Name: 英語導師Nick P 諺語（75）The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back 駱駝背上的稻草。 (English Tutor Nick P Proverbs (75) The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back)
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Hi this is Tutor Nick P  and this is Proverbs 75. The name of the proverb

情態副詞

today is ' The straw that broke the camel's back. " Okay this is actually

程度副詞

pretty common one. All right. Let's take a look at the note here. This proverb

refers to the last thing in a series of negative things that causes a breakdown

in a system or someone to lose one's patience or simply to be a breaking

causes,  a breaking point that causes something to fail. So it's not

usually just one thing it was usually a number of things that we're building up

over time. Just like the idea of you know,  if you pack too much stuff on the

camel's back is obviously it's not the first thing or the second thing or the

third thing you put on it,  but there comes a point that if you just continue

and continue and continue,  eventually the camel's back will break or he will

collapse. The whole thing will fall apart.  So let's continue here. They say this

proverb does come from an Arab proverb about overloading a camel's back

beyond its capacity. So that's what they the original idea did come from. All

right. Again. Let's continue the form of this proverb close to our modern-day use

can be first found in a Charles Dickens novel "Dombey and Son. "  Remember Charles

Dickens 'A Christmas Carol'  , he's famous for many, many famous novels. The original

wording in the Dickens novel was 'as the last straw breaks the laden camel's

back. 'Yeah. Laden always means that you know,  you have a lot of stuff that's weighing

down. That's really heavy , you know by putting a lot of things on top of

something. We always say something is laden with it. It's filled with it and

it's weighing down. The Laden camel's back. It's also formed into another

phrase in which someone can say something is the last straw.  And that one's

pretty common too. So well that's the last straw I'm quitting or something

like that. It means the last thing there's been a lot of things been building up to

this point and that's it. That's the end. All right. So

let's continue and  let's give one good example here. Jack was already on

the bad side of the boss due to his poor performance and laziness for many months.

Yes.  It was probably quite a number of things that was building up that the

boss was annoying the boss about,  about Jack you know. So was it again that just

wasn't one thing. It was like 10 things or 15 things. Today when he arrived at an

important meeting 30 minutes late the boss said that was the last straw.

That's it. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. He fired him on the

spot. Yeah. Now normally you know if somebody's just late once for a meeting

they probably won't be fired just for that. So that's why very often the thing

that breaks the camel's back or the thing that's the last straw is not

always the worst thing or the most serious thing but it's usually been

building for a long time and somebody again somebody just lost their patience

or that was the thing that finally made something foul or collapse. Then we say

that thing is the thing that broke the camel's back or that thing is the last

straw. Okay anyway,  I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time . Bye-