2026-03-27
7 分钟Hi, and welcome to the Espresso English Podcast, where you can improve your English in just a few minutes a day.
My name is Shaina, and I'm the teacher at Espresso English.
Make sure to visit the website, EspressoEnglish.
net, where you can get online courses and e-books that will help you learn English even faster.
Let's get started with today's lesson.
Lesson 1 Explanation, Idioms from Food Walking on eggshells The hard exterior part of an egg is called the shell.
Eggshells are very fragile.
That means it's easy to break them.
If you are going to walk on eggshells, you would need to walk very carefully.
So, walking on eggshells means being extremely careful with your words and actions so that you do n't upset
or offend someone in a delicate situation.
Politicians are often walking on eggshells during delicate negotiations that could easily go wrong.
You could also be walking on eggshells when interacting with a person who is easily offended or who gets angry easily.
Many cakes are covered with a sweet, sugary paste called icing.
The cake is already delicious, and the icing makes it even more delicious.
So the icing on the cake is an additional benefit to a situation that is already very good.
This phrase is often used when you 're having a really great day,
and then one final thing happens to make the day perfect.
For example, When I came home to find that my husband had made a romantic dinner, it was the icing on the cake.
Occasionally this idiom is used sarcastically in the opposite way,