[ti:Are You Prepared 'to See How the Sausage Is Made'?]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:07.56]And now, Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English.
[00:14.40]Today we talk about a kind of food -- sausage.
[00:25.16]Sausage can be made from any kind of meat,
[00:29.40]along with spices, herbs, sometimes vegetables, and even fruit.
[00:36.96]My favorite sausage is made from chicken, apple, and the herb sage.
[00:45.64]To make sausage, the ingredients are mixed together
[00:50.40]and then shaped into individual servings.
[00:55.80]High-quality sausage uses high-quality ingredients and costlier cuts of meat.
[01:04.72]Some sausages are made from parts of the animal
[01:08.92]that many people may not normally eat.
[01:14.28]But everything gets mixed up so much
[01:17.96]that you do not really know what is in the final product.
[01:23.68]For this reason, seeing the sausage-making process
[01:28.32]might be a bit unpleasant for some people.
[01:32.96]In other words, some people who like to eat sausage
[01:37.24]may not want to know how it is made.
[01:41.84]If they see all the separate ingredients, they may never eat sausage again.
[01:49.68]And that is where we get the expression to see how the sausage is made.
[01:56.72]If you want to see how the sausage is made,
[02:00.32]you want to see a complex or messy process.
[02:05.72]You want to know the secrets, even if they are not very pleasing.
[02:12.88]We use this expression for any situation or process
[02:17.68]that happens away from the view of others.
[02:22.64]And most people would find that situation or process unpleasant.
[02:30.28]For example, many people like to buy clothing
[02:34.16]that does not cost much money.
[02:37.64]But they may not want to know how the clothes are made so cheaply.
[02:43.88]They would rather not want to know how the sausage gets made.
[02:50.20]There are other similar expressions.
[02:53.56]You can also say we want to shine a light on something.
[02:59.84]This expression means you want to reveal
[03:03.40]or expose something unpleasant or possibly even illegal.
[03:10.76]Another similar expression is to pull back the curtain on something.
[03:17.52]This one really explains the behind-the-scenes nature of all these expressions.
[03:25.60]A curtain is a piece of cloth or fabric that covers a window.
[03:32.32]It can hide what is happening inside a room.
[03:37.80]So, if you pull back the curtain on a process or way of doing something,
[03:44.12]you reveal how something is created
[03:47.84]or how it operates in private.
[03:52.84]And if you pull back the curtain on a person,
[03:56.16]you reveal how they act when they are away from public view.
[04:03.12]You reveal their true personality or you expose their true intent.
[04:11.96]And that's all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories.
[04:16.16]Enjoy using these expressions
[04:19.04]the next time you want to show the unpleasant side of something.
[04:24.48]Until next time ... I'm Anna Matteo. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM