密歇根新闻广播 鱼和熊掌能否兼得?

 

Is there really any wrong way to eat cake? It's doubtful.

We're happy to eat it covered in chocolate frosting, or layered with custard and berries, or even upside down with pineapple slices.

That's why it's a little confusing when someone tells us, "You can't have your cake and eat it too."

If you have cake, eating it seems like a reasonable expectation. Frankly¹, we're troubled at the thought of letting a perfectly² good piece of cake going to waste.

It's important to point out that this phrase is an idiom, and idioms aren't meant to be parsed³ out word by word. That's why we generally accept "you can't have your cake and eat it too" to mean that you can't have something both ways, sometimes you have to make a sacrifice.

To better understand the confusing wording of this saying, we need to go back.

Like a lot of other things in our language, this idiom has gone through some changes since its first appearance which is cited as 1546.

Back then, it went, "You can't eat your cake and have it too."

Reversing the verbs adds some clarity. It makes sense that if you eat your cake, you'll no longer have it.

The expression seems to have flipped⁵ around sometime in the 18th century, with the latter version taking over as most common in the middle of the 20th century.

Not everyone got that memo⁶.

Ted⁴ Kaczynski, otherwise known as the "Unabomber", learned the older version of the expression from his mother and used it in his manifesto⁷. This quirk⁸ helped lead to his identification and capture.

1 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 parsed   

v.从语法上描述或分析（词句等）( parse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• You should never assume any of the scripts being parsed are valid. 你绝不能假设所有的脚本都正确的解释。 来自互联网
• All text in an XML document will be parsed by the parser. XML文档中的所有文本都会被解析器解析。 来自互联网

4 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

5 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

6 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

7 manifesto   

n.宣言，声明

参考例句：

• I was involved in the preparation of Labour's manifesto.我参与了工党宣言的起草工作。
• His manifesto promised measures to protect them.他在宣言里保证要为他们采取保护措施。

8 quirk   

n.奇事，巧合；古怪的举动

参考例句：

• He had a strange quirk of addressing his wife as Mrs Smith.他很怪，把自己的妻子称作史密斯夫人。
• The most annoying quirk of his is wearing a cap all the time.他最令人感到厌恶的怪癖就是无论何时都戴著帽子。