The English We Speak是英国BBC电台的一档为英语学习者量身打造的英语学习节目。

今天，两位主持人为我们带来了一档“音乐特辑”，节目中会讲到一种乐器及与其相关的一个习语，让我跟随录音去学习一下吧。

William: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. My name is William Kremer.

Helen: And I'm Helen.

William: I've got something for you, Helen.

Burst of loud classical music (Beethoven's '5th Symphony')

Helen: It's nice to have a bit of music William, but why...

Burst of different classical music (Mendelssohn's 'Dance of the Clowns')

William: What do you think... nice music, huh?

Helen: Well, it's certainly dramatic! So are we having a special musical edition today, William?

William: Well, yes we are Helen. The BBC Proms start this Friday, remember?

Helen: Ah, of course. The BBC Proms is a huge classical music festival that the BBC sponsors. It's over 100 years old.

William: Yes and every day for the next two months hundreds of music fans will queue to get their hands on a £5 ticket.

Helen: Wow. Are you going to go?

William: No, I hate queuing! But anyway, I thought we could have a music-themed programme. And our phrase this week relates to one instrument in particular...

Trumpet music solo

Helen: The trumpet?

William: Yes, do you know what it means to say someone 'blows his own trumpet'?

Helen: Yes. It means that someone is talking too much about his achievements, right?

William: Exactly. Let's listen to an example.

例1：

Woman: Who's going to be there tonight?

Man: I think Angela and Mark and that guy Martin...

Woman: Oh, no, not Martin! He's such a bore. He's always blowing his own trumpet. Last time I saw him he went on and on about how he had been promoted twice in six weeks.

Helen: So this is quite a negative phrase then?

William: Yes, sometimes. But interestingly, it isn't always used in a negative way. Listen to this example. A woman is talking to her niece.

例2：

Woman: I didn't know you'd come top in the class again! Why didn't you tell me? You really must start blowing your own trumpet a bit more!

Helen: So in that clip, the woman was telling her niece she ought to blow her own trumpet more?

William: Yes. And English people sometimes use this phrase because they are embarrassed to talk about their achievements. Listen to this clip:

例3：

Man: How's it going at your work nowadays?

Woman: Well, at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, it's going very well. In fact, I've just won an award!

Helen: She said "At the risk of blowing my own trumpet".

William: Yeah, so that's like saying "Excuse me while I talk about my achievements"!

Helen: Well, I wonder whether we should blow our own trumpet a bit more. I mean here we are with a really popular website, bbclearningenglish.com...

William: ...yeah, making lots of little programmes that are entertaining, fascinating, useful...

Helen: …and best of all, it's all free! Brilliant, huh?

William: Yeah, that's brilliant! But maybe we should stop blowing our own trumpet now! Shall we have some more of that nice music again to finish off?

Helen: Oh, yes! Bye!

William: Bye!

赏析：

此期节目，两位主持人讨论了习语“blow one’s own trumpet” 的含义和用法。

Trumpet本意“小号”，“blow one's own trumpet”本意为“总是自己吹自己的小号”，也就引申为：“总是吹嘘自己的成就”的意思，多数情况下，如果被别人这样评价，都带有一定贬义，如文中例1.

但是，这个习语也有别的用法，如例2，当被别人当面用：“You really must start blowing your own trumpet a bit more!”评价的时候，则意味着你过分谦虚了，完全可以多说一些自己的成就，好让别人更好地了解你。

例3中所用的习语是“at the risk of blowing my own trumpet”,这是谦词，常用在自己需要介绍自己的成就之前，可以翻译成“请允许我说一下自己所取得的成绩”，用上这句话之后，风度马上显现了出来。

英国同中国一样，是礼仪之邦，谦虚是传统美德。同样的一个事实，从别人口中得到可能是赞许与夸奖，如果自己说出来就有可能是吹嘘与骄傲了。做人处事当注重场合身份，为了做一个与大家相处融洽的人，少说几句一般没有坏处。当然，也不要对自己取得的成绩惜字如金，毕竟，孔老夫子教导过，“过犹不及”。

注释及其他语言点：

It's certainly dramatic！ 那一定棒极了！ dramatic：令人激动的；戏剧性的。
queue to: 涌入 queue：排队
He's such a bore.: 他讨厌极了。/他是个令人讨厌的人。