口语马拉松 122 - 敲不开的坚果

MUSIC: Sky Sailing - Tennis Elbow
He's a hard nut to crack. 
他是一个难对付的家伙。
“hard nut to crack” 先理解一下表面意思：


hard 硬的，在这里用来强调 nut 很硬；
nut 坚果，表示坚果有硬壳很坚硬，不易砸开
crack 裂缝，声变，破裂，变声
As we all know, Our boss is a hard nut to crack, every time we want to ask for a leave, he simply says no, whatever reason you might have.


A: Why do you look so upset?
B: Don’t you know that we are going to
have a math exam tomorrow?
A: So what? Relax. It is a piece of cake.
B: It might be a piece of cake for you, but for me, it's a hard nut to crack.