Are You a 'Bull in a China Shop'?

Are You a 'Bull in a China Shop'?

And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning English.

Have you ever felt out of place? Have you ever felt clumsy, like you cannot move gracefully² and smoothly³? If you answered yes, then today's show is for you!

Today we talk about what happens when a big animal runs loose in a small area. The expression is to be a bull in a china shop.

China is fragile, meaning very easy to break. Imagine a large bull running loose in a china shop. All the fragile plates, bowls, and tea cups in the shop would be on the floor and broken in a million pieces.

So, a bull in a china shop describes a person who is awkward and clumsy. Wherever they go, they create a mess.

This can happen on purpose or on accident. If you are behaving wildly in a small space and are breaking things here and there, you are acting⁴ like a bull in a china shop. But maybe you don't mean to. Maybe you are just very big or your body movements are not very graceful¹.

This expression can describe a person or a situation. For example, a fancy wedding is my bull in a china shop situation. I always end up knocking something over or saying the wrong thing.

This expression is used in other ways.

When a person feels out of place and deals too roughly with a delicate problem they can say they feel like a bull in a china shop.

If you are this kind of person, you do not handle light situations well at all. For some reason and sometimes through no fault of your own ... you just make things worse.

It can also mean you rush into a situation without thinking about it clearly. Acting like a bull in a china shop means recklessly attacking a problem without proper planning.

So, when you act like a bull in a china shop, you create damage. You leave a big mess in your wake. This could be an actual mess or a figurative one. For example, if you are a bull in a china shop you may not be invited to a problem-solving meeting at work. You may bring a little too much mayhem with you.

This expression can also mean you handle a delicate situation badly. You don't react calmly and carefully. Instead you add fuel to the fire. This means you make the situation worse.

For example, when it comes to relationship issues, Diedre is like a bull in a china shop. She always ends up making more trouble. One time she tried to help a married couple who had been arguing a lot. After Deirdre's "help" the couple ended their marriage.

It is widely believed that this expression came from real animals causing real damage at outdoor markets in the 1800s. Word expert say that many languages have a similar expression but maybe they use a different animal, for example an elephant. And elephant would also do a lot of damage in a china shop.

And that's all the time for this Words and Their Stories. Until next time ...

Words in This Story

clumsy – adj. lacking skill or grace in movement

gracefully – adv. displaying grace in form or action : pleasing or attractive in line, proportion, or movement

fragile – adj. easily broken or destroyed

awkward – adj. lacking skill and flexibility⁵ (as in the use of the hands) : not graceful : clumsy

roughly – adv. in crude fashion

delicate – adj. easily torn or damaged

figurative – adj. characterized by figures of speech

mayhem – n. needless or willful damage or violence

1 graceful   

adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的

参考例句：

• His movements on the parallel bars were very graceful.他的双杠动作可帅了!
• The ballet dancer is so graceful.芭蕾舞演员的姿态是如此的优美。

2 gracefully   

ad.大大方方地；优美地

参考例句：

• She sank gracefully down onto a cushion at his feet. 她优雅地坐到他脚旁的垫子上。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line. 新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

3 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

4 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

5 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。