alphabet soup
noun [ U or S ] uk/ˌæl.fə.bet ˈsuːp/ us/ˌæl.fə.bet ˈsuːp/
(FOOD)
字母形面片汤
a type of soup that contains small pieces of pasta (= a food made from flour and water) in the shape of letters
With alphabet soup, children can practise spelling while enjoying a tasty meal. 有了字母形面片汤，孩子们可以一边学习拼写，一边享用可口的食物。
- More examples
- a menu featuring such classics as veal Oscar and alphabet soup with chicken dumplings
- My son had been begging for alphabet soup. So I picked up some alphabet pasta and whipped up some soup.
- So what makes this Mexican Alphabet Soup Mexican? Well, it's all in the way you prepare the pasta.
(MIXTURE)
（因含有许多符号或缩略语等而极难懂的）代号语言
a confused mixture that is difficult to understand, often because it contains a lot of abbreviations (= short forms of words) and acronyms (= abbreviations formed from the first letters of each word in the name of something)
Health plans have changed over the years into an alphabet soup of HMOs, PPOs, and now HSA and HRAs. 这些年来，医疗保险模式一变再变，成为艰涩难懂的代号语言，先是有HMOs和PPOs，现在又有了HSA和HRAs。
- More examples
- They are probably better equipped than most parents to make sense of the alphabet soup of ESAs, UGMAs, IRAs, and so on that make up the nation's college savings system.
- In the alphabet soup of seismology, nondestructive P (primary) waves travel twice as fast as the dangerous S (shear) and R (raleigh) waves - just as lightning precedes thunder.
- There's already the ITED, ITSB, NAEP, PSAT, SAT, and ACT, and the alphabet soup of standardized tests Montana children take each year is likely to get thicker.
- She's heard a patient complain of drowning in "an alphabet soup of medications".