TED演讲：重新定义字典(4)

 　　So -- now, when you think about this, what we have here is a ham butt¹ problem. 所以，现在，当你想到这些，我们面对的问题其实是火腿屁股的问题。

　　Does everyone know the ham butt problem? 有人知道火腿屁股的问题吗？

　　Woman's making a ham for a big, family dinner. 有个女人正在弄火腿，给一个大家庭做晚餐。

　　She goes to cut the butt off the ham and throw it away, 她正要把火腿根部切去扔掉，

　　and she looks at this piece of ham and she's like, 看着那片火腿，她想，

　　"This is a perfectly² good piece of ham. Why am I throwing this away?" “这其实是块好肉，为什么我要把它扔掉呢？”

　　She thought, "Well, my mom always did this." 她继续想，“可是我妈都是这么做的”，

　　So she calls up mom, and she says, "Mom, why'd you cut the butt off the ham, when you're making a ham?" 于是她打电话给她妈妈，问，“妈妈，为什么你做火腿的时候要把火腿屁股切掉？”

　　She says, "I don't know, my mom always did it!" 她妈妈说，“我不知道，我妈一直都这么做的！”

　　So they call grandma, and grandma says, "My pan³ was too small!" 于是她们又打电话给外婆，外婆说，“我的锅太小了！”

　　So, it's not that we have good words and bad words. We have a pan that's too small! 所以，这不是因为有好词和坏词的存在，只是我们的锅太小了！

　　You know, that ham butt is delicious! There's no reason to throw it away. 要知道，其实火腿屁股味道可好了！没理由把它扔掉。

　　The bad words -- see, when people think about a place 所谓的坏词——当人们想去一个地方，

　　and they don't find a place on the map, they think, "This map sucks⁴!" 却不能在地图上找到这个地方，他们就认为，“这地图一点用也没有！”

　　When they find a nightspot or a bar, and it's not in the guidebook, 当人们发现一个旅游指南上没有的夜店或酒吧，

　　they're like, "Ooh, this place must be cool! It's not in the guidebook." 他们又认为，“旅游指南上没有的，这地方一定很酷！”

　　When they find a word that's not in the dictionary, they think, 而当人们发现一个字典上没有的单词，他们就觉得

　　"This must be a bad word." Why? It's more likely to be a bad dictionary. “这个一定是坏词”。为什么呢？这其实更像是一本坏字典的问题。

　　Why are you blaming the ham for being too big for the pan? So, you can't get a smaller ham. 为什么要责怪火腿比锅大呢？你不能找到小一点的火腿，

　　The English language is as big as it is. 因为英语本身就很大。

1 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 pan   

n.平底锅；v.严厉批评

参考例句：

• The water had all boiled away and the pan was burned.水煮干了，锅也烧坏了。
• The eggs were frying in the pan.鸡蛋正在锅里煎。

4 sucks   

v.吸，吮( suck的第三人称单数 )；舐，吮吸

参考例句：

• She still sucks her thumb when she's worried. 她在忧虑时仍然会吸吮大拇指。
• Plant sucks from the soil. 植物从土壤中吸取养分。 来自《简明英汉词典》