the American city of Philadelphia used the term in nineteen forty-nine It called
the most important police officials top brass
Other expressions that mean boss or employer have nothing to do with brass or hats One of
these is big cheese A cheese is a solid food made from milk
The expression probably started in America in the late nineteenth century Some experts
believe it comes from a word in the Uersian or urdu languages -- chiz The meaning is a thing
So the meaning of big cheese may be a big thing
Other experts say the word cheese in this expression was really an incorrect way of saying
chief The word chief means leader So the expression may mean big leader
An employer usually does not object to being called boss But most workers would not call their
employers big cheeses top brass or brass hats to their faces
These words are not really insulting But neither do they show great respect
Employers also have expressions to describe their workers One of them that describes a good
worker is that he or she works like a Trojan
This expression probably comes from the ancient writings of the Greek poet Homer He wrote
about the Trojans who lived in the city of Troy He said Trojans worked very hard to protect
their city
Now the expression often is used to describe an employee who works hard for a company A
loyal hard-working employee is said to work like a Trojan
So be happy if your company's brass hats say you work like a Trojan They may consider you
valuable enough to increase your pay
(MUSIC)
This Special English program Words and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson I'm Susan
Clark
热门歌手
Come On (DJ版)其它版本下载
Javi Mula热门歌曲下载
其他人正在下载的歌