fail the exam

名落孙山

In the Song Dynasty (宋朝) there was a joker called Sun Shan (孙山).

宋朝有一个很幽默的人，他叫孙山。

One year he went to take the imperial examination， and came bottom of the list of successful candidates.

有一年他去参加考试，公布名单时他是最后一名。

Back in his hometown， one of his neighbor asked him whether the neighbor‘s son had also passed.

回到家，他的邻居向他打听自己的儿子考得怎么样。

Sun Shan said， with a smile：“Sun Shan was the last on the list. Your son came after Sun Shan.”

孙山笑着对邻居说：“孙山考了最后一名，你儿子的名字还在孙山的后面呢。”

The people used this idiom to indicate failing in an examination or competition.

人们用“名落孙山”来比喻考试没有考上或者选拔没有被录取。

“名落孙山”现在大多指“考试没有通过”等意思，英语中可以说成“fail the exam”。

在这里要提一个短语“apple-polish”，近百年前，有些美国小学生喜欢在老师的桌上放点擦得鲜亮的苹果，想讨好老师，以防自己“名落孙山”，但后来“擦苹果”(apple-polish)逐渐产生了贬义，表示“讨好，拍马屁，贿赂”的意思，用于讽刺那些谄媚奉承，讨好别人的人。而“擦苹果的人” (apple-polisher)就成了“阿谀逢迎者，马屁精”。学习还是要脚踏实地的好啊~~~

我们来一起看一个例句吧~

John is such an apple-polisher.He always agrees with whatever the boss says.

约翰是个马屁精，不管老板说什么，他都赞同。