[ti:What Does It Mean to Go 'Haywire?'] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:06.68]Welcome to Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning English! [00:14.40]Today, we are going on a make-believe trip to the countryside [00:19.68]to learn about a word that comes from something used on a farm – haywire. [00:26.64]Like it sounds, haywire is a strong, thin wire. [00:33.36]Farm workers often use it to tie up hay grown in the fields. [00:39.48]They roll up the long, cut grass and store it in large bundles. [00:46.40]Later, when farm animals need to be fed, the wire is cut. [00:52.20]You need to use a hatchet or something else with a very sharp edge to cut the wire. [00:59.20]Haywire does not break easily. [01:02.88]But it can get easily twisted together by accident. [01:08.64]So, that is the farm material called haywire. [01:13.44]But what does it mean to go haywire? [01:17.48]The expression "to go haywire" has several meanings. [01:23.12]"To go haywire" can mean to turn crazy, [01:26.88]unreasonable or wild, as in this example: [01:32.32]"If I don't take a break from work soon, [01:35.20]I am going to go haywire!" [01:38.40]Here, the expressions flip out or freak out have a similar meaning. [01:45.72]These are all informal or for everyday use. [01:52.20]If you want to be more formal, you could use the word berserk. [01:57.59]"To go haywire" also means to start malfunctioning [02:02.92]or failing to operate normally. [02:06.52]We often use this expression for machines that don't work as they should. [02:12.48]For example, let's say we are visiting a peanut butter factory. [02:19.16]A machine used to pump peanut butter into jars suddenly goes haywire. [02:26.56]It squirts peanut butter everywhere – on the floor, [02:30.48]on walls and on factory workers. [02:34.76]Soon the whole area is covered with the tasty, but sticky food! [02:41.24]So, the machine is not only broken, it made a huge mess. [02:48.12]"Haywire" can also mean to become out of control. [02:53.20]When a process fails to work as planned, you can also say it ran amok. [02:59.68]This expression is more formal. [03:03.44]Here is an example of this meaning of "haywire." [03:08.64]"Urgh. Plans for my outdoor party just went haywire! [03:13.40]The supermarket can't bring the birthday cake. [03:16.04]The musicians refuse to play. [03:18.20]There's no place to leave a car [03:19.77]because of unannounced street repairs in front of my house. [03:22.96]Oh ... great. And it's going to rain. It's going to rain hard!" [03:28.96]But how did this simple farm word come to mean "go wild"? [03:34.88]Language experts say there are two stories [03:38.12]that help explain where this meaning came from. [03:42.60]As we said earlier, Americans use haywire [03:46.28]to describe a state of disorder, extreme messiness [03:51.40]– in other words, a situation where everything seems to be going wrong. [03:58.16]Years ago, farmers used haywire to temporarily fix a damaged fence, gate or barrier. [04:07.00]But the wire was never a good choice for permanent repairs [04:11.76]because it breaks down easily. [04:15.04]The metal iron turns reddish brown and wears down [04:18.96]when attacked by oxygen in the air or water. [04:23.32]It other words, it rusts! [04:26.56]This fact, however, did not stop people from using it for repairs. [04:32.24]As a result, many fences and buildings [04:35.92]where lots of wire were used for repairs look messy. [04:41.32]They have gone haywire. [04:44.80]Another story about "haywire" comes from the material itself. [04:51.92]When you cut tightly wound wire, you should do so carefully. [04:57.76]It can suddenly spring back at you like a snake. [05:02.27]It can circle your body and then stab you with its sharp ends. [05:08.92]This can happen quickly, often catching a person off guard. [05:14.68]Word experts may not agree on the origin. [05:18.52]But they can agree that anything that has "gone haywire," [05:22.92]has gone crazy or is a big, hot mess! [05:27.84]And that's the end of this Words and Their Stories. [05:31.76]I'm Anna Matteo. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [05:33.60]I pushed the fool button [05:38.30]My night went haywire [05:40.41]I pushed the fool button [05:43.82]Set my brain on fire [05:46.46]Now I was sittin' in the corner of a very laid back bar