真的在打的那種球
這一組就是字面畫面本身：有球、有規則、有結果。兩個意思的差別只在鏡頭拉多遠——拉遠是整個球類世界，拉近是今天下午那一場。
noun · B1
Any game that is played with a ball. This is the British English use, and it names a whole group of games rather than one match.
球類運動
核心畫面
Start with the plainest picture the two words give you: a game, played with a ball. That covers football in a park, tennis on a court, and children throwing something back and forth after school. Two things come with that picture and never leave it. There are rules everyone has agreed on, and there is a result. American speakers narrow the picture to one match that a crowd has come to watch. Then English takes the same picture off the field: a situation you are in can be described as the game you happen to be playing, with its own rules and its own final score.
可以先從最單純的畫面開始：一場用球玩的比賽。公園裡的足球、球場上的網球、小朋友放學後你丟我接，全都在裡面。這個畫面帶…更多收起
可以先從最單純的畫面開始：一場用球玩的比賽。公園裡的足球、球場上的網球、小朋友放學後你丟我接，全都在裡面。這個畫面帶著兩樣東西，而且一直沒有離開過。一是大家講好的規則，二是最後會有的結果。美式英文把畫面縮小，變成「大家進場看的那一場球」。接著英文又把同一個畫面搬下球場，用來講人的處境：你現在面對的局面，就像你正在打的那一場球，有它自己的規則，也有它自己的比數。規則換了，就是 a whole new ball game；比數定了，就是 that's the ball game。Two branches
把處境講成一場球
同一個畫面離開球場，用來講人的處境。球賽本來就有兩個關鍵：規則和比數。這兩個關鍵各自長出一個固定說法。
noun · B2
You call something a whole new ball game when it is so different from what you are used to that your old experience and habits stop being much help.
完全是另一回事