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  • Hey guys! Here with my husband, David.

  • And today, we're going to go over nine idioms that are related to fruits.

  • This is a follow-up to the fruit vocabulary video that we just did.

  • The first idiom you may have heard of is comparing apples to oranges.

  • David, what does this idiom mean?

  • It means that you're comparing two things that shouldn't be compared.

  • Like they're so different that comparison doesn't really work.

  • Correct.

  • Apples to oranges, come on!

  • Those are two different fruit eating experiences.

  • >> They're both fruits. That's about it. >> Yeah.

  • >> You can't compare them. >> No. He can't compare them.

  • Alright, let's think of an example.

  • So the one that I thought about was something that comes up when people discuss sports is that

  • it's fun to compare teams from two different eras.

  • So right now, in American basketball, well basketball, the NBA,

  • basketball has gone global now so there's lots everywhere but in the NBA,

  • the Golden State Warriors are a historically good team.

  • They just won another

  • They just won their 3rd championship in 4 years.

  • >> Wow. >> So they won 3 out of 4.

  • Okay.

  • And, so now, the discussion is comparing them with other teams from other eras and specifically,

  • people are talking about the Bulls' team from the 90s that have Michael Jordan.

  • Everyone knows and remembers Michael Jordan's

  • >> basketball play. >> Pretty much in consensus,

  • that he was the best player ever.

  • But it's really hard to compare those two teams and say: Who is the best team of all time?

  • because the game has changed a lot.

  • Three-point shooting has become much more common and much more important.

  • Bulls play defense in different ways.

  • There have been obviously rule changes in the time since then.

  • And so we can have debates about it but comparing Jordan's Bulls

  • to the current Warriors is like comparing apples to oranges.

  • Because the sport itself has changed so much.

  • Yeah, I think that that's a big part of it.

  • Right? And the styles that people play.

  • Okay, the next idiom, apples again.

  • The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

  • Have you ever heard this idiom before?

  • David, what does this idiom mean to you?

  • So to me, it's this idea that, you know, an apple tree drops its fruit close to where

  • the tree grew and it means, as we use it, that a child of someone is often very similar to their parent.

  • It means that there may be traits that are real similar and I think as we were getting ready, I think that it means

  • often a negative connotation.

  • And I heard you say that and I didn't really agree.

  • I mean, definitely, we hear it negatively.

  • For example, if you know a grown man with a really bad temper

  • and maybe you see his kid is starting to develop a temper, has meltdowns,

  • >> you could say: Apple doesn't fall far from the tree. >> Right.

  • And that's negative but I also think it can be used just as easily in a neutral or a positive situation.

  • For example, as you know, Stoney has taken to music big time, singing all the time, playing on,

  • playing drums on anything that looks a little bit like a drum.

  • And I was the same way as a kid.

  • I sing all the time.

  • All the time.

  • And then I went on to get a Master's Degree in opera.

  • So, I feel like with singing and me and Stoney, you could say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

  • Okay.

  • And I don't think that's negative.

  • I don't know. Maybe you think it's negative.

  • No. I think that's pretty neat.

  • You may have heard a person described as a 'bad apple'

  • and this basically just means 'not a good person'.

  • Yeah.

  • Can you think of any 'bad apples'?

  • >> I could think of a couple but I'll refrain. >> Yeah.

  • So someone who's very negative or not cooperative, hard to be around, or does something really terrible,

  • is a liar, is a cheater, you could say: he's a bad apple.

  • Right.

  • Or she's a bad apple.

  • It's not always men.

  • Um, there's another idiom that

  • plays on this idea of a bad apple and that's something like: A bad apple spoils the whole bunch.

  • Right.

  • I think that's from the idea that when the apple is rotting,

  • that mold can literally spread to the next apple in the bunch.

  • To me, that comes up, I was thinking of an example, I was doing a training

  • and there was a group of people at a back table

  • and they were really disengaged, they were kind of talking to each other

  • in the back, and not just whispering but audibly talking.

  • >> While you were trying to present something? >> While I was presenting and...

  • >> It kind of, it soured the whole room. >> Yeah.

  • And everybody then was kind of distracted and looking back trying to figure out what was going on.

  • And so that one bad table of people kind of soured the whole room.

  • Let's move on from apples to bananas.

  • Okay, if someone is 'bananas', then they're crazy.

  • It can mean lots of different things, right?

  • It can mean crazy energized like um,

  • you could say: These kids are bananas!

  • If there's a birthday party and they're all super hyper.

  • Um, when else could you use it? How else would you use it?

  • There's another use that is more like someone is not in touch with the here and now or is having a psychiatric,

  • I don't know, situation, where people would say: Yeah, I think he's kind of going bananas.

  • It's not a kind or friendly way to refer to that.

  • You would sort of only use that in very informal settings where you know people really well.

  • But it means, it can mean 'going crazy' in that sense too, like, really lose in touch with the here and now.

  • Yeah. So you could say 'he is going bananas', you could also say 'he's bananas'.

  • Yeah.

  • >> Right. >> Yeah.

  • I'm also thinking about my friend who has some dogs

  • and she said when the fireworks go off with the Fourth of July or New Year's or something,

  • that her dogs are just insane.

  • They get super scared and they're hyper all over the place.

  • And that, as another thing I thought of, is like those dogs are bananas when the fireworks go off.

  • And it's too bad, she really feels bad for them 'cause they are scared.

  • I think they think their lives are ending or something.

  • Cherries.

  • I just popped my first bag of cherries for this season and I'm enjoying them.

  • And so is Stoney.

  • Okay, but cherries, there's an idiom here

  • and it's the phrase: to cherry pick.

  • And basically, this means to choose all of the best options.

  • So it can be seen as sort of negative if someone comes through and cherry picks

  • all the best options for something.

  • Like, this is a weird example, maybe, but let's say there's a buffet of food, a whole bunch of people.

  • You know, we're all friends and family here, and someone goes through and cherry picks the buffet,

  • and gets like all the good stuff and leaves all the rest of us, friends and family, with the less good stuff.

  • That person, yeah, that person cherry picked the buffet.

  • And then the result was, I didn't get the cupcake that I wanted 'cause I was at the end of the line.

  • That never actually happened.

  • Um can you think of another way, another example for using cherry pick?

  • So we talk about it too in terms of political campaigns.

  • That's what I thought about, where, in American politics, there are so many commercials that are made

  • and often, one candidate will cherry pick some fact about another candidate to make a negative commercial

  • or to show them in a negative light.

  • So maybe there's 2 or 3 things about that other candidate, that really stand out in a negative fashion,

  • instead of talking about that whole candidate's

  • stands on the different issues, et cetera, they just cherry pick a couple facts

  • and make a really biting, nasty commercial.

  • That makes me think that that could also work well if there was an interview happening,

  • and the person who is being interviewed cherry picks the questions ahead of time

  • and they were like: Send me the questions you're thinking about asking.

  • Okay, you can only ask these 3 or whatever.

  • Then that's like just picking the ones that are going to put that person in the best light possible.

  • >> Right. >> Cherry pick.

  • Wait a second, back to basketball.

  • Isn't this a term for a play in basketball?

  • Well, cherry picking is when one person runs down the floor

  • almost before your team even has the ball.

  • It's kind of like hanging out the far end so that as soon as we get the ball,

  • we just chuck it down the field and that person is cherry picking.

  • Okay.

  • So, 'cause I was trying to read about this and I didn't quite get it and one of the things that I read was

  • like if you're doing, if you're cherry picking, you're not even playing defense?

  • Exactly.

  • Like, the whole time, you're just hanging out, waiting for the fast break?

  • >> Right. Exactly. >> Okay.

  • Because I knew that I heard that in basketball terms before but I didn't know exactly what the play was.

  • Yes, that's it.

  • Grapes.

  • A tasty fruit and a great idiom.

  • To hear it through the grapevine.

  • Okay, what does this mean?

  • This means if you picture a grapevine, and there are these bunches of grapes, you know as you go down.

  • >> All connected. >> All connected.

  • If you hear something 'through the grapevine', that means you didn't hear it directly from the person

  • that was affected.

  • But you heard it from someone who heard it from someone who heard it from someone.

  • All connected.

  • And sometimes, you don't even really know, you don't remember the person you heard it

  • from or what their source was back to the actual person.

  • But you heard it.

  • Yeah. And often it, the message has been passed along so many times that it's not quite accurate.

  • Yeah. It can change.

  • So you might say: Well, I don't know if this is quite right.

  • I just heard it through the grapevine, but here's what I heard, and use it as a caveat.

  • It can be a little gossipy, right?

  • >> If you hear some... >> It implies some gossip.

  • >> Not always, though. >> No, not always.

  • I mean, 'cause I see it, the example I was thinking about was we just had some friends over

  • and they had heard about my job change of a year ago

  • but not directly from me, they had heard through mutual friends

  • so they...and I hadn't talked to them, they came over

  • and they said: So we heard through the grapevine

  • that you have a... you know, you're no longer working at the school?

  • And I said: Oh yeah! Yeah, you're right!

  • >> Didn't hear it from me but that's exactly right. >> Yeah.

  • So someone was talking about you, updating them on your life, said this, and then...

  • Right.

  • They might not even have remembered who said that to them.

  • Right.

  • >> But they knew they heard it through the grapevine. >> Very possible.

  • This reminds me of a great song from so long ago.

  • Do you know this song?

  • Great song. I heard it through the grapevine.

  • And in this song, this guy is like: I know you're going to break up with me.

  • Not because you told me, but because you told someone else and it eventually got back to me and now I know.

  • And the guy is really sad in the song.

  • Let's move on to something more tart.

  • Lemons.

  • The idiom I'm thinking of is "When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade"

  • which, of course, is sweet and everyone loves lemonade.

  • Okay, so lemons.

  • So this is basically saying when something happens that's

  • generally not great, you can turn it into something good.

  • It's up to you to do that.

  • And lemons are sour and puckery but if you add some sugar,

  • you get something delicious.

  • so the thing that I thought of was that when I'm doing well and in a good space,

  • and get stuck in a line at the grocery store, if I decide, you know what?

  • This is a great opportunity to slow down, take some deep breaths,

  • kind of do some meditative walking.

  • It's actually a great thing.

  • So you're meditatively walking while you're in line for the grocery?

  • Sure, when I'm in a good place.

  • When I'm not, I'm feeling like throwing things.

  • Yeah! 'Cause you're like "Ugh this is wasting my time!"

  • It's wasting time but really, if I was going to make lemonade there, it's like, you know what?

  • I rarely get to slow down, enjoy just being around people, there are no responsibilities on me right now,

  • I just have to stand here, I can, you know, this is actually pretty great!

  • Yeah. So it's so much about how you approach a negative life situation.

  • Yeah.

  • It's like, are you going to treat it as lemons? Are you going to turn into lemonade?

  • I was thinking about one time, my computer broke, this was before I worked quite so much,

  • and I was like: Oh! That's a bummer!

  • But actually, I realized not having a computer for a couple days was really freeing!

  • And so I just went with that. I don't...I'm not going to answer any emails.

  • I'm not going to check any social media. It was great!

  • Um, and this is also making me think about just the calling something a lemon.

  • You know, this is moving on to a different idiomatic use now for this word.

  • >> Oh, great. >> A lemon.

  • Like a used car could be great, could be fine, or could be a lemon,

  • something that is constantly giving you problems, constantly breaking down.

  • Um, can you think of any... I mean, used car I feel like is such a...

  • That's really a word to use.

  • Such a strong connection to the word 'lemon'.

  • But you could maybe use that, I actually think I used that once.

  • I was on the phone with Apple, I was going to order a Apple certified, like used computer.

  • Oh, I had and there was something not working with it and I was talking to tech support,

  • we were working through this, and I said: I kind of feel like I got a lemon here.

  • And they were like: You didn't. Calm down.

  • But so I also used it with that.

  • So It could be for something that's expensive, maybe that's used,

  • or it wouldn't even have to be used but something that's not functioning well at all,

  • >> not meeting expectation or standards. >> Right.

  • That could be called a lemon.

  • Okay and the final idiom: low-hanging fruit.

  • So if your think about an apple tree which we have already talked about with the one idiom,

  • apple trees are big and it can take a lot of effort to get to the top.

  • Actually, I should put in a clip of that great fruit tree from Ginny's house.

  • Okay, so fruit from the top of the tree is harder to get than fruit from the bottom of the tree.

  • Um, there's this, my friend has a great fruit tree in the back of her house

  • and we were, all of the low-hanging fruit had already been picked because it's the easiest.

  • Maybe you can just reach up and grab it without even getting any equipment but we had to get this ladder

  • and then this great fruit picker to get the fruit off from the top cause this tree was really tall.

  • Anyway, this is opposite, low-hanging fruit

  • is the fruit that's at the bottom of the tree that's the easiest to get.

  • And we use this idiom to mean the easiest thing.

  • It's often what you would want to do first.

  • >> Um, do you have an example of this? >> I do.

  • Yeah, and I thought about my work as a therapist and

  • if people come in and start to do work with me and they're really depressed,

  • one of the things that I want to recommend first is that they start to do some exercise

  • or to really increase their level of exercise.

  • We're going to get into talk therapy and we're going to maybe talk about medication,

  • there's lots of things that you can do...

  • >> But one of the.... >> Higher branches,

  • >> Higher branches. >> More effort.

  • One of the things that no matter who we are or where we are, we always have the opportunity to exercise

  • in some form and there's a direct, you know, correlation to feeling better into our mental health

  • so that's low-hanging fruit for people who aren't feeling great.

  • >> 'Cause it's easier, you can do it quickly. >> Right.

  • >> Yeah.

  • Um, I was thinking another example for this would be

  • when we sit down and we're doing our budget.

  • and if we, you know, feel like: Okay, we spent too much this month.

  • What can we do? The low-hanging fruit would be the easiest thing to cut out.

  • The thing that would be the least hard to give up.

  • For example, when we order in food, I always prefer to eat it home anyway.

  • I like going out but if we're going to eat it home, then I just, I want food that we've made ourselves.

  • And so that could be an easy way to say: Well, we're not getting carryout anymore.

  • We're just going to make something simple, fast, that's going to be cheaper

  • than ordering out so that would be low- hanging fruit 'cause I kind of prefer that anyway.

  • Mmm hmm. Good example.

  • Okay guys, so those were some idioms about fruit.

  • If you didn't see the fruit vocabulary video, be sure to check that out.

  • You can click the link here, or in the description below.

  • Are there any other fruit idioms that you can think of that we missed?

  • Put it in the comments below, let us know, we'll try to define them.

  • And if you can think of any other categories of idioms that you're curious about,

  • let us know and maybe we can make a video about it in the future.

  • It'd be great!

  • Okay guys, that's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

Hey guys! Here with my husband, David.

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