节目简介

在赛跑中，运动员往往希望贴着跑道内侧过弯以缩短路程。英语表达 “cut corners” 的字面意思和这种 “抄近道” 的做法十分相似，但它其实比喻的是人们在工作中 “为了节省时间、金钱或精力而偷工减料、投机取巧” 的行为。听节目，跟主持人菲菲和 Georgie 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 phrases and expressions used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them too! I'm Feifei, and I'm joined by Georgie. How are you?

Georgie
I'm very well, thank you, Feifei. How are you?

Feifei
Well, I'm a bit annoyed. I had some decorators paint the living room, but there are bits missing and they've not done a great job tidying up either. They really cut corners.

Georgie
Oh, that is so annoying. But Feifei, you've just used an interesting phrase – cut corners. So why don't we learn that in this programme?

Feifei
Let's do it, Georgie. Well I think it would be useful to first think about this phrase literally, don't you think?

Georgie
Yes, I agree. So, let's imagine an athletics track – it's oval-shaped with multiple lanes. Now, if you're running in the outside lane, you run a longer distance, don't you? 

Feifei
That's right. So, after the start of a race, runners usually want to cross to one of the inner lanes so that they can run the shorter distance and make it easier – they take a shortcut – and the best place to do that is in the corner of the running track.

Georgie
Exactly. So the runners are cutting corners to make things easier. So that's the literal use, what about metaphorical?

Feifei
Well, it's similar. If you cut corners when doing a task, you take a metaphorical shortcut – you do it in an easier, quicker or cheaper way. But often, this means that the result is not as good, like what happened with my decorators.

Georgie
Yes, cutting corners has quite negative connotations, like you're not doing something properly. Let's hear some more examples.

Examples
The client we're hosting this reception for is really important to us, so we can't cut corners on this. It has to be perfect.

You can't cut corners with health and safety. You need to do things properly or someone could get hurt.

I was under a lot of time pressure for this project, so I had to cut a few corners. I hope that's OK.

Feifei
你正在收听的是 BBC 英语教学制作的 “地道英语” 节目。在本期节目中，我们正在学习表达 “cut corners” 的用法。这个表达中的名词 “corner” 的意思是 “拐角”。我们在走路的时候，比起走直角，沿着两点之间最短的距离走更加省时。所以，“cut corners” 其实是在用 “不走直角、抄近道” 来比喻 “为了节省时间、金钱或精力等等而偷工减料，省略必要的步骤从而快速地完成一件事”。

So, cutting corners is about taking the easy, quick or cheap route, which means that sometimes the job is not done properly. Georgie, are there any phrases which mean the opposite?

Georgie
There are. So instead of cutting corners, you can 'go the extra mile' or 'go above and beyond'. Both of these mean more than just doing things properly, they mean you do more than what's expected of you.

Feifei
和 “cut corners” 意思相反的表达有 “go the extra mile” 和 “go above and beyond”，这两个表达都可以用来表示 “投入比所需更多的精力，加倍认真地完成一件事”。

Well, we hope our listeners feel that we go above and beyond with our English language teaching.

Georgie
Let's recap. We learnt 'cut corners', which means you choose the easiest, quickest or cheapest way of doing something, which sometimes means you don't do it properly.

Feifei
Join us again next time. Goodbye!

Georgie
Bye!