VOA慢速英語:We Put Things in "Apple Pie Order"

Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories.

這里是美國之音慢速英語詞匯掌故節(jié)目。

Today we tell about the expression "apple pie order." It means "in perfect order, very well organized."

今天我們講短語apple pie order，意思是井然有序，組織合理。

Nobody is sure where and when the expression "apple pie order" began. Some say that Scottish and English writers used the expression a long time ago. Others say it first was used in the northeastern American states known as New England.

沒有人確切知道“apple pie order”這個短語起源于何時何地。有人說蘇格蘭和英格蘭的作家很久以前就使用這個短語了。還有人說，美國東北部的新英格蘭州最早開始使用這個短語。

The housewives of New England cut their apples in even slices. Then they filled pie pans with them in an organized way, row upon row. As one writer said, the women of New England loved to have everything in its place. This perhaps explains why it generally is believed that the expression "apple pie order" began in New England.

新英格蘭州的家庭主婦把蘋果切成均勻的片，然后整齊的，一層一層的擺滿平底鍋。正如一位作家所說，新英格蘭州的婦女喜歡將一切事情弄得井然有序。也許這可以解釋為什么人們認(rèn)為apple pie order這個短語起源于新英格蘭州。

Another old expression describes the opposite condition -- wild disorder. That expression is apple of discord. It comes from ancient mythology.

另一句老話描述了一種相反的，極度混亂的狀況。這個短語就是apple of discord(禍源，禍根)，起源于遠(yuǎn)古神話。

The myth says that all the gods and goddesses were sitting around the table to celebrate the marriage of Thetis and Peleus. One of the goddesses -- Discord -- was a troublemaker. She threw a golden apple on the table to be given as a prize to the most beautiful goddess.

神話中講到男女眾神圍坐在桌旁慶賀忒提斯(Thetis，海洋女神)和珀琉斯(Peleus，特洛伊戰(zhàn)爭中希臘聯(lián)軍主將阿喀琉斯之父)的婚禮，其中一個女神--爭吵女神(Discord)是個愛惹麻煩的人。她將一個金蘋果扔到桌子上，作為對最美女神的獎勵。

It was not an easy decision to make. How could they choose among Juno, Minerva and Venus. Paris was given the task of deciding. He decided to give the golden apple to Venus. Juno and Minerva were very angry and threatened him. This, the myth says, began the long Trojan war.

要做出這個決定可不容易，他們將在朱諾(Juno，主神朱庇特的妻子，萬神之母，希臘神話中稱為赫拉，朱諾是羅馬神話中對應(yīng)的名字，以下同), 米諾瓦(Minerva，智慧女神，希臘神話中稱為雅典娜) 和維納斯(Venus，愛神，希臘神話中稱為阿芙羅狄忒)中做出怎樣的選擇呢。這個任務(wù)交給了帕里斯(Paris，特洛伊王子)，他決定將金蘋果授予維納斯，朱諾和米諾瓦都很生氣，并威脅他。此事，引發(fā)了漫長的特洛伊之戰(zhàn)。

At one time, the tomato was called a love apple. That was a mistake. This is how the mistake happened:

西紅柿曾經(jīng)被稱作愛情蘋果，那是個美麗的誤會，事情是這樣的:

In the sixteenth century, Spain imported the tomato from South America after Spanish explorers had landed there. Spain then exported the tomato to Morocco. Italian traders carried it on to Italy. The Italian name for the tomato was "pomo di Moro" -- apple of the Moors.

16世紀(jì)，西班牙探險家到達(dá)南美后，從那引進(jìn)了西紅柿，然后將其出口到摩洛哥。意大利商人把它運(yùn)到意大利。西紅柿的意大利名是pomo di Moro——摩爾人的蘋果。

When French growers imported it from Italy, they thought "di Moro" meant "d'amour" -- the French word for love. And so "pomo di Moro" became the apple of love.

法國種植者從意大利引進(jìn)西紅柿?xí)r，他們認(rèn)為意大利語中的di Moro就是法語中的愛情(d'amour)一詞，因此pomo di Moro就成了愛情蘋果。

People believe many things about the apple. One belief is that it has great powers of keeping people healthy. A very common expression is "an apple a day keeps the doctor away."

人們認(rèn)同很多關(guān)于蘋果的事情，有一個信條就是蘋果擁有保持身體健康的巨大能量。一個常用短語An apple a day keeps the doctor away(一日一蘋果，醫(yī)生遠(yuǎn)離我)。

Another belief is based on fact. The expression is "one rotten apple spoils the barrel." When an apple begins to go bad, it ruins all the other apples around it in the container. The expression has come to mean that one bad person in a group can cause everyone to act bad.

另外一個信條則是基于事實(shí)基礎(chǔ)。One rotten apple spoils the barrel(一個爛蘋果，爛一筐蘋果)，當(dāng)一個蘋果開始腐爛，它也會毀掉同一容器中周圍的其它蘋果。這個短語的引申表達(dá)意思是團(tuán)隊(duì)里一個差勁的人會使每個人的表現(xiàn)都很差。