White elephant 華而不實的東西

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(Finn and Feifei on a visit to the zoo)

Feifei: Hi. I'm Feifei and joining us here in the zoo to present Authentic Real English is Finn.

Finn: Hello.

Feifei: What's the matter, Finn? 怎么不高興呢？動物園這么多動物，多好看呀！

Finn: Yes, I love animals too. But I don't know what I'm going to do with that white elephant.

Feifei: 你不知道應該如果應對 a white elephant? 你是說遠處的那頭白象？

Finn: No. The one my uncle is giving me.

Feifei: 什么？你叔叔送你一頭象？

Finn: He is moving to South Africa and he's giving away some of his things.

Feifei: 如果我要搬到南非的話，估計我也會把帶不走的東西都送人。可是你真打算養一頭大象嗎 Finn?

Finn: That's the problem. I am not. Well, it is beautiful…

Feifei: 是呀，大象長得太好看了。

Finn: …and it is powerful…

Feifei: 非常健壯。

Finn: But it needs too much petrol!

Feifei: 汽油？給大象喝？

Finn: Yes. Old sports cars need a lot of petrol, you know.

Feifei: 就說嘛，嚇死我了。我以為你要給大象喝汽油。Finn 是說跑車很費油。

Finn: Yes, of course! It wasn't talking about an actual elephant.

Feifei: 你聽，大象也松了一口氣。

Finn: Yes, he did. In English, when you call something a 'white elephant', you mean it's large, costs a lot of money to keep and has no useful purpose.

Feifei: 我們用 'white elephant' 這個短語來描述貴而無用的，華而不實的東西。不過我知道你喜歡騎自行車，跑車對你來說用處不太大吧。

Finn: That's right. Let's listen to some examples of how to use this expression.

I've paid a lot of money for this posh designer dress that I never use. It is a white elephant!

The new airport is a white elephant! It's got four runways and it's equipped with the latest technology, but not many people visit this region.

Feifei: White elephant 還可以用來描述一樣看起來漂亮，但是在實際生活中浪費空間的東西。

Finn: That's right.

Feifei: 所以說呀，這些華而不實的玩意兒可遠遠比不上動物園里這些大象的人氣。

Finn: Feifei, shall we go and have a look?

Feifei: 好的，咱們去看看可愛的大象們 and these are certainly not white elephants! Bye.

Finn: Bye.

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（來源：BBC英語教學 編輯：Julie）