【明報專訊】Pat is telling MoMo about her summer vacation. Let's find out what happened.

MoMo: Hey Pat, how was your two-day seaside trip with your family?

Pat: Well, it was fine, but not as wonderful as I had expected. (1) The so-called "sea" the tour guide took us to was nothing but a small bay. And the water was dirtier than it looks on the promotional brochure.

MoMo: Oh I'm sorry to hear that. But I guess the activities were more fun?

Pat: The kayaking on the first day was, but the buffet dinner disappointed me. They only served some simple dishes and (2) the seafood was anything but fresh.

MoMo: How about the snorkeling session? (3) You talked about nothing but starfish and sea turtles before your trip.

Pat: Well, it wasn't the turtle's breeding season yet so there weren't any turtles. Still I managed to spot some coral fish. (4) I would say the snorkeling session was anything but boring.

■English highway﹕

◆anything but

A is anything but B. = A is definitely not B.

e.g.

Given the computer's excellent performance and use of the latest technology, the price is anything but expensive.

◆nothing but

A is nothing but B. = A is only B.

e.g.

Jane is an environmentalist. She eats nothing but organic food.

◆Know more

The conjunction "but" has a lot of meanings in English. It can mean "except" in addition to the common usage of bringing out a contrasting fact. This leads to the use of the idioms "anything but" and "nothing but".

■Now you try

(Answers on next text)

Fill in the blanks with "anything but" or "nothing but".

1. Roger makes his money by selling counterfeit products and doesn't care about copyright. He is _________________ conscientious (有良心的).

2. Although Roger is a successful businessman, he has ________________ money.

3. The customs raided Roger's office. However, Roger had asked his secretary to get rid of the evidence. The officers found ______________ a pile of uninformative meeting records.

■Glossary

promotional (adj) 宣傳用的

snorkel (v) 浮潛

spot (v) 辨認

counterfeit (adj) 假冒的

[Smarties' Power English 第223期]