Idiom of the Day
kill the goose that lays the golden egg
殺雞取卵；竭澤而漁
Today: Tue, 25 Aug 2020
Meaning:
If you kill the goose that lays the golden egg, you destroy something that has made you a lot of money.
如果您殺雞取卵，最終會斷了財路。
For example:
The thing that attracted tourists to the island was the peace and quiet. But greedy developers have killed the goose that laid the golden egg by opening noisy nightclubs, so no-one goes there now.
吸引遊客到島上的觀光遊覽的那份心情是和平與寧靜。 但是貪婪的開發者通過開發建造嘈雜的夜總會簡直就是殺雞取卵，竭澤而漁。所以導致現在沒人再去那裡了。
Parents and agents of successful child actors and singers often kill the goose that laid the golden eggby making the kids work too much, and the kids lose the magic spark that made them special in the first place.
成功的兒童演員和歌手的父母和經紀人常常通過增加孩子們工作量，提高知名度最後導致殺雞取卵，竭澤而漁。使孩子們失去了最初使他們與眾不同的魅力。
Origin:
This idiom is derived from one of the fables attributed to Aesop. In this tale, a man and his wife had the good luck to own a goose that laid a golden egg every day. They soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough and, thinking the bird must be full of gold, they killed it to get all the gold at once. But when they cut the goose open, there was no gold inside. If they hadn't been greedy and killed the goose, it would have kept laying a golden egg every day.
這個成語源自伊索寓言中的一個寓言。在這個故事中，一個男人和他的妻子很幸運，擁有了一隻每天生下金蛋的鵝。他們很快開始覺得自己的發財致富速度還不夠快，一致認為這隻鳥的肚子裡一定裝滿金子，便殺死了它，想從中獲取所有的金子。但當他們將鵝的肚子拋開時，發現裡面沒有金子。如果他們沒有貪婪地殺了那隻鵝，那它還是每天都會生一顆金蛋。
Quick Quiz
If people find something that makes them a lot of money, they often kill the goose that laid the golden egg because of
a. their kindness
b. their greed
c. their anger
答案：b