【Language Snacks】第三期:Play it by ear,英国大使馆文化教育处微信公众号文章

双周Language Snacks 音频小栏目，让你的口语摆脱课本和程式化的僵硬和无趣，更接地气更加原汁原味。

本期我们看Play it by ear

是说用耳朵来玩儿？？？玩儿耳朵吗？反正应该是和耳朵有关的吧。。。

我们为大家准备了纯正英音音频，听之前先看对话猜猜意思哦！

A和B今晚要和Dave还有Jenny见面，约好了晚上七点见面。

A: Where are we meeting Dave and Jenny tonight?
B: In the pub, at around 7 o'clock.

A问B要吃什么，B说如果酒吧的食物不错就在酒吧吃，否则的话我们可以稍晚些去那家新开的意大利餐厅。反正都行！

A: Ah, okay. Where are we going to have dinner?
B: Let's decide later. If the pub has a good menu, we can eat there. Or if not, we can all go to that new Italian restaurant later. I don't mind.

A接着说，那我们就play it by ear吧！
A: Okay, we'll just play it by ear then.

好了，看上去不仅不是“用耳朵来玩儿”，也不像“玩儿耳朵”。

现在，认真听音频吧！　

此处为释义

The expression play it by ear was first used by musicians. It meant to play an instrument without looking at the written music notation. In fact, the word 'ear' has been used to mean 'musical talent' for nearly 500 years, and people still say that a good singer 'has a good ear'. The idiom play it by ear has a much more general use in modern English though, and means improvise, or decide what to do as things happen and not plan them.

英语里用”ear”来代指具有音乐才能的人，这种说法已经有500多年的历史了，因此”ear”通常都与音乐有关。”play it by ear”原指音乐家不用看乐谱就弹奏出乐曲来，现代英语里用这个说法来形容做事没有计划、随机应变。

举例来说，《老友记》里的Monica就绝对不是play it by ear的类型哦！　

Mm, I like things to be well planned, just like Monica in Friends. I don’t really like playing it by ear.