“假摔炫富”梗当前，谈“摔倒”你只会说fall吗？

Falling Stars Challenge

To fall down

小心地滑(NOT “slip carefully”) 

Be careful not to slip and fall 

Caution: Wet/Slippery floor

To slip and fall  滑倒

To trip  绊倒

I tripped  我绊了一下

I tripped over something  （什么东西）绊了我一下

NOT “I’m tripping”! 我“嗨”了

He tripped me.  他绊了我一下（有意）

To stumble 绊／跌跌撞撞

To stumble over one’s words 说话结结巴巴

I always stumble over my words when I see someone I like. 

Bad falls: 

To fall flat on one’s face 摔了个嘴啃泥

I fell flat on my face in front of everyone. 

To take a pratfall 摔了个屁股蹲儿

To keel over 突然昏倒（或者猝死）

When she heard the awful news, she just keeled over. 

It was so hot that I thought I would keel over and pass out. 

Idioms and proverbs with fall

Fall victim to someone/something  沦为…的受害者

Elder people are more likely to fall victim to scams. 

老年人很容易成为诈骗犯罪的受害者

Fall under someone’s spell 

中了某人的魔咒（被某人迷住了）

I just fell under his spell. 

Fall into the wrong hands 

落入坏人之手

Don’t let this book fall into the wrong hands.

Fall into one’s lap  

掉到怀里的好运（天上掉馅饼）

You can’t expect the ideal job to just fall into your lap.

Pride comes before a fall. 骄兵必败

What do we say?

Careful! 当心！

Watch out! 小心！

Look out! 小心！

Mind out (BrE) 小心！

Mind (the steps/the gap)! 小心台阶／小心（月台）间隙

If you were ever in London, you might have noticed that when the underground train arrives at certain stations, the announcement would say “mind to gap”, because some of the underground stations in London are really old and there is quite a wide gap between the train and the platform. 

Actually there is a very touching story behind these three words. In the 1950s, stage actor Oswald Laurence recorded the “mind the gap” message for London underground and it was played over 40 years in the underground system. After he passed away in 2007, his wife Margaret would frequently visit the one station that still played his voice recording. But in 2012, the London underground system changed their announcement and replaced his voice. She was heartbroken because she would never hear the voice of her late husband again, so she wrote to the underground authority in the hope that they would bring his voice back. So moved by her story, the underground granted her request and switched back to his recording at Embankment station so she could hear his voice again. This moving story has also been made into a mini film called “Mind the Gap”. 

So next time you are in London, if you happen to take the underground to Embankment station, listen for the “mind the gap” announcement, it tells a love story that carries on long after the loved one has passed away.