习语可以是一个词或短语，要理解习语的意思不能脱离其文化背景。习语一词的含义甚广，其蕴含的意义往往不能从词或词组的字面意思推测而得。习语在所有语言中都很常见。英语习语是日常英语的重要组成部分。在英语的书面语和口语中，存在海量的习语。
儒琴今日习语（Idiom of the Day）
英国各大媒体的头条都被安德鲁王子（Prince Andrew）占据。 当年爱泼斯坦 （Epstein ）的少女性奴弗吉尼亚·罗伯茨（Virginia Roberts）指控安德鲁王子曾与其发生关系，就一直是全球媒体关注的热点，这位英国王室第八顺位继承人备受批评。
上周六晚上，安德鲁王子接受了英国广播公司（BBC）记者艾米莉·迈特利斯（Emily Maitlis）的一次的采访，讲述了他与被定罪的性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）的关系。 在采访中，他从时间上否认弗吉尼亚对自己的指控。
从目前媒体评论看， 安德鲁王子这次接受了英国广播公司（BBC）采访是一次很失败很糟糕的危机公关。
政治家们将把安德鲁王子这次电视采访作为如何学会“守口如瓶的艺术”的最好实例。沉默是金，有时越想证明自己麻烦越多。
我特地留意各大媒体在报道德鲁王子事件中使用的英语习语。
Throw a fire blanket or wet blanket on
To make something be or seem less enjoyable, successful, or important.
使某物变得或看起来不那么令人愉快、成功或重要; 给….泼冷水; 让…太扫兴了; 使…相形见绌
In that respect, the prince has thrown a fire blanket on both Brexit and the election campaign. And, it seems, the public are entirely happy to be distracted from the nation’s Brexit fatigue.
car-crash
mainly UK informal
something that fails completely or goes extremely badly
彻底失败，及其糟糕
The art of holding your tongue. Political advisers will use Prince Andrew’s car-crash TV interview as a prime example of when it’s best to say nothing.
let sleeping dogs lie
leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past.
直译：别惊动睡着的狗。 引申：过去的事就让它过去吧；不要再去揭伤疤; 别自讨苦吃； 莫惹是非； 别打草惊蛇
In turning on its head the classic American advice about not winning if you don’t play, she neatly sums up that sometimes the best course of action is to go against human nature and popular wisdom and do nothing. Let sleeping dogs lie.
hornet’s nest
a very difficult or troublesome situation, especially in which a lot of people get very angry and complain
直译：马蜂窝；引申： （尤指引起公愤的）麻烦，困境
Prince Andrew may have sounded reasonable in his own mind as he thought about his powers of persuasion, but in reality all he did was kick the hornets’ nest — repeatedly.
head in your hands
to cover your face with your hands because you are very upset
你很难过，用手捂住你的脸；非常不安
My head would be in my hands watching politicians think they could talk their way out of any situation they had acted themselves into. At one stage the Treasury team was desperate to subject the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, to a 20-minute grilling after the U.K. had lost its treasured “Triple A” credit rating.
worth your salt
good at your job; someone or something deserves respect and is worth its cost or has value.
称职的；胜任的
Any PR adviser worth their salt would have drilled into him: “Don’t do this, but if you must — tell people your experience is nothing compared to the horrors underage girls went through because of the monster that was Jeffrey Epstein.”
not put a foot wrong
to not make any mistakes; If you don’t put a foot wrong, you do not make any mistakes.
不犯任何错误
Maitlis and her team landed the interview after a year of negotiation. She didn’t put a foot wrong, never grandstanding or making the interview about her as other more ego-driven presenters might have done, instead choosing to set out the facts in a manner that was beautifully understated.
cut sb some slack
allow someone to do something without criticizing them or making it more difficult
允许某人做某事而不批评他们或使之更难; 给…方便；对…网开一面
He failed to realize that people have an almost infinite capacity for self-deception and cut themselves slack that they wouldn’t extend to others in exactly the same situation. In reality, the best advice Prince Andrew could have received, given the facts as he told them, was that if he played, he would lose — and badly.
on a (silver) platter
The expression “on a silver platter” implies that something is won or gained with certainty and without strong competition, conditions, requirements or effort.
直译：银盘上的。该词意味着某物的赢得或获得是有把握的，轻而易取， 拱手相让的
But the worst problem was that he failed to express any empathy for Epstein’s victims. Maitlis virtually served the opportunity up to him on an (appropriate) silver platter at the end, when she asked: “Is there anything you feel you’d like to say that you haven’t?”
blow sth/sb out of the water
to destroy or defeat something or someone completely; totally defeat or ruin someone or something.
（以压倒性优势）战胜…；击垮…; 彻底地打败或毁灭某人或某事
Prince Andrew’s decision to open up to the cameras this week blew that argument out of the water. He denied specific allegations that he slept with any women trafficked by Epstein. It is important to point out that the age of sexual consent in Britain is 16, whereas even if Andrew had slept with Roberts during Epstein’s trip to London, as she claims and he denies, she would have been 17.
fly on the wall verb phrase 暗中观察
fly-on-the wall adjective （电视节目）纪实的
A fly-on-the-wall television programme is one in which the people involved behave normally, as if they are not being filmed.
“ fly-on-the wall ”电视节目是指有关人员表现自然，好像他们没有在被拍摄；纪实记录片
The fourth episode of the season details a real occasion in the late 1960s when Prince Philip decided to expose the Royal Family to TV cameras, in the hope that a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the royal family might humanize them in the eyes of their British subjects. It was a disaster: the royal family came across as stuffy and over-formal
