大学体验英语第三册Unit5-Passage A

Tongue-tied
Several weeks ago I was riding in a cab when the driver's eyes caught mine in the rear view mirror and he said, "Excuse me, Miss? Can you help me?"

　As any hard-bitten city dweller¹ knows, the correct answer to a question like "Can you help me?" should always be some version of "It depends." I chirped², "Sure."

　"Thank you," he said. He passed a slip of yellow paper into the back seat.

　I stared at the paper, wondering. Was this a joke? A threat? Hand-printed on the paper in tiny block letters was this:
　　proverb
　　peculiar³
　　idiomatic⁴ 　

　　"Please," he said. "What is the meaning of these words?"
　I stared at the words in the distressed⁵ way you might stare at party guests whose faces you've seen somewhere before but whose names have escaped your mind. Proverb? Peculiar? Idiomatic? How on earth should I know? It's one thing to use a word, it's another to explain it. I resorted to shifting the topic.

　　"Where did you get these words?"

　The driver explained that he was Pakistani. He listened to the radio as he drove and often jotted⁶ down unfamiliar⁷, fascinating words whose meanings and spellings he then sought from his passengers.
　"Peculiar," he said. "What does this mean?"
　　I could manage that one. "Strange," I said. "Odd. Often with a hint of something suspicious."
　　"Thank you, Miss. And idiomatic?"
　　I cleared my throat. "Um, it's a, well, um. It involves a peculiar use of the language."
　I thought my use of peculiar was kind of clever. He looked confused, a reminder⁸ that clever's not clever if it doesn't communicate.
　"Uh, let's see. 'Idiomatic' is related to the word 'idiom'. An idiom's something that's used in, say, a particular part of the country or by a particular group of people. People who aren't part of that group aren't likely to use it and might not understand it."
　Watching his puzzled look, I did what a person often does when at a loss for the right words: I went on talking, as if a thousand vague words would add up to one accurate definition.
　"Can you give me an example?"
　　I racked my brains. "Gapers block," I said. A peculiarly Chicago phrase.
　　But did it really qualify as idiomatic? I had no idea because the longer I thought about idioms the less sure I was what they were.
　"And proverb?"
　　I should have told the poor man right then that I might be misleading him down the proverbial path, whatever that really means, but instead I said, "I think a proverb is kind of like an aphorism⁹. But not quite."
　"A what?"
　　"Never mind. A proverb is a condensed saying that teaches you a lesson."
　　"An example?"
　　The meter clicked off a full 20 cents while I searched madly through my mind. "Haste makes waste?" I finally whimpered.
　But was that a proverb? Wait. Weren't proverbs actually stories, not just phrases? While I was convincing myself they were, he said, "Can an idiom be a proverb?"
　I could answer that. Just not right now, now when it mattered, now when the fate of a curious, intelligent immigrant hung on the answers he assumed would fall from a native speaker's tongue as naturally as leaves from an October tree. So I retreated.
　"Do most of your passengers give you answers when you ask for definitions?"
　　"Oh, yes, Miss. Very interesting definitions."
　Until that moment, I'd been so inspired by the driver's determination to learn English, so enthralled¹⁰ by the chance to indulge my curiosity about words with another curious soul, that I didn't fully¹¹ grasp the potential for linguistic¹² fraud committed in this man's cab. Now I could barely allow myself to imagine what kind of deformed¹³ English he was being fed by cowards like me who couldn't simply say, "I don't really know my own language."
　I can only trust that someone as curious as he is also owns a dictionary. And that he figures out that, no matter what his passengers may say, haste doesn't always make waste at the gapers block.

1 dweller   

n.居住者，住客

参考例句：

• Both city and town dweller should pay tax.城镇居民都需要纳税。
• The city dweller never experiences anxieties of this sort.城市居民从未经历过这种担忧。

2 chirped   

鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的过去式 )

参考例句：

• So chirped fiber gratings have broad reflection bandwidth. 所以chirped光纤光栅具有宽的反射带宽，在反射带宽内具有渐变的群时延等其它类型的光纤光栅所不具备的特点。
• The crickets chirped faster and louder. 蟋蟀叫得更欢了。

3 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

4 idiomatic   

adj.成语的，符合语言习惯的

参考例句：

• In our reading we should always be alert for idiomatic expressions.我们在阅读过程中应经常注意惯用法。
• In his lecture,he bore down on the importance of idiomatic usage in a language.他在演讲中着重强调了语言中习惯用法的重要性。

5 distressed   

痛苦的

参考例句：

• He was too distressed and confused to answer their questions. 他非常苦恼而困惑，无法回答他们的问题。
• The news of his death distressed us greatly. 他逝世的消息使我们极为悲痛。

6 jotted   

v.匆忙记下( jot的过去式和过去分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下

参考例句：

• I jotted down her name. 我匆忙记下了她的名字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The policeman jotted down my address. 警察匆匆地将我的地址记下。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

8 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

9 aphorism   

n.格言，警语

参考例句：

• It is the aphorism of the Asian Games. 这是亚运会的格言。
• Probably the aphorism that there is no easy answer to what is very complex is true. 常言道,复杂的问题无简易的答案,这话大概是真的。

10 enthralled   

迷住，吸引住( enthrall的过去式和过去分词 )； 使感到非常愉快

参考例句：

• The child watched, enthralled by the bright moving images. 这孩子看着那明亮的移动的影像，被迷住了。
• The children listened enthralled as the storyteller unfolded her tale. 讲故事的人一步步展开故事情节，孩子们都听得入迷了。

11 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

12 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

13 deformed   

adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的

参考例句：

• He was born with a deformed right leg.他出生时右腿畸形。
• His body was deformed by leprosy.他的身体因为麻风病变形了。