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Welcome to English in a Minute!
In many card games, some cards have an unknown value. They are called wild cards. But, what else can “wild card” mean?
Wild Card
Speaker A: I invited Ralph to our fundraising meeting.
Speaker B: Great idea! He’s rich! He can help us raise money for our pickleball team.
Speaker A: But he’s also a wild card. You never know what he’s going to say.
Speaker B: If he says something unhelpful, we just unplug his microphone!
If someone is a “wild card” they are unpredictable. You don’t exactly know how they might affect a situation or what they might do. Lots of situations can have a wild card, even a pickleball fundraising meeting.
And that’s English in a Minute!
*This article has been edited and reprinted from VOA Learning English with permission from Voice of America (VOA) for use in English language materials.
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