英语单词大师：in the Next Cube

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and our guest this week on Wordmaster is writer Paul Dixon, just out with a new version of Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms.

PAUL DIXON: "Most slang dictionaries go A-to-Z and they co-mingle the slang of politics and the slang of baseball and the slang of criminals and the slang of all these other things into one thing. What I realized was that really that's not how people actually operate. So I broke it down into all the components¹: used-car slang and slang of people outdoors, people who work outdoors, the slang of trades people, the slang of real estate.

"All of these things -- because when you create a group of people, one of the first things they do is they build their own little language to sort of identify them as such. So a person who is a commercial fisher -- fisher, fisher person -- has a vastly different language than, say, somebody who is a computer programmer or somebody who works in a circus. So what I tried to do is break it down into over forty different pieces.

AA: "So, for example, if you use the term 'dancing baloney' -- to me, I've never heard that term before. But I see it here in your dictionary. What is a -- explain dancing baloney."PAUL DIXON: "Dancing baloney are animated² .gif files -- which are, you know, digital images -- and other Web files that are useless and serve simply to impress the client. And so somebody might say in a cube, 'This Web page looks kind of dull, maybe we should throw in some dancing baloney to help it.'"AA: "So just kind of flash on the page."PAUL DIXON: "Another of my favorite ones is 'buzzword-compliant.' Buzzword-compliant means that the person who's writing a memo³ or something that's going through the corporate⁴ mechanisms⁵ has all the buzzwords, all the hottest terms that upper management wants them to have in the document. So if the buzzword this month is blue-team-red-team-something-or-other, that goes in the document. They might even really not know what it is, but they want to make sure that this is all right, this has got all the buzzwords in it.

"Another one I love is 'catering⁶ vulture,' which means that somebody -- people in an office building, let's say there's an executive luncheon⁷ or something, these are underlings that basically wait till all the VIPs [very important people] are out of the suite⁸ -- "RS: "And then they eat the food!"PAUL DIXON: "And then they grab the food. Or there's a party, you know, some special thing -- they come in early in the morning and there's stuff left over from the night before."RS: "This isn't the first edition of this book."PAUL DIXON: "No, no -- what happened was, this is the third, the first one came out in nineteen ninety-one and each dictionary changed radically⁹, because my idea was to capture like a snapshot for that moment. So there are things in the first book that are long gone. I mean, the first book came out before the Internet. And so each time -- so all of these things are electric.

"So, so -- one of my favorites is this thing called cube-speak."RS: "Well, can we talk about that a little bit?"PAUL DIXON: "Yes. Cube-speak is -- in the United States especially, and probably true all over the world, the modern office building is really a section of cubes. In the old days, people had their own separate little house -- uh, little room inside the office. Now there are all these cubes. They all have a computer and they all have this and they all have that.

"And so it's a very irreverent language of sort of not the corporate executive but the corporate underling. And so, for example, one of my favorites is 'prairie-dogging' and that's when something happens, some loud noise or somebody yells and everybody starts popping up over the edge of their cubicles¹⁰. They're like prairie dogs popping out of a hole in the desert."AA: Prolific¹¹ writer Paul Dixon is the author of Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms. He says the value of slang is often in its ability to communicate complex ideas simply and quickly.

RS: But his advice to English learners is to listen carefully to how others use slang. Because, as everyone knows, a person can sound foolish using slang incorrectly.

AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is [email protected]. And, to learn more about American English, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

2 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

3 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

4 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

5 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 catering   

n. 给养

参考例句：

• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。
• Who did the catering for your son's wedding? 你儿子的婚宴是由谁承办的？

7 luncheon   

n.午宴，午餐，便宴

参考例句：

• We have luncheon at twelve o'clock.我们十二点钟用午餐。
• I have a luncheon engagement.我午饭有约。

8 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

9 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

10 cubicles   

n.小卧室，斗室( cubicle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Security guards, operating inside bullet-proof glass cubicles, and speaking through microphones, scrutinized every arrival and departure. 警卫们在装有防弹玻璃的小室里值勤，通过麦克风细致盘问每一个进出的人。 来自辞典例句
• I guess they thought me content to stay in cubicles. 我猜他们认为我愿意呆在小房间里。 来自互联网

11 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。