英语博客-北美风情 169、You can’t teach an old dog

　　In this episode, we look at expressions that tell us that people find it hard to change. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks and a leopard¹ can’t change its spots are two proverbs that aren’t really talking about animals. Maura and Harp² talk about the possible reasons that people don’t change easily, as in old habits die hard. Are all these expressions correct or do you think that people can change?

　　Maura:  Today we’re looking at expressions that have to do with how difficult it is for people to change.
Harp:  Do you believe people can change?
Maura:  I think that people can change if they really want to.
Harp:  Yup.
Maura:  But there are obviously a lot of expressions out there that tell us that people can’t change very easily.
Harp:  Yeah. We have some expressions that we’re gonna introduce that are all related to how people can’t change.
Maura:  Yup. Now the first one is the expression you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

1 leopard   

n.豹

参考例句：

• I saw a man in a leopard skin yesterday.我昨天看见一个穿着豹皮的男人。
• The leopard's skin is marked with black spots.豹皮上有黑色斑点。

2 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。