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WORDS AND THEIR STORIES - English Expressions That Don't Pan Out

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Today's word, pan, takes us back to the days of the gold rush in California.

On January twenty-fourth, eighteen forty-eight, a man named James Wilson Marshall discovered gold in the territory of California. The news spread quickly. Thousands rushed west. They traveled on foot, by horseback and by boat to reach the gold fields. By eighteen forty-nine, the great gold rush was on.

Towns and cities grew overnight. Throughout the territory - in the mountains, along the streams and rivers - thousands of people searched for gold. They had food to eat and blankets to cover them. They also had mules to ride, and picks and pans to search for gold.

Some found areas of mountain rock thick with gold. These men got rich. But such areas were few and quickly claimed by the first men to find them. Others searched for gold in the rivers coming down the mountains. They were after pieces of gold that the rains had washed down from above.

The only way to find this gold was by panning. First a gold miner put dirt in a metal pan and added water. Then he shook the pan so that the water would wash the dirt. Slowly, he poured the water out of the pan. If he was a lucky miner, pieces of gold would remain.

Across the nation, newspapers carried stories of the gold being found. One told how thousands of people climbed the mountains looking for gold. Some stories told how others followed the rivers and streams with pans. Each one hoped that the place he claimed panned out well - had some gold.

For many, gold mining did not pan out. For a few, it panned out well. But in time, huge machines were built that could wash many tons of dirt at a time. Panning died out.

The word, however, remained in the language. Today, Americans still say, "It panned out well," when something they have done pleases them. A business, a discovery, a simple event pans out well if it is successful. Unhappily, sometimes things do not pan out.

In recent years, the word pan has taken on another meaning. Today, it also means to criticize. How it got this meaning is hard to discover. But the job of a critic is to sometimes pan the work of a writer, artist or singer.

Sometimes, critics may pan a movie or play so severely that no one will go to see it. There are times, however, when a play became highly successful, even though most of the critics panned it without mercy. The pans should have washed out the play. But, as actors have pointed out, sometimes a critic's pan turns up gold.

接着翻译

                                                                                              词语故事--英语表达式那不会成功
        今天的单词，盘子，将我们带回到了那个在加州淘金的日子。
        在1848年，1月24日，一个名字叫作吉姆威尔森马歇尔的男人在加州的领域内发现了金子。这个消息很快就传播开去了。数以千计的人奔向西部。他们步行，骑马或者是划船去藏有金矿的地方。在1849年，最疯狂的淘金热开始了。
       城镇和城市仿佛是在一夜之间就出现了。贯穿整个加州领域--在山地，沿着小溪和小河-数以千计的人寻找着金子。他们有食物可以吃，有毯子来盖。他们同样也有骡子来骑，有凿子和盘子来淘金。
       一些人在山区找到了富含金矿的石头。这些人变的很富有。但是像这样的地方是很少的，并且一旦被发现就会被发现的人宣布它已经被占有。其他人在从山区流出来的河流里寻找金子。他们是去寻找那种被雨水从山区上方冲刷下来的金子的。
       那{wy}的方法去淘金就是用盘子来淘洗。一开始一个淘金者将污泥放到金属盘中并加些水。然后他开始晃动盘子好让水能将脏东西冲下去。慢慢地，他将脏水倒出盘子。假如他是一个幸运的淘金者，那就会有小块的金子留在了盘子中。
       整个国家，新闻上不断报道金子被发现的事情。一些报道数以千计的人是怎样爬到山上去寻找金子的。一些则会报道另外的人是怎样沿河或小溪用盘子淘金的。每一个人都希望他宣称的地方能成功的淘到金子。
       对于很多人，采金最终也没能成功。对于少数的人，结果是大获成功。但是适时的，大型机械被造出来了，它能同时淘洗上吨的矿石。用盘子淘洗的时代过去了。
       这个词，然而，依旧存活在我们的语言中。今天，美国人仍然说“一帆风顺”，当他们做了某些事情之后感到满意时。一份生意，一个发现，一个简单事件一帆风顺假如它成功了。不幸地，一些事情并不能一帆风顺。
       在最近的几年里，盘子这个单词又被赋予了新的意思。今天，它同时还有批评的意思。为什么它会有这样一个意思很难被解释。但是批评家这份工作就是间或批评一个作家，艺术家或xx的工作。
       一些时候，批评家可能会批评一部电影或者是戏剧很严格，这样就没人愿意去看那些了。但有些时候一部戏剧仍会取得巨大的成功，即使大多数的批评家毫不留情地批评他。批评的话有可能毁了一部戏。但是，当演员们指出，一些时候一个批评家的批评将会变成金子。