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地道英语

中级

Can't see the wood for the trees 一叶障目

Episode 260421 / 21 Apr 2026

节目简介

在英国，人们习惯用 “wood” 指代 “森林”。成语 “can't see the wood for the trees” 就用 “只见树木，不见森林” 来形容 “一个人被局部的细节所迷惑，而忽略了全貌”，在寓意上和汉语成语 “一叶障目” 十分近似。听节目，跟主持人菲菲和 Georgie 学习这个成语的用法。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Feifei
Hello and welcome to Authentic Real English, where we explain phrases and expressions used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them too! I'm Feifei, and I'm joined by Georgie. How are you?

Georgie
I'm very well, thank you. How are you?

Feifei
I'm very well, thank you, Georgie. So, what are we learning in this programme?

Georgie
Well, the other day, I thought of quite an old idiom – can't see the wood for the trees. Now, it's old, but it is still quite commonly used. If you can't see the wood for the trees, it means that you're so focused on the small details of something, that you aren't looking at the situation as a whole and what's important.

Feifei
Oh right! Because 'wood' in British English can mean something similar to 'forest'. So if you're standing in front of an individual tree, maybe looking at the details of the bark, you can't see the entire forest. You can't see the wood for the trees.

Georgie
Right, which is why in American English you might also hear 'can't see the forest for the trees'.

Feifei
Yes. Why don't we have an example, Georgie? How would we use it in the context of work?

Georgie
OK. So imagine a team working on a document. They spend hours thinking about the font size, but the content of the document is unclear and the overall structure doesn't make sense. If you're obsessing over the font size, you're missing the bigger issue – the document itself isn't working.

Feifei
Yes. The team can't see the wood for the trees. This idiom is often used gently to give advice rather than criticism. Shall we have some more examples?

Examples
When I was writing my novel, I couldn't see the wood for the trees. I kept getting stuck on the same sentence, writing it over and over again.

When I was planning my wedding, I just became obsessed with the seating plan. I couldn't think about anything else. I couldn't see the wood for the trees.

I've been working on this project for so long, I can't see the wood for the trees at this point – I've forgotten why we're doing it in the first place. I think I need to get an outside perspective.

Feifei
你正在收听的是 BBC 英语教学制作的 “地道英语” 节目。在本期节目中，我们正在学习一个英语成语 “can't see the wood for the trees”。“Can't see the wood for the trees” 的字面意思是 “只看见树木而看不见森林”，人们用它来比喻 “被事物或事件局部的细节所迷惑或吸引，因而看不到它的全貌”。这个英语成语和汉语的成语 “一叶障目” 十分相似，形容的都是 “由于过度关注细节而失去了对全局的把握和视野”。

Georgie
Yes. And there's some other useful language to use in this context. If someone can't see the wood for the trees, they should take a step back and look at the bigger picture. 'The bigger picture' is a phrase meaning the situation as a whole.

Feifei
Yes, they shouldn't 'get bogged down in the details'.

和 “can't see the wood for the trees” 有关的表达还有 “the bigger picture” 和 “get bogged down in the details”。“The bigger picture” 的意思是就是 “事物的整体，大局”。单词 “bog” 的意思是 “沼泽”，所以 “get bogged down in the details” 形容的是 “像被拖进了一片沼泽地一样被事物的细节所迷惑和拖累，所以完成一件事情的速度被拖延”。

Georgie
Those are all useful phrases to use. Let's recap.

Feifei
We learnt the idiom 'can't see the wood for the trees', which means you focus too much on smaller details that you forget to look at the whole situation.

Georgie
Join us again next time. Goodbye!

Feifei
Bye-bye!

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