Oliver: 嗨，我是Oliver。

Helen: Today we’re looking at words and phrases that you might not find in your dictionary.

Oliver: 地道英語和大家一起學(xué)習(xí)現(xiàn)代英式英語中經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)的流行詞匯和實(shí)用表達(dá)。那Helen,今天給我們帶來的新詞是什么呢？

Helen: Today we are going to concentrate on the phrase – the big cheese.

Oliver: That's interesting, the big cheese. Cheese 是干酪, 就我自己來講，我非常不喜歡 cheese 的味道，更不在意大大塊的奶酪了。

Helen: Good to know that you are not a fan of cheese. I love it. Here the phrase 'big cheese' means something quite different. It actually refers to people in business.

Oliver: 是和生意人有關(guān)的？那究竟什么樣的人會(huì)被叫做大奶酪呢？

Helen: To be the big cheese of a company, you are at the very top of the company, you are very important and you have the power to make things happen in the company.

Oliver: I see, 就像董事級(jí)的人物，非常有權(quán)力的商場(chǎng)人物。

Helen: That's right, big bosses sometimes are called 'the big cheese'.

Oliver: 讓我們聽一個(gè)例子。

Insert

A: Please make sure you come early tomorrow.

B: Why?

A: Because JP is going to be here tomorrow.

B: Who is JP?

A: Oh, you know, John Parkins, he's the big cheese from head office.

Oliver: Helen, 用這個(gè)短語的時(shí)候有什么需要注意的地方嗎？

Helen: Well, it's an informal phrase. And best not to say it directly to your big boss.

Oliver: 這是個(gè)不太正式的用法，不要當(dāng)著你的老板的面用，也不要直接叫他 – the big cheese.

Helen: Definitely don't say to your boss, "Hello, how are you today, big cheese?". You might get fired for that.

Oliver: 好了，我們今天學(xué)到的是 the big cheese,意思就是公司內(nèi)部非常重要或有實(shí)權(quán)的人物，這是個(gè)非正式的表達(dá)。

Helen: You've been listening to Real English from BBC Learning English. See you next time.

Oliver: 我們下次節(jié)目再會(huì)。