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Hello!
大家好!
This week on Ask a Teacher, we will answer a question from Katerina in Spain.
本周《名师答疑》，我们回答来自西班牙的卡特琳娜的一个问题。
She writes: Dear VOA, I have a question about something my American friend usually says.
她写道：亲爱的美国之音，关于我的美国朋友经常说的一个东西，我有一个问题。
It is the… expression "a wild card." What does it mean?
就是......a wild card这个表达，这是什么意思？
Thank you very much for your answer!
非常感谢你的回答！
Take care! Katarina.
保重! 卡特琳娜。
Dear Katerina, thank you for writing to us.
亲爱的卡特琳娜，谢谢你的来信。
This expression is like many that come to American English from card games, especially the game of poker.
这个表达和美式英语中的很多表达一样，来自纸牌游戏，尤其是扑克牌。
Each set of playing cards has two extra cards.
每套扑克牌都有两张额外的牌。
These can take the place of lost or damaged cards.
这些牌可以代替丢失或损坏的牌。
These cards are called "Jokers."
这些牌被称为"大小王"。
They often have a picture of a clown-like person sometimes called a jester.
牌上经常画着一个看起来像小丑的人，这种人有时被称为弄臣。
In some card games, the "Joker" card is dealt to the players along with the usual kinds of cards.
在一些纸牌游戏中，"大小王"和普通的牌一起发给玩家。
It serves as a "wild card" in the game.
在游戏中是"变牌"。
That means, if you have it in your hand, you can use it as any other card.
这就是说，如果你手中有大小王，你就可以把它当作其他任何一张牌使用。
Here is an example of how a player might talk about their use of a wild card in a game.
下面这个例子说明了一个玩家如何在游戏中谈论他们使用的变牌。
I have three kings and one joker.
我有三张K和一张王。
I'll use the wild card as a king, so now I have four kings.
我把王用作K，所以现在我有四张K。
But card games are not the only places you will hear the term "wild card."
但纸牌游戏并不是你能听到"变牌"这个词的唯一一个地方。
In sports, we use the expression for a team that is invited to compete for a championship.
在体育运动中，我们用这个表达来形容被邀请争夺冠军的球队。
For example, in American football, the best teams play each other at the end of the season -- in a series of games called "playoffs."
例如，在美式橄榄球中，最强的球队在赛季结束时相互比赛--这一系列比赛被称为"季后赛"。
A few teams that might not have the best records are invited to play against the top teams.
一些战绩可能不是最好的球队会被邀请来与顶尖球队比赛。
It is possible, if the wildcard team is good enough, that it can win the championship.
如果外卡球队足够好，它也有可能赢得冠军。
Here is an example showing how a wild card team won the championship of American football, the Super Bowl.
下面是一个外卡球队赢得美式橄榄球超级碗冠军的例子。
In 2007, the New York Giants entered the playoffs as a wild card team, but they went on to beat the New England Patriots and win the Super Bowl.
在2007年，纽约巨人队以外卡球队的身份进入季后赛，但他们最终击败了新英格兰爱国者队，赢得了超级碗冠军。
And, as you can probably guess, we use "wild card" to describe people as well.
而且，正如你可能猜到的，我们也用wild card来形容人。
If a person is unpredictable, you cannot be sure of how they will act, then you might say:
如果一个人是不可预测的，你不能肯定他/她会怎么做，你就可以说：
My brother is a wild card when it comes to holidays -- we never know if he is coming to our family dinners.
我哥哥在度假时是个未知数--永远不知道他是否会来参加家庭晚餐。
Finally, in the world of computers, the term "wild card" describes a symbol that programmers use.
最后，在计算机领域，术语"通配符"指程序员使用的一个符号。
It looks like a little star and is called an asterisk.
它看起来像一颗小星星，因此被称为星号。
It means anything can appear in that place.
表示任何东西都可以出现在那个地方。
For example, if you want a computer to find all the words in a document that start with the prefix dis- so you can write a command: "Find dis*."
例如，如果你希望计算机查找文档中以前缀dis-开头的所有单词，你就可以编写命令：Find dis*。
The result will be a set of words like these: discover, discuss, dismiss, and the like.
结果就会是这样的一系列词汇：discover, discuss, dismiss等等。
I hope this will help you to understand and even use the expression "wild card" yourself, Katerina.
希望这能帮助你理解甚至使用wild card这个表达，卡特琳娜。
And that’s Ask a Teacher.
以上就是本期《名师答疑》。
I’m Jill Robbins.
我是吉尔·罗宾斯。
