[ti:A Chip on Your Shoulder]
[ar:Warren Scheer]
[al:Words and Their Stories]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00](MUSIC)
[00:09.72]Now, the VOA
[00:12.32]Special English program,
[00:14.31]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
[00:17.30]Every week at this time
[00:21.67]we tell the story of words
[00:24.42]and expressions used
[00:26.51]in American English.
[00:28.68]Some of them are old.
[00:30.72]Some are new.
[00:33.58]Together, they form
[00:35.82]the living speech
[00:36.91]of the American people.
[00:38.55]Some popular expressions
[00:41.76]are a mystery.
[00:43.16]No one is sure
[00:44.77]how they developed.
[00:46.71]One of these
[00:48.35]is the expression,
[00:49.66]carry a chip
[00:51.46]on your shoulder.
[00:52.66]A person with a chip
[00:55.25]on his shoulder
[00:56.15]is a problem for anybody
[00:57.95]who must deal with him.
[00:59.55]He seems to be
[01:02.05]expecting trouble.
[01:03.25]Sometimes he seems
[01:05.79]to be saying,
[01:06.78]"I'm not happy
[01:08.48]about anything,
[01:09.52]but what are you going
[01:11.53]to do about it?"
[01:13.08]A chip is a small piece
[01:16.62]of something,
[01:17.53]like a chip of wood.
[01:18.98]How did this chip
[01:21.76]get on a person's shoulder?
[01:23.91]Well, experts say
[01:26.41]the expression appears
[01:28.50]to have been first used
[01:30.34]in the United States
[01:31.36]more than one hundred years ago.
[01:33.71]One writer believes that
[01:37.65]the expression might have
[01:39.37]come from an old saying.
[01:41.51]The saying warns against
[01:43.75]striking too high,
[01:45.65]or a chip might fall
[01:48.42]into your eye.
[01:49.72]That could be good advice.
[01:52.18]If you strike high
[01:54.92]up on a tree with an axe,
[01:56.69]the chip of wood that
[01:58.58]is cut off will fall
[01:59.96]into your eye.
[02:01.06]The saying becomes a warning
[02:04.16]about the dangers of
[02:06.05]attacking people
[02:07.13]who are in more
[02:08.77]important positions than you are.
[02:11.31]Later, in the United States,
[02:15.59]some people would
[02:17.59]put a real chip
[02:18.58]on their shoulder as a test.
[02:20.25]They wanted to start a fight.
[02:22.88]They would wait for someone
[02:25.46]to be brave enough
[02:26.79]to try to hit it off.
[02:28.84]The word chip appears
[02:32.18]in a number of special
[02:33.74]American expressions.
[02:35.39]Another is chip
[02:37.74]off the old block.
[02:39.24]This means that
[02:41.73]a child is exactly
[02:42.88]like a parent.
[02:44.34]This expression goes back
[02:46.85]at least to the early
[02:48.32]sixteen hundreds.
[02:49.78]The British writer of plays,
[02:52.86]George Colman,
[02:54.42]wrote these lines
[02:55.91]in seventeen sixty-two.
[02:58.21]"You'll find him
[03:00.55]his father's own son,
[03:01.80]I believe.
[03:02.67]A chip off the old block,
[03:04.59]I promise you!"
[03:05.63]The word chip can also
[03:09.02]be used in a threatening way
[03:10.81]to someone who
[03:11.95]is suspected of wrongdoing.
[03:13.32]An investigator may say,
[03:16.25]"We're going to
[03:17.90]let the chips fall
[03:19.09]where they may."
[03:20.25]This means the investigation
[03:23.61]is going to be
[03:24.61]complete and honest.
[03:26.36]It is also a warning that
[03:29.59]no one will be protected
[03:31.28]from being found guilty.
[03:33.68]Chips are often used
[03:37.31]in card games.
[03:38.68]They represent money.
[03:40.72]A poker player may,
[03:43.46]at any time, decide
[03:45.30]to leave the game.
[03:46.93]He will turn in his chips
[03:49.48]in exchange for money or cash.
[03:51.78]This lead to another meaning.
[03:55.42]A person who finished
[03:58.15]or died was said
[04:00.44]to have cashed in his chips.
[04:02.95]Which is a way of saying
[04:05.20]it is time for me
[04:06.49]to finish this program.
[04:08.79](MUSIC)
[04:26.15]You have been listening to
[04:30.28]the VOA Special English program,
[04:33.12]Words and Their Stories.
[04:35.56]I'm Warren Scheer.
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." HoMEJULIA¾©Ïã2018ÏÂÔØ
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