Are you good at keeping secrets? Can other people trust you with their private information? If you tell someone a secret that you weren't supposed to tell anyone, you can say that you “spilled the beans.” Can you guess where this phrase comes from?
A long time ago in Greece, people voted by putting beans in a jar. If they wanted to vote “yes” for something, they would put a white bean in the jar. If they wanted to vote “no,” they put a black bean in the jar. However, sometimes when everyone was voting, someone would knock over the jar and “spill the beans.” Then everybody would know what the result of the vote was before they were supposed to know.
Nobody is totally sure if this is why people use the phrase today, but its a good story to help you remember what “spilling the beans” means!
PHOTO: AP
(Marc Langer, staff writer)
你擅長保守祕密嗎？別人可以放心地告訴你祕密嗎？假如你告訴某人一個不可告人的祕密，你可以說自己是「spilled the beans」（打翻了豆子）。你猜得到這個片語源自哪裡嗎？
很久以前在希臘，人們投票的方式是將豆子放入瓶中。假如他們想投「贊成票」，他們會在瓶中放入一顆白色豆子。假如他們想投「反對票」，就會把黑色豆子放入瓶中。不過，有時候大家在投票時，可能會有人打翻了瓶子，「豆子灑了出來」。所以，大家就會事先得知投票結果。
沒有人百分百確定這是否就是這個片語沿用至今的緣由，不過這是一個還不錯的故事，幫你記住「spilling the beans」是什麼意思！
（翻譯︰賴美君）
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