VOA词汇掌故2024--It's Time to 'Separate the Wheat from the Chaff'

 

And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning¹ English.

On today's show we talk about an expression that likely came from wheat growers a long time ago. Preparing harvested wheat involves an important step - separating the wheat from the chaff².

Chaff is the outer covering of grain, the husk and other matter around the grain. Grain must be separated from chaff before it can be used for food. In farming, separating the wheat from the chaff is called winnowing⁴ or threshing.

In English, the expression "separating the wheat from the chaff" means to decide which people or things in a group are good or important and which ones are not. Who or which things can you live without?

This idiom describes a kind of sorting process.

For example, if you are planning to go on a long hiking trip, you have to decide which things are necessary to carry with you and which things are not. Food and water need to make the cut - they need to be included. A long, heavy novel to read might not be such a good idea. If you do not separate the wheat from the chaff, your backpack will be too heavy.

This idiom can also mean that you decide which things are valuable and which things have little worth.

For example, let's say you are organizing a large neighborhood yard sale to raise money for a local charity. Many neighbors donate things they no longer need. Some are valuable and should get a high price. But other things are not worth much and should be low in cost. In this case, taking your time to separate the wheat from the chaff is time well spent. You do not want to see something valuable sold for too little money. It is for charity, after all.

This idiom can also mean to separate people or things that are of high quality from those that are of low quality.

Let's say you are hiring someone for a top position in your company. When you send the announcement out, you receive hundreds of applications. This is the first round of the process when you must separate the wheat from the chaff. You must determine the most qualified⁵ applicants⁶ for the second round of the process that would include phone discussions⁷ and interviews.

For a last example, let's talk about learning English. Online, you can find many resources that teach English. But they are not all good. It is up to you to separate the wheat from the chaff. Hopefully VOA Learning English makes the cut.

And that's all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories.

Words in This Story

winnow³ -v. to sort grain by throwing it in the air or using air to separate the grain from unwanted plant material

thresh -v. to beat the grain-bearing part of a cereal⁸ (such as wheat) to separate it from the chaff (unwanted plant material)

charity -n. an organization that supports a cause with money and assistance⁹

application -n. a written request to be part of a company or organization that includes background and personal information

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 chaff   

v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳

参考例句：

• I didn't mind their chaff.我不在乎他们的玩笑。
• Old birds are not caught with chaff.谷糠难诱老雀。

3 winnow   

v．把（谷物）的杂质吹掉，扬去

参考例句：

• You should winnow out the inaccuracies of this paper this afternoon.你今天下午把这篇文章中不精确的内容删掉。
• We should winnow out the errors in logic.我们应该排除逻辑中的错误。

4 winnowing   

v.扬( winnow的现在分词 )；辨别；选择；除去

参考例句：

• The petrel came winnowing in from afar on the sea. 海燕从遥远的地方振翼飞来。 来自辞典例句
• He is winnowing wheat now. 他现在正在簸小麦。 来自辞典例句

5 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

6 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。

7 discussions   

n.讨论( discussion的名词复数 )；商讨；详述；论述

参考例句：

• Discussions are held on an informal basis within the department. 讨论限于在本部门内非正式地进行。
• Her specialist input to the discussions has been very useful. 她在这些讨论中提供的专家建议很有助益。

8 cereal   

n.谷类，五谷，禾谷

参考例句：

• I have hot cereal every day for breakfast.我每天早餐吃热麦片粥。
• Soybeans are handled differently from cereal grains.大豆的加工处理与谷类的加工处理不同。

9 assistance   

n.援助，帮助

参考例句：

• She called and called but no one came to her assistance.她叫了又叫，但没有人来帮。
• He will get the great possible assistance.他将获得尽可能大的帮助。