I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
我是VOA慢速英语词语典故节目的主播苏珊·克拉克。
A woman from Japan was telling a friend about her trip to the United States. The woman had visited major businesses and investment companies in New York City and Chicago.
一位来自日本的女性正在给朋友讲述她的美国之旅。 这位女性参观了纽约和芝加哥的大型企业及投资公司。
"I studied English before I left home," she said. "But I still was not sure that people were speaking English."
她说：“我在日本学过英语， 但是我还是听不明白这里的人们说的是不是英语。”
Her problem is easy to understand. Americans in business are like people who are in business anywhere. They have a language of their own. Some of the words and expressions deal with the special areas of their work. Other expressions are borrowed from different kinds of work such as the theater and movie industry.
When things go wrong in a business, an employer may get angry. He may shout, "Stop making mistakes. Get your act together."
当员工在业务上出了纰漏时，老板可能会发火。 他可能会叫喊道：“别再给我犯错了， 努力一点！”
Or, if the employer is calmer, he may say, "Let us get our act together."
或者，当老板冷静下来时，他可能会说，"让我们一起努力吧！"
Either way, the meaning is the same. Getting your act together is getting organized. In business, it usually means to develop a calm and orderly plan of action.
无论哪种说法，这个表达的含义是相同的。 “Getting your act together”的意思就是敦促别人行动起来，努力一点。 在商业上，它通常是指开展一个沉着有序的行动计划。
It is difficult to tell exactly where the saying began. But, it is probable that it was in the theater or movie industry. Perhaps one of the actors was nervous and made a lot of mistakes. The director may have said, "Calm down, now. Get your act together."
Word expert James Rogers says the expression was common by the late nineteen seventies. Mister Rogers says the Manchester Guardian newspaper used it in nineteen seventy-eight. The newspaper said a reform policy required that the British government get its act together.
Now, this expression is heard often when officials of a company meet. One company even called its yearly report, "Getting Our Act Together."
现在，在公司官员开会时经常会听到这个表达。 一家公司甚至把它的年度报表命名为“让我们一起努力吧！”
The Japanese visitor was confused by another expression used by American business people. It is cut to the chase.
这位日本游客还对美国商务人士使用的另外一个表达感到困惑。 它就是“cut to the chase”。
She heard that expression when she attended an important meeting of one company. One official was giving a very long report. It was not very interesting. In fact, some people at the meeting were falling asleep.
Finally, the president of the company said, "Cut to the chase."
最后，这个公司的总裁说：“切入正题吧！”
Cut to the chase means to stop spending so much time on details or unimportant material. Hurry and get to the good part.
“Cut to the chase”的意思就是不要在细节或者不重要的问题上花太多时间， 赶紧把话题切入主题上。
Naturally, this saying was started by people who make movies. Hollywood movie producers believe that most Americans want to see action movies. Many of their movies show scenes in which the actors chase each other in cars, or in airplanes or on foot.
