Wash Your Hands

• Why wash your hands?
• When should you wash your hands?

Where have those hands been?

Do you ever watch hands? Get on a subway train, and be an observer. Hands dip into purses and pockets. Watch them touch cellphones, the train's bars, straps and seats and even other people. You can see the things they touch on the subway but not what they touched before they got on. See that mother over there? She may have changed her baby's diaper and not washed her hands. See that grandma in the seat across the way? She may have just chopped up a raw chicken and not washed her hands well.

She could be leaving bacteria wherever she puts her hands. And see that guy over there? He is picking his nose! Gross!

If you're healthy, your skin is crawling with hundreds of kinds of bacteria. If you're sick, there are even more lethal germs on your hands. They can make your and others sick! OK, here's your stop. Now go directly to the first restroom you see and wash your hands -- with soap. You'll be glad you did -- and so will everyone else!

Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: Washing One’s Hands Figuratively 洗手的比喻用法

We know how important it is to wash our hands and we should do it often to maintain good personal hygiene.

Now we might also wash our hands figuratively and that has a completely different meaning.

Right, if we wash our hands of someone or something, we stop being responsible for that person or thing. For example, I don’t know how I can for Jennifer, and now I’m washing my hands of her.

Or that car was a real headache; I wash my hands of it a longtime ago.

So that car was causing too many headaches for you.

That’s right. Now this figurative usage of washing one’s hands is from the bible’s account of the trial of Jesus. When the Roman governor punches, Pilate didn’t know what to do with Jesus, he took some water and washed his hands. For claiming that, he’s not responsible for sending Jesus to his death on the cross.

To this day, the phrase “washing one’s hands of something” is used by people to excuse themselves of any responsibility should a situation turn problematic.


Language Lab
observer n.
a person who sees and notices someone or something
- A team of professional observers will be assigned to monitor the R&D department.
- Observers said the robbers took the old lady's purse and got into a van.

cell=cellular n.
a small telephone that people can take with them and use outside their homes
- Mike is talking on his cellphone.
mobile = mobile phone

lethal adj.
/ˈliːθəl/
causing or able to cause death
- The police found lethal weapons in the suspect's garage.
- The spread of the lethal disease was finally curbed because of the invention of the vaccine.

germ n.
a very small living thing that causes disease
- This tiny germ is the cause of this dangerous disease.
- This germ is found in all the patients who were sharing the same room.
virus n.
an extremely small living thing that causes a disease and that spreads from one person or animal to another
- The flu virus can be spread through the air.

mms://203.69.69.81/studio/20160106baa83c28de18d92f3f3a53d541f87365ff2ae938e25c1d02457146da432f66fbabd.wma