内容简介

人总会有把事情搞砸的时候。如果是朋友之间，我们可能会俏皮地说 “哎呀，我把事情弄砸了！” 本期节目中，主持人菲菲和 Georgie 就来分享一个可以用来描述 “把某事弄得一团糟，做得很失败” 的表达 “make a pig's ear of something”。听节目，学习这个表达的用法。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Feifei
Hello and welcome to Authentic Real English, where we explain expressions used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them too! I'm Feifei, and I'm joined by Georgie. And that is an interesting hairstyle Georgie…

Georgie
Oh Feifei, I was really bored of my usual hairstyle, so I tried something different today, but it was a really difficult hairstyle to do, and I ended up making a real pig's ear of it.

Feifei
Oh well. You could try again tomorrow. So why would you mention a pig's ear when you're talking about a bad hairstyle? Well, that's what we're going to learn in this programme. What does it mean to make a pig's ear of something?

Georgie
Well, if you make a pig's ear of something, you do something badly – you've messed it up. So, I tried really hard to give myself a cool hairstyle, but I made a pig's ear of it – my hair is a mess!

Feifei
This is an informal, light-hearted idiom that you'll most likely hear in British English. It can be used in a variety of contexts, can't it?

Georgie
Yes, it can. Feifei, when was the last time you saw someone make a pig's ear of something?

Feifei
Well, the other day I saw someone trying to park their car in a tiny space and they tried to come in and out, forwards and backwards about five times. And in the end, they just parked diagonally.

Georgie
Wow. Sounds like they made a pig's ear of that! OK, let's hear some more examples.

Examples
I had to do a presentation at work the other day, but I messed up my words and made a right pig's ear of it.

So, I made my friend a birthday cake last week, but I made a bit of a pig's ear of it because I forgot to put the eggs in. Whoops!

Look at those shelves – not one of them's straight. I've made a right pig's ear of them, haven't I?

Feifei
你正在收听的是 BBC 英语教学的 “地道英语” 节目。刚刚我们一起学习了表达 “make a pig's ear of something” 的用法。“Make a pig's ear of something” 这个表达听上去十分滑稽，它被用来比喻 “把某事弄得一团糟，做得很失败，完全搞砸了”。

Georgie
Now, there are some ways you can modify this idiom to add emphasis. You can add the word 'real' and say, "You made a real pig's ear of that".

Feifei
是的，在使用中，我们可以在 “pig's ear” 前加上表示程度的副词 “right” 或者 “real” 来加强语气。比如，“make a real pig's ear of it” 或者 “make a right pig's ear of it”，从而来强调 “把某事彻底搞砸了，完全失败了”。

Georgie
OK. Let's recap. We learnt 'make a pig's ear of something', which means to do something badly and totally mess it up.

Feifei
Thanks for joining us. Bye!

Georgie
Goodbye!