Can of worms?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Can of worms?

Hence the metaphorical meaning of opening a can of worms - broaching a problematic situation inadvertently leads to more complex problems and utter chaos.

In such situations, you simply wish the can had not been opened to begin with. Yes, the can of worms is like the genie in the bottle – once let out, there’s no way of putting it back.

Still in other words, it’s a Pandora’s box.

Pandora’s box? Yes, but that’s for another day. I want you to learn very little every day, so little that you can never say that learning tires you out.

I’m just joking. I know you’re a tireless learner, as many people tell me so. Still, I’d like to be cautious, just in case. I mean, I will never give you an excuse.

Anyways, can of worms is the one and only idiom to remember today. It represents any tricky problem which, like a political scandal, you wish had never happened in the first place.

Because the best way to deal with a problem is to not have one in the first place.

Alright, here are two media examples:

1. Ray Harding, the former chairman of the Liberal Party, has just been indicted, charged with receiving huge payoffs to steer investments by the government employee pension funds to two financial firms. Allegedly Harding got $800,000 in the pension-fund scheme.

Four years ago, his son, Russell, who served as president of the New York City Housing Development Corporation under Mayor Giuliani, was convicted of embezzling more than $400,000 from that agency. This followed an expose by the Village Voice.