Feifei Hello, this The English We Speak. I’m Feifei…
Rob …and hello, I’m Rob.
Feifei Why have you brought a bowl of fruit into the studio?
Rob I’m not feeling great – and you know fruit is packed with vitamin C, so I though eating some would do me good.
Feifei Hmm I see. Well, I’m sorry you’re not feeling great, but we have got a programme to do and an English phrase to teach.
Rob If you don’t mind, I might just read a few lines from the script today – to save my voice. Perhaps I could just read the funny lines?
Feifei No Rob! You can’t just cherry-pick what you want to say.
Rob Cherry-pick? No Feifei, there aren’t any cherries in my fruit bowl- so I won’t be picking any.
Feifei I wasn’t referring to your fruit. When you cherry-pick something, it means you choose only what’s best or most desirable out of a group of things or a group of people. But Rob, you’re not going to do that, are you?
Rob Errr… shall we hear some examples of other cherry pickers?
Examples Josh says he cherry-picked the players for his football team based on their skills – but I know it’s because they were his friends!
We need to cherry-pick the best food for our new restaurant – we really want to impress our customers.
It seems unfair that our school has cherry-picked the best students to attend the conference – we should all have a chance to go.
Feifei You’re listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English and we’re talking about the phrase ‘to cherry-pick’, which means ’to choose the best or most desirable things from a group’. And Rob wants to cherry-pick only the best lines to read from this script. It’s a bit unfair, Rob…
Rob I was just trying to save my voice but I will do my best. Would you like a piece of fruit from the bowl, Feifei?
Feifei Oh, OK then. Err, that banana is a bit mouldy… that orange is a bit yellow…I’ll have this apple, please.
Rob Hmm, looks like you’re cherry-picking the best piece of fruit. Right, well, now that you’ve got my delicious apple, do you mind if I go now – I’m really not feeling great.
Feifei Oh go on, Rob. But next time I’m going to cherry-pick who I present with – someone who wants a bite of the cherry to work with me. ‘A bite of the cherry’ means ‘a chance or opportunity’. I need someone with a bit more… stamina. See ya.
Rob Bye.