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[00:00.04]Hello and welcome to the VOA Learning English program
[00:12.44]Words and Their Stories.
[00:14.44]Every language has common words
[00:17.60]that are used in uncommon ways.
[00:20.64]Today we focus on the word "bridge."
[00:24.76]A bridge is a structure
[00:27.12]that provides passage over something --
[00:29.92]such as a river, train tracks,
[00:32.84]a highway or a deep, wide opening in the ground.
[00:37.12]The word "bridge" can also be used
[00:39.80]to join things you can't touch,
[00:42.08]such as cultures or activities.
[00:45.54]For example, you could say music and art can bridge cultures.
[00:51.72]And language can be a bridge between two people.
[00:56.76] But let's get back to the bridges
[00:59.12]you can actually cross – or drive a tank over.
[01:05.12]Bridges often play an important role in warfare.
[01:09.35]An army that attacks across a river
[01:12.56]may decide to burn the bridge after crossing it.
[01:16.72]By burning the bridge,
[01:18.60]the army prevents its enemy from using it.
[01:22.44]However, the army also destroys its own chance to go back across the river.
[01:29.64]Burning a bridge leaves the army open to attack.
[01:34.20]The expression "burning your bridges"
[01:36.68]means to act in a way that destroys any chance of returning to the way things were.
[01:43.40]When you burn your bridges, there is no going back.
[01:47.88]Let's put this expression in the workplace.
[01:51.40]You decide to take a new job.
[01:54.44]Now, you must tell your boss you are leaving your current job.
[01:59.64]During that conversation you tell him
[02:02.72]how much you hated your job,
[02:05.44]how much you hated working for him
[02:08.32]and how glad you are to finally leave.
[02:12.60]You have just burned your bridge.
[02:15.64]You have destroyed your relationship with that boss.
[02:19.76]If things do not work out with your new job,
[02:23.08]there is no way on earth your old boss will take you back.
[02:27.36]Ever. And you can also forget about any good recommendation.
[02:34.44]Burning your professional bridges can be foolish
[02:38.72]or it can be a bold career move.
[02:42.88]It is even bolder if you do it in a public manner.
[02:47.32]For example, in 2014 a woman named
[02:51.80]Charlo Greene was a reporter on a news television show in Anchorage, Alaska.
[02:58.04]One night she reported on a business called the Alaska Cannabis Club.
[03:04.04]"Cannabis" is another word for marijuana.
[03:07.76]Marijuana is currently illegal in most U.S. states.
[03:13.04]At the end of her report, Greene announced that she owned
[03:17.76]the Alaska Cannabis Club.
[03:20.20]She told the audience that she wanted to spend her time
[03:24.04]fighting for "freedom and fairness,
[03:26.80]which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska."
[03:31.76]Then she cursed, said she quit her job as a reporter and walked off camera.
[03:39.16]Charlo Greene completely burned her bridges
[03:42.64]with that news station and probably every news station.
[03:48.24]No traditional media organization
[03:51.64]would ever take her back or give her a good job recommendation.
[03:56.92]But Greene is okay with that.
[04:00.16]She said later in an interview that if she quit
[04:03.88]by politely giving two weeks' notice, nobody would know
[04:08.80]about the issue she really cares about.
[04:12.64]This brings us to another common expression using bridge:
[04:17.08]"I will cross that bridge when I come to it."
[04:21.08]This expression means to not worry about a future problem,
[04:25.68]but rather deal with it when it happens.
[04:29.32]When it came to dealing with the problem of quitting her job,
[04:34.28]Charlo Greene certainly crossed that bridge when she came to it.
[04:39.20]And then she burnt it to the ground.
[04:42.84]In fact, people now mix these two expressions in a joking way.
[04:48.64]They say, "I'll burn that bridge when I come to it."
[04:52.60]And that's Words and Their Stories.
[04:54.88]I'm Anna Matteo.
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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