Let sleeping dogs lie: The English We Speak

40,939 views ・ 2018-05-21

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:06
Feifei: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak.
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I'm Feifei.
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00:10
Neil: And I'm Neil.
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00:11
So come on Feifei,
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00:13
you've been grumpy all morning
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00:14
– what's upset you?
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00:15
Feifei: We have a new tea-making rota,
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00:18
and it seems that Rob will be making less tea than me.
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00:22
Neil: Are you sure?
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00:22
Feifei: Yes. Look!
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00:24
Feifei -
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Monday morning, Tuesday afternoon,
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Thursday morning and every other Friday.
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Rob - just Wednesday morning.
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This tea-making rota is so unfair.
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00:35
I'm really going to complain about this
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at the next team meeting.
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00:38
He always has it easy.
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00:40
Neil: Is it that important Feifei?
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00:42
If I were you, I'd let sleeping dogs lie.
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00:45
You could make things worse.
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00:46
Feifei: Let sleeping dogs lie?
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00:49
You mean 'leave things as they are to avoid causing
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00:52
trouble or restarting an old argument'?
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00:54
Neil: Exactly!
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00:55
We had this argument before and the
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result was this new tea-making rota.
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01:00
So, just like avoiding waking up a dog
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01:02
and making it angry,
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let sleeping dogs lie.
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01:05
Feifei: Let's hear some more examples of this phrase….
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01:12
Examples: I was going to mention the argument we had
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last night,
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but decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
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01:21
Let's not go over last night's performance:
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let sleeping dogs lie and move on.
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01:30
Don't remind her about the divorce.
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Let sleeping dogs lie and talk about something else.
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01:40
Feifei: This is The English We Speak from the BBC
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and we're finding out about the phrase
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'let sleeping dogs lie',
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meaning to 'leave a situation as it is and
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avoid causing trouble or restarting an old problem'.
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01:54
That's all very well,
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but it still seems unfair that I'm the one
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who has to make tea the most.
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02:00
Neil: Come on, Feifei.
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02:01
Can't you remember why we had a new tea-making rota?
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02:04
It was because Rob makes such awful tea,
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that we wanted him to make less of it!
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02:09
Feifei: Oh, yes!
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Rob does make awful tea.
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02:13
You're right Neil, it's not worth making a fuss
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- we definitely don't want Rob
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to be making our tea too often.
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02:20
Neil: Yes. Let sleeping dogs lie.
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02:23
Feifei: But hold on.
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02:24
I didn't see your name on the rota.
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02:27
Shouldn't you be making tea?
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02:31
I thought you were keeping quiet.
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02:33
You never make tea!
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02:34
I'm going to say something about this.
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02:37
Neil: Don't wake up the sleeping dogs.
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02:39
I'll go and make some tea now, ok?
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02:41
Bye.
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02:42
Feifei: Bye.
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02:43
And don't forget, two sugars!
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