英语单词大师：Like It or Not

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster: a report from NBC News that caught our attention.

RS: It's about a word that is spreading like no other.

(MUSIC)FEMALE: "Like, I saw these guys who, like, were really cute."MALE: "And he was, like, 'Yeah' and I was, like, 'What do you mean?"FEMALE: "Because, like ... "MALE: "Are you listening to me? Like, you are not listening to me."AL ROKER: "It's, like, everywhere."MALE: "You got, like, three feet of air that time."AL ROKER: "It's used in commercials."FIRST ACTOR: "Just gives you the feeling, like, she's not, like, listening to me."SECOND ACTOR: "Have you tried not saying 'like' every other word?"FIRST ACTOR: "What?"AL ROKER: "It's used by celebrities¹."ROSEANNE BARR: "Like, if it was, like, a psychic² thing and he was, like, 'OK Roseanne ... '"AL ROKER: "It's even, like, used by our president."PRESIDENT BUSH: "And, like, citizens, you know, I don't like that at all"/"If I think the story is, like, not a fair appraisal⁴, I'll move on."MALE: "It gets out of control. It's like a like crisis."FEMALE: "Like totally, dude!"AL ROKER: "The word like has gone from California slang to worldwide phenomenon."Carmen Fought CARMEN FOUGHT: "Like is what we call a discourse⁵ marker, which means, like 'um' or 'uh,' it takes the place of a little section where you're thinking."ACTRESS: "He went from, like, totally chic³ to totally geek."AL ROKER: "So, like, when did it all begin? Experts say the 1983 movie 'Valley Girl' put the term on the map."MOVIE: "Man, he's just like trippindicular, you know"/"It's like I'm totally not in love with you anymore, Tommy."AL ROKER: "But it was the movie 'Clueless' that really launched like into our everyday vocabulary."MOVIE: "People came that, like, did not RSVP, so I was like totally buggin'."CARMEN FOUGHT: "After that movie came out, I do think we saw a spread of like into new areas."AL ROKER: "Do you use the word like a lot?"FEMALE: "Yes."AL ROKER: "Like how?"FEMALE: "Like that."AL ROKER: "Like what?"FEMALE: "Like how?"AL ROKER: "Like how?"FEMALE: "Like yeah."FEMALES: "Like totally!"AL ROKER: "OK, give me a little Valley Girl."FEMALE: "Like totally!"AL ROKER: "I like this."FEMALES: "Like totally!"AL ROKER: "I like it a lot. When you're talking, do you ever use the word like?"MALE: "Like what?"AL ROKER: "Do you like like?"FEMALE: "I like like."AL ROKER: "Do you like like? So what's the word like in German?"GROUP: "Wie [pronounced vee]."AL ROKER: "Do you ever use the word like?"MALE: "Yeah."AL ROKER: "How do you use it?"MALE: "Like, I don't know."AL ROKER: "Like you're not sure?"MALE: "Yeah."AL ROKER: "Do you ever hear how the young people use the word like?"MALE: "Most of them are idiots."AL ROKER: "But like it or not, one thing is for sure: You're loving like."GROUP: "I love like."AL ROKER: "They love like! Well, Carmen Fought is, like, expert on the word like. She's a professor of linguistics⁷ at Pitzer College in California. Like, welcome, Carmen!"CARMEN FOUGHT: "Like, thank you so much."AL ROKER: "How did this make the jump?"CARMEN FOUGHT: "You mean to other countries?"AL ROKER: "Right."CARMEN FOUGHT: "Well, basically what happened is that they were interviewing celebrities like Brittany Spears or ... [laughter, crosstalk] SUCH AS Britney Spears. There you go. And since these celebrities were using like in their quotes in newspapers and so forth⁸, you began to see that a lot in places like Australia, South Africa.

"Then Australian pop stars and people would begin to say -- in the media, would begin to use like that way. And then eventually it passed to just the common person on the street in Australia or South Africa saying, 'There was this, like, shark biting my leg.' [laughter]

KATIE COURIC: "And you called it, what did you call it in the piece, a language interrupter? Or what did you call it?"CARMEN FOUGHT: "A discourse marker?"KATIE COURIC: "Yeah. So what does that mean, a discourse marker?"CARMEN FOUGHT: "Well, we all need a little space to think sometimes about what we're going to say. And this occurs in all languages. In Spanish they say 'este.' In French they use this weird⁹ sound that I can't pronounce."ANN CURRY¹⁰: "But how we talk and how we think can somehow be related sometimes, and so is there any evidence that this may slow our thinking or mean that we're getting lazy in our thinking when we use something that's a discourse marker?"CARMEN FOUGHT: "Well, I don't think so. I think everyone uses them."KATIE COURIC: "I was thinking that it's almost because we talk so rapidly and try to get so in on the high pace of the world that you don't have time to really articulate and have sort of brain-mouth coordination¹¹, you know. You know, you know -- that's what I do. [crosstalk]"MATT LAUER: "Is like just [a phenomenon] today? I mean, are we going to be seeing this die out and fizzle out in the coming years and we'll have another word we'll all be griping about?"CARMEN FOUGHT: "Are you going to be sad if I say no? [laughter] I think it's here to stay, because it's spreading."AA: Linguist⁶ Carmen Fought, talking with Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Ann Curry on NBC's "Today" show.

RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail is [email protected]. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

2 psychic   

n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的

参考例句：

• Some people are said to have psychic powers.据说有些人有通灵的能力。
• She claims to be psychic and to be able to foretell the future.她自称有特异功能，能预知未来。

3 chic   

n./adj.别致(的)，时髦(的)，讲究的

参考例句：

• She bought a chic little hat.她买了一顶别致的小帽子。
• The chic restaurant is patronized by many celebrities.这家时髦的饭店常有名人光顾。

4 appraisal   

n.对…作出的评价；评价，鉴定，评估

参考例句：

• What's your appraisal of the situation?你对局势是如何评估的？
• We need to make a proper appraisal of his work.对于他的工作我们需要做出适当的评价。

5 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

6 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

7 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

8 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

9 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

10 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。

11 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。