VOA词汇掌故2023--Low-hanging Fruit

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

Have you ever gone to a farm or an orchard¹ to pick fruit? Was all of the fruit easy to pick, or were some pieces easier to reach than others? Perhaps there were some apples in a tree that were too high for you to reach. And maybe you saw that others had picked the easiest fruit to reach before you.

Today's Words and Their Stories, however, is not about fruit, but about ideas.

If you are the first person to arrive at an apple tree during harvest time, you can easily find some low-hanging fruit. These are the apples that are on the branches closest to the ground. Low-hanging fruit describes the most obvious or easiest things to do to help you reach a goal.

The problem with low-hanging fruit is that it is easy for others to get there first, too.

People who try to create new music, TV shows, or movies sometimes face this problem. They might believe that the best melodies² and story ideas have already been taken.

Some songwriters or scriptwriters might say that the creative low-hanging fruit has already been picked.

When most of the fruit, ideas, or things that we desire have already been taken, we can say that the remains³ are slim pickings. This means there are only a few useful things left to choose from.

And, when almost nothing of value remains, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. That means we are trying to get the last little bits. There is nothing but scraps⁴ left.

"Scraps" are small, unwanted pieces that remain at the end of a process, like bits of food remaining after making or eating a meal. The scraps are often given to animals or thrown away. So, if you have nothing but scraps, it means you have the least valuable things, worth almost nothing to most people.

When there is nothing left of something we need, like water, we must solve the problem. One answer is to dig a well to reach water underground. Some wells can last for many years, but others run dry. When the well has run dry, there is nothing left.

Paul Simon is a famous American songwriter. In 2007, he told a reporter, "I think there's a certain reservoir of melody⁵ that you are born with, and in the beginning, you draw on that. And then after a while, a relatively⁶ short while, you use it up."

A reservoir is a place where water is stored, such as a pool, a pond, or a lake. Simon added that when the artist has used all that is in the reservoir, he or she needs to expand their skills. Otherwise, their creative well is going to run dry.

So far, we have talked about running out of ideas. But what happens if you get lucky and find a lot of something valuable, like oil or gold?

In those cases, you have hit the mother lode⁷. The term mother lode came from California after gold was discovered there in 1848. It describes a narrow area of rock in the state about 190 kilometers in length. This rock was the source, or "mother," of the gold found in rivers and streams in the area.

Is VOA Learning English your mother lode for learning new idioms and expressions? Let us know in the comments below. And be sure to keep reading Words and Their Stories!

Words in This Story

pick -v. to select and take something

orchard -n. an area of land on which fruit trees are grown

branches -n. the parts of a tree that grow from its trunk and have leaves, fruit, or flowers on them.

obvious -adj. easily seen or understood

melody -n. the main notes that make a song or tune⁸

draw on -v. (phrasal) to utilize⁹ or to take from a quantity or source

pond -n. a small body of water

1 orchard   

n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场

参考例句：

• My orchard is bearing well this year.今年我的果园果实累累。
• Each bamboo house was surrounded by a thriving orchard.每座竹楼周围都是茂密的果园。

2 melodies   

曲调( melody的名词复数 )； 旋律； 乐曲的音符编排； 美妙的音乐

参考例句：

• The two melodies are played in counterpoint. 用对位法来演奏这两首曲调。
• And now for your further delectation, we present a selection of popular melodies. 为使你们更加愉快，我们奉献给你们一组精选的流行歌曲。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

5 melody   

n.旋律，曲调，悦耳的音乐

参考例句：

• She struck up a folk melody on the piano.她开始用钢琴演奏那首民歌。
• After she wrote the melody,she asked us for criticisms.她做好曲之后，请我们提意见。

6 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

7 lode   

n.矿脉

参考例句：

• We discovered the rich lode bellied out.我们发现丰富的矿脉突然增大了。
• A lode of gold was discovered。他们发现了一处黄金矿藏。

8 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

9 utilize   

vt.使用，利用

参考例句：

• The cook will utilize the leftover ham bone to make soup.厨师要用吃剩的猪腿骨做汤。
• You must utilize all available resources.你必须利用一切可以得到的资源。