节目简介

如果有一件事特别烦人，让你不得不努力克制情绪、保持耐心，那么它就在 “trying your patience”。英语表达 “try one's patience” 非常实用，其中 “try” 的意思不是 “尝试”，而是 “test（考验，检验）”。所以，“try one's patience” 的意思就是 “考验某人的耐心”。听节目，跟主持人菲菲和 Phil 一起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.

Phil
And I'm Phil.

Feifei
I saw you struggling with the printer earlier, are you OK?

Phil
I hate those machines!

Feifei
You seemed quite annoyed.

Phil
I can't stand it – paper jammed, open this bit, close this bit, put something in here, take something out of here. No ink. They really try my patience.

Feifei
I mean you should try patience. You need to calm down a bit.

Phil
Oh, no, I said "try my patience". In this expression, 'try' has a similar meaning to 'test'. If something tries your patience, it means you get to see how patient, or impatient, you really are.

Feifei
Don't worry, I was just joking with you. Yes, 'try one's patience' is a great expression to talk about things that annoy you. If something tries your patience, then it's something annoying. You get to see how much you can tolerate before you lose your patience – which didn't seem to be very long when you were using that printer.

Phil
Yes, you might be right there. It's an expression that can be used about anything that makes you annoyed, whether that's bad traffic, annoying colleagues or terrible customer service. All of these things can try your patience.

Feifei
Let's hear some more people using the expression 'try one's patience'.

Examples
Excuse me, can you sit down? Sit down! You're really trying my patience.

My computer just keeps crashing. It's really trying my patience now.

"Unknown item in bagging area." Aargh, these self-checkouts really try my patience.

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 “try one's patience” 的用法。动词 “try” 在这个表达中的意思是 “test”，也就是 “考验，检验”，所以 “try one's patience” 指的就是 “考验、挑战某人的耐心”。

比如，当一件事情给我带来不便、困扰，甚至痛苦，需要我拿出十足的耐心和冷静来应对，甚至让我快要失去耐心、大发脾气的时候，我就可以说： “It's trying my patience.”。

Phil
This expression often gets used in the negative, almost as a warning. 'Don't try my patience – you are going to need my help'. We can also use 'Don't try your luck' or 'Don't push your luck' in a similar way.

Feifei
是的。我们还可以用 “don't try my patience” 来警告别人 “别考验我的耐心，别故意惹我”。和这个用法类似的表达还有 “don't try your luck” 和 “don't push your luck”。

Phil
We're at the end of programme but do come back next time. We can help you improve your English without trying your patience.

Feifei
See you next time!

Phil
Bye!