听播客学英语 155 巨无霸

 　　After my last podcast, I am sure that many of you have applied¹ for jobs as spies for the British Secret Intelligence Service. But what will you do if they say no? If they say that they don’t want you; they have enough spies already; and they don’t think you would be very good at spying anyway?

　　Well, in most big cities nowdays, you can get a job in McDonalds, the chain of fast-food restaurants. You can make and sell burgers and chips (or “French fries” as the Americans call them). You can clear the tables and do the washing-up. Or you can sweep up the rubbish which people leave in the car park. It probably isn’t very interesting work, and probably McDonalds won’t pay you much money. But it is at least a job.

　　Or a McJob, as some people say. A McJob is a low-paid boring job with few prospects² in a service industry, like McDonalds restaurants. The word McJob has been used for at least 20 years, and for the last 6 years it has been in the Oxford³ English Dictionary, which means that it is officially recognised as part of the English language.

　　But McDonalds don’t like this. They say that the word “McJob” is an insult⁴ to the wonderful, hard-working men and women who work in their restaurants. They say that work in the fast-food industry today is fun, exciting and well-paid. And they want the Oxford English Dictionary to change the definition⁵ of McJob. They have persuaded a number of leading business people to write a letter to the dictionary, and they have organised a petition⁶ that anyone can sign.

　　The Oxford English Dictionary will probably reply that it is not their job to change what words mean. If people use the word “McJob” to mean a badly paid job in a fast-food restaurant, then it is right for the dictionary to say that that is what the word means. There are lots of words in the dictionary which people use in cruel, unfair or insulting⁷ ways – but that is not the fault of people who write dictionaries. They might even say that it is insulting to poorly paid people to pretend that they have wonderful jobs when actually their jobs are not wonderful. And that it is insulting to French people for McDonalds to call their chips “French fries”.

　　The truth is that most jobs in fast-food restaurants are boring and badly-paid. There are few benefits or career prospects, and many people only work there for a few months until they find something better. Like a job as a spy for example.

　　I shall be away in Germany next week (Hallo, Deutschland. Ich komme euch zu besuchen!), but I will be back with a new podcast on about 7 June. To keep you company, here are the Nashville Session⁸ Players with Big McDonald.

1 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

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。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

2 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

3 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

4 insult   

vt.侮辱，凌辱；n.侮辱的言词或行为

参考例句：

• You will insult her if you don't go to her party. 你要是不去参加她举办的聚会，就对她太无礼了。
• I can't sit down with that insult.我不能忍受那种侮辱。

5 definition   

n.定义；限定，确定；清晰度

参考例句：

• The book attempts a definition of his role in world politics.该书要阐明的是他在世界政局中的作用。
• I made a definition for this word.我给这个字下了定义。

6 petition   

n.请愿书，申请书，诉状；v.请愿，正式请求

参考例句：

• Thousands of citizens subscribed the petition.几千名公民在请愿书上签名。
• The number of signers of the petition for a new school snowballed.要求增设新学校而签名的人像滚雪球似的越来越多。

7 insulting   

侮辱的

参考例句：

• She was really insulting to me. 她对我实在粗鲁无礼。
• All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先，大家都气得怒发冲冠。

8 session   

n.会议，开庭期，市盘，学期；adj.短期的

参考例句：

• This matter will go over until the next session.这件事将留待下次会议讨论。
• Congress is now in session.国会现在正在开会。