用down the pan表达“泡汤了”

如果一件事情 something goes down the pan 或者 something goes down the toilet，那意思是说这件事情完蛋了，被搞砸了。

• Mike had great dreams of becoming a rock guitarist, but they went down the pan when he injured his hand.
• I‘m afraid all that careful preparation we did for Meerka‘s surprise birthday party went down the pan when her sister told her about it.
• He invested all his life‘s savings in a beautiful, antique car but everything went down the pan when he crashed it the next day.

值得注意的是，短语 out of the frying pan, into the fire “刚出油锅，又入火坑” 可以用来表达某事从不好的情况进入到更糟的状态。

• Studying for my MA was really difficult and stressful, but then I really jumped out of the frying pan into the fire when I graduated and realised there were no good jobs available.