Neil 把胡子剃得一干二凈，因為留胡須現在是“a thing”，所以他不要隨波逐流?？匆曨l，學習這個詞的新流行用法。

文字稿

（關于臺詞的備注: 請注意這不是廣播節目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能沒有體現錄制、編輯過程中對節目做出的改變。）

Feifei
大家好，歡迎收聽 BBC 英語教學的《地道英語》節目。我是馮菲菲。

Neil
And I’m Neil.

Feifei
Where’s your beard?

Neil
Well, I, uh, shaved it off. I fancied a change. Beards are such a thing these days.

Feifei
Yup, ever since beards became a thing, I’ve found them a bit boring.

Neil
‘A thing’. Of course, we know what the word ‘thing’ normally means, but what does ‘a thing’ mean here?

Feifei
本集節目中給大家介紹的表達是“a thing”。大家都知道 a thing 最常用的意思是“一件東西，一個物品”，而目前流行的說法是用“a thing”來表示“一個潮流，一種時尚”。比如：如果我們說“留胡須 is a thing”，那實際要表達的意思就是“留胡須很時尚，lots of people have them”。

Neil
Yes. Cats on the internet – they’re a thing.

Feifei
Oh, fidget spinners. They’re definitely a thing.

Neil
Fidget spinners?

Feifei
對，就是那個風靡全球的“fidget spinners 指尖陀螺”。Those little metal or plastic toys that spin on your finger. Know them?

Neil
Oh, those things that kids everywhere are playing with.

Feifei
Not just kids. Anyway. What else is a thing? Listen to these examples.

Examples
Using funny GIFs in your message is such a thing.

You know parkour: the sport of running and jumping across buildings? Why is that such a thing?

Organic powdered food. Since when has that been a thing?

Feifei
A well-known use of this phrase was after American personality Kim Kardashian posted a picture of herself pregnant, with the words “pregnancy lips 懷孕的嘴唇”. 

Neil
It’s a term not many people had heard of, and prompted responses like this: “Pregnancy lips? Is that even a thing?”

Feifei
當你對別人所描述的一件事情一無所知，或對所描述的事情持懷疑態度的時侯，你就可以說“Is that a thing?”或“Is that even a thing?”。

Neil
But there’s little doubt the phrase ‘a thing’ is itself ‘a thing’ – it’s now been included in major dictionaries.

Feifei
There we are. A thing. No plans to grow the beard back, then?

Neil
Only when being clean-shaven becomes too much of a thing!

Feifei
Bye.

Neil
Bye.