Feifei: Hello, this The English
We Speak. I'm Feifei...
Rob: ...and hello, I'm Rob.
Feifei: Why have you brought a bowl of
fruit into the studio?
Rob: I'm not feeling great - and
you know fruit is packed with
vitamin C, so I though eating
some would do me good.
Feifei: Hmm I see. Well, I'm sorry
you're not feeling great, but we have got
a programme to do and
an English phrase to teach.
Rob: If you don't mind, I might just read
a few lines from the script today - to save
my voice. Perhaps I could just
read the funny lines?
Feifei: No Rob! You can't just
cherry-pick what you want to say.
Rob: Cherry-pick? No Feifei, there aren't
any cherries in my fruit bowl - so
I won't be picking any.
Feifei: I wasn't referring to your fruit.
When you cherry-pick something,
it means you choose only what's best or
most desirable out of a group of
things or a group of people. But
Rob, you're not going to do that, are you?
Rob: Errr... shall we hear some examples
of other cherry pickers?
Josh says he cherry-picked the players for
his football team based on
their skills - but
I know it's because they were his friends!
We need to cherry-pick the best food
for our new restaurant - we really
want to impress our customers.
It seems unfair that our school
has cherry-picked the best students
to attend the conference
- we should all have a chance to go.
Feifei: You're listening to The English
We Speak from BBC Learning English
and we're talking about the phrase 'to
cherry-pick', which means to choose
the best or most desirable things from
a group. And Rob wants to cherry-pick
only the best lines to read from
this script. It's a bit unfair, Rob...
Rob: I was just trying to save
my voice but I will do my best.
Would you like a piece of fruit
from the bowl, Feifei?
Feifei: Oh, OK then. Err, that banana
is a bit mouldy...
that orange is a bit yellow..
I'll have this apple please.
Rob: Hmm, looks like you're cherry-picking the
best piece of fruit. Right, well,
now that you've got my delicious apple,
do you mind
if I go now - I'm really not feeling great.
Feifei: Oh go on, Rob. But next time
I'm going to cherry-pick who I present
with - someone who wants a bite of the
cherry to work with me.
'A bite of the cherry' means a chance
or opportunity. I need someone
with a bit more... stamina.
See ya.
Rob: Bye.