Break a leg

演出成功，祝你好运

This idiom comes as a result of the superstitious nature of actors and other performers. Many of them think that if you wish them good luck, the exact opposite will happen! Instead of jinxing them, their friends and fellow actors may tell them to break a leg, metaphorically, to have good luck!

这个成语来源于演员和其他表演者的迷信天性。他们中的许多人认为，如果你祝福他们好运，相反的事情就会发生！因此，他们的朋友和同伴可能会告诉他们说祝断腿，这并不是说要给他们招致霉运，而是寓意着祝他们好运！

My husband is trying out a new standup comedy routine tonight at the coffee shop. I told him to break a leg!

我的丈夫今晚会在咖啡店尝试一个新的戏剧脱口秀。我祝他演出成功。

I know you really do not need the luck with all the practice that you have been putting in, but make sure to break a leg!

我知道你已经练习，投入了许多，真的不需要运气了，但是一定演出成功哦！

To make a clown of yourself

扮小丑

Clowns are supposed to be funny and entertain people. They are sometimes thought of as ridiculous people who do all kinds of things to make people laugh. Thus, if you make a clown of yourself, you are doing something that makes people laugh.This is usually not something you do intentionally. Instead, you probably intend to do something seriously. However, by no fault of your own, you end up making a clown of yourself – or looking like a fool. The idiom is usually not meant as a good thing. Even though some people really like clowns, in this context they are someone who knows very little.

小丑应该是滑稽的，来娱乐大众的。他们有的时候会被认为是做各种令人发笑的事情的荒谬人物。因此，如果说你在扮小丑的话，表示你正在做让人发笑的事情。这通常不是你有意去做的事情。 相反，你可能打算认真地一件事情。 然而，并非你自己的错误，最终你却以扮小丑为终 - 或看起来像一个傻瓜。这个成语通常不是指一件好事。 虽然说有的人真的喜欢小丑，但在这种情况下，小丑指的是很无知的人。

Ada was so scared to make a clown of herself that she ended up doing a terrible job at her performance anyways.

阿达很害怕自己成为一个小丑，以至于她最终在工作上表现很糟糕。

Kelly did not mean to make a clown of her coworker but the coworker was trying to exaggerate their role in the project so much without understanding that it was embarrassing for everyone who was listening.

凯利并不是想把她的同事当成小丑，但是她的同事却夸大自己在项目中的角色，丝毫没有意识到，这会让大家都觉得尴尬。

To be in the limelight

成为万众瞩目的焦点

If you are in the limelight, you are in the public eye. This means that there are people who actually care about your personal life aside from all the work that you do. They will want to know about your personal life, including who you are dating, how your family is doing, what your typical day looks like, and what you like to spend your free time doing. Because of this, you will likely have paparazzi and reporters around you often.People are interested in you as a person, meaning that they will take steps to figure you out.

如果你在聚光灯下，那你就在公众的眼中。这意味着除了你所做的一切工作之外，还有一些人真的关心着你的私生活。他们会想要知道你的私生活，包括你的约会对象，你的家庭，你典型的一天是什么样的，你空闲时间喜欢做什么。因此，你的身边经常会有狗仔队和记者。人们对你的个人生活感兴趣，这意味着人们会采取措施来了解你。

The expression comes from an old practice from the theater scene. Limelight was an actual type of light, also known as “calcium light”. The bright white light is made by heating oxygen and hydrogen, and placing a piece of lime into it. It was used for stage lighting and still exists today.

这个表达来自以前戏剧界的做法。聚光灯（Limelight）是一种实际的光线，也被称为“钙光”。这种明亮的白光是通过在加热的氧气和氢气中放入一块石灰而产生的。它被用于舞台灯光，而且现在仍然存在。

Dylan tried to avoid the publicity as much as possible, but he was in the limelight all the time because of his new major hit movie.

迪伦尽量地避免进行宣传，但是由于他近期的热播电影，他一直处于聚光灯之下。

The public's interest is always wandering, so even though you are in the limelight it is difficult to keep the attention on you.

公众的兴趣总是在游离，因此，即使你在聚光灯之下，他们也很难把注意力集中在你的身上。

To crave the limelight

渴望聚光灯，渴望风头

If you crave the limelight, you really like to be the center of attention. You crave (really, really want) to be the focus of everyone's interest. This applies to celebrities and politicians, but it also applies to regular people that you meet at work or at school. If someone is constantly doing crazy things and telling you about it, they are likely a limelight craver. Another word for this is attention hog.

如果你渴望风头，表示你真的很想成为关注的焦点。你很渴望成为每个人兴趣的焦点。这适用于名人和政治家，但也要同样适用于你在工作或学校中遇到的普通人。如果有人一直在做疯狂的事情并且告诉你这些事情，那么他们很可能是爱出风头的人。这个词的近义词是渴望被关注的人（attention hog）。

 I had no idea why my friend always asked questions she knew the answer to in class, until I realized that she craved the limelight and enjoyed it when the teacher acknowledged her.

我不明白为什么我的朋友总是在课堂上问她明明知道答案的问题，直到我意识到，她只是渴望并且享受当老师感谢她的时候，受关注的感觉。

Joan was never someone who craved the limelight, but after the press and interviews of her about her first New York Times bestselling book, she began to see the appeal.

乔安从来不是一个渴望风头的人，但在她接受了关于她的第一本“纽约时报”畅销书的新闻报道和采访之后，她开始明白了风头吸引人的地方。

Museum piece

老古董，珍藏品，值得收藏到博物馆里的东西

A museum piece is something or someone that is so old, antique, and out of place that it should be in a museum rather than as a part of everyday life.It is used mostly as a derogatory phrase – if you call something or someone a museum piece, it means that they are stuck in the old ways of doing things and unable to change or improve.

老古董表示某件东西或者某人很老，显得格格不入，他们应该出现在博物馆里，而不是成为日常生活的一部分。这个词经常被用作贬义词，即如果你称呼某件东西或者某个人为老古董，那就意味着它们被困在了落伍的做事方法之中，无法改变或者进步。

Of course, a museum piece can be used literally. You can literally call something that is displayed in a museum a museum piece, but the idiomatic meaning is much more common.

当然，“museum piece”也可以根据它的字面意义上来使用。你可以从字面意义上来称呼某件在博物馆里陈列的东西为“museum piece”表示珍藏品，但是这个词的习语意义更为普遍。

 Ross, your hat looks like a total museum piece; please do not take it with you to wear to the show.

罗斯，你的帽子真的像个老古董一样；请不要戴着它去秀场。

Rachel was so angry when Rebecca called her homemade pants a museum piece because she had been so proud of her work before that.

当丽贝卡说瑞秋的自制裤子为老古董的时候，瑞秋感到非常生气，因为在这之前，她一直对她的作品感到非常骄傲。

A dog and pony show

马戏表演，犬马闹剧

A dog and pony show is an event of some sort whose purpose is to rally people for their support and/or their money. If someone is trying to sell you something, they are likely to advertise something free to get you to join, show you a portion of what they have, and ask you to pay for the full thing.

马戏表演指的是为了得到人们的支持或者金钱而将人们聚集起来的某种形式的活动。如果有人极力地向你推销某件东西，他们可能是想做一下免费的广告让你加入到其中，向你展示他们拥有的小部分东西，并要求你付费才能看到全部。

A dog and pony show is one that does that, regardless of the quality of the product. Many times, the quality or usefulness of the service or product is far lower than you would expect. Even if this is the case, people will often buy the product because they have been subtly manipulated to be receptive to it.

无论产品质量如何，马戏表演就是做着这样子的事情。很多时候，服务或者产品的质量或者实用性是远低于你的预期的。即使情况如此，人们还是会经常地购买这类产品，因为他们被推销人员巧妙地操纵以接受这类产品。

Before she realized that this was a dog and pony show meant to get her to spend as much money as possible, Ada had already promised her next paycheck to the event's manager.

在阿达意识到这是一个用来诱导她尽量多消费的马戏表演之前，她已经答应将她下个月的薪水支付给这个活动经理了。

The company had a hard time convincing their potential customers that they were more than just a dog and pony show, but their lack of professionalism and experience really hurt their cause.

公司很难使他们的潜在客户相信他们并非马戏表演，但是他们的专业精神以及经验缺乏确实有损他们的事业。