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piece of cake пара пустяков; плёвое дело; раз плюнуть M E A N I N G : an especially easy and pleasant task; something achieved with very little effort Don’t worry. Skateboarding down this hill is a piece of cake. ORIGIN: In the nineteenth century, Southern American black people held a traditional contest for the best dressed couple. The contestants simply had to walk slowly round the prize cake until it was cut and awarded to those judged to be winners. According to another interpretation, this phrase could have come from an Afro American dance contest. The dance was called the cakewalk, and the winner won a cake. play gooseberry третий лишний M E A N I N G : to be a third unwanted person accompanying two lovers I’m certainly not coming with you and your fiancée – I hate playing gooseberry. ORIGIN: The origin is obscure, but guesses include the possibility that it is connected with the fact that Gooseberry was an old name for the Devil. play it by ear решать по ходу дела / по ситуации (не обдумывая заранее) M E A N I N G : to adapt to something by improvising or responding instinctively to the demands of the situation I don’t know how he is going to react at the meeting, so we had better just play it by ear. ORIGIN: The term originally only referred to playing music, implying that a musician might play without reading the music, but by listening to it or simply playing along. It has since been expanded to other contexts. 96