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習現代英式英語中經常出現的流行詞匯和實用表達。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: 是和生意人有關的？那究竟什么樣的人會被叫做大奶酪呢？

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, 就像董事級的人物，非常有權力的商場人物。

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

Oliver: 讓我們聽一個例子。

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, 用這個短語的時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: 這是個不太正式的用法，不要當著你的老板的面用，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，我們今天學到的是 the big cheese,意思就是公司內部非常重要或有實權的人物，這是個非正式的表達。

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

Oliver: 我們下次節目再會。