Cherry-pick

跳到来源网页

2019-07-15

Summary

Rob’s not feeling great and only wants to read a few lines of today’s script to save his voice. Feifei describes his actions with a fruity phrase that means he only wants to pick the best lines to read. Find out more about this phrase in The English We Speak.

Transcript  

Feifei
Hello, this The English We Speak. I’m Feifei… 

Rob
…and hello, I’m Rob.

Feifei
Why have you brought a bowl of fruit into the studio?

Rob
I’m not feeling great – and you know fruit is packed with vitamin C, so I though eating some would do me good.

Feifei
Hmm I see. Well, I’m sorry you’re not feeling great, but we have got a programme to do and an English phrase to teach.

Rob
If you don’t mind, I might just read a few lines from the script today – to save my voice. Perhaps I could just read the funny lines? 

Feifei
No Rob! You can’t just cherry-pick what you want to say. 

Rob
Cherry-pick? No Feifei, there aren’t any cherries in my fruit bowl- so I won’t be picking any. 

Feifei
I wasn’t referring to your fruit. When you cherry-pick something, it means you choose only what’s best or most desirable out of a group of things or a group of people. But Rob, you’re not going to do that, are you? 

Rob
Errr… shall we hear some examples of other cherry pickers? 

Examples
Josh says he cherry-picked the players for his football team based on their skills – but I know it’s because they were his friends! 

We need to cherry-pick the best food for our new restaurant – we really want to impress our customers. 

It seems unfair that our school has cherry-picked the best students to attend the conference – we should all have a chance to go. 

Feifei
You’re listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English and we’re talking about the phrase ‘to cherry-pick’, which means 'to choose the best or most desirable things from a group'. And Rob wants to cherry-pick only the best lines to read from this script. It’s a bit unfair, Rob… 

Rob
I was just trying to save my voice but I will do my best. Would you like a piece of fruit from the bowl, Feifei? 

Feifei
Oh, OK then. Err, that banana is a bit mouldy… that orange is a bit yellow…I’ll have this apple, please. 

Rob
Hmm, looks like you’re cherry-picking the best piece of fruit. Right, well, now that you’ve got my delicious apple, do you mind if I go now – I’m really not feeling great. 

Feifei
Oh go on, Rob. But next time I’m going to cherry-pick who I present with – someone who wants a bite of the cherry to work with me. 'A bite of the cherry' means 'a chance or opportunity'. I need someone with a bit more… stamina. See ya. 

Rob
Bye.