词汇大师(Wordmaster)--'Spider Hole' and Other Iraq War Te

Broadcast: December 18, 2003

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we look into "spider holes" and some other terms that have come out of the war in Iraq.

RS: Sunday's news of the arrest of Saddam Hussein included some military lingo¹ that has captured a lot of people's curiosity.

AA: "Spider hole," for example. Lieutenant² General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of American forces in Iraq, used that term to describe what troops had found.

SANCHEZ: "After uncovering the spider hole, a search was conducted, and Saddam Hussein was found hiding at the bottom of the hole."

RS: Here in the United States, Sean Fitzpatrick happened to turn on his radio in the middle of a special report on the arrest. The amateur linguist³ knew the term "spider hole" -- but not from the dozens of dictionaries he's collected at his home in Pennsylvania.

AA: Sean Fitzpatrick served in Vietnam in the late 1960s, part of the time as an Army reporter and photographer. During the war, Viet Cong guerrillas used such holes to snipe at American troops. On Sunday, as he listened to the news, he's not sure which he heard first, the term itself or the description. But it didn't matter.

FITZPATRICK: "As soon as I heard the description, it matched up with 'spider hole,' that it was a hole in the ground for concealment⁴ that could be closed with some kind of concealing⁵ or camouflaged⁶ cover, the idea being that even if you were standing⁷ on it or next to it, you might not see that it was there, and yet the person inside could get out pretty quickly, because the cover was light and loosely fitted."

RS: "And in this case it was Styrofoam with a rug on top."

FITZPATRICK: "Right. And I'd known the term before. I think there was posting to the American Dialect Society list that had a news item from 1941 with a photo caption⁸ showing Marines, I believe, being taught to use spider holes. And you know, I didn't really know why, exactly why it was called a spider hole. I've seen it suggested that it's because there are certain kinds of spiders that build similar kinds of nests with a lid that the spider is able to pop out of and ambush⁹ prey¹⁰. And that sort of makes sense, but exactly why it was called a spider as opposed to a covered foxhole¹¹ or something like that, I don't know. Because that's basically what the idea is. It's a covered, concealed¹² foxhole."

AA: "So initially¹³ they referred to this hole as a spider hole, and we're hearing now 'rat hole.' What is the difference between a spider hole and a rat hole?"

FITZPATRICK: "Oh, a rat hole is an old general civilian¹⁴ term. And I think it's just been applied¹⁵ to any kind of sordid¹⁶ refuge that a scoundrel or a rat hides in."

RS: "Another expression we heard Sunday morning was 'high value target,' or HVT."

FITZPATRICK: "Right. That was completely new to me. Actually I heard it just as 'HVT.' The colonel who was, I believe commanded that 600-man task force, kept referring to HVTs and I inferred pretty quickly that T stood for target, but I didn't know until quite a while later that HV stood for high value."

AA: "And Saddam's codename that they were calling him was 'HVT one."

FITZPATRICK: "Was it? OK ... "

RS: "One term that we've been seeing is, and if you could explain it we'd appreciate it, is 'improvised¹⁷ explosive device.'"

AA: "Or IED, as they also call it."

RS: "What does that mean?"

FITZPATRICK: "It means exactly what it says. It's an explosive device that has been manufactured in somebody's basement or somebody's garage rather than being manufactured specifically as an explosive, as a bomb. Or it's one that has been adapted. This seems also to be a pretty new term. It may even have been coined to deal with these roadside explosive devices which often use an actual explosive device, an unexploded bomb or an artillery¹⁸ shell that's been looted from a weapons repository and then set up with a fuse that can be detonated remotely."

RS: Sean Fitzpatrick is a Vietnam veteran and former military journalist. He's now a technical writer and editor in the computer industry.

AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is [email protected], and you'll find all our programs on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 lingo   

n.语言不知所云，外国话，隐语

参考例句：

• If you live abroad it helps to know the local lingo.住在国外，学一点当地的语言自有好处。
• Don't use all that technical lingo try and explain in plain English.别尽用那种专门术语，用普通的词语解释吧。

2 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

3 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。

4 concealment   

n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒

参考例句：

• the concealment of crime 对罪行的隐瞒
• Stay in concealment until the danger has passed. 把自己藏起来，待危险过去后再出来。

5 concealing   

v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Despite his outward display of friendliness, I sensed he was concealing something. 尽管他表现得友善，我还是感觉到他有所隐瞒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• SHE WAS BREAKING THE COMPACT, AND CONCEALING IT FROM HIM. 她违反了他们之间的约定，还把他蒙在鼓里。 来自英汉文学 - 三万元遗产

6 camouflaged   

v.隐蔽( camouflage的过去式和过去分词 )；掩盖；伪装，掩饰

参考例句：

• We camouflaged in the bushes and no one saw us. 我们隐藏在灌木丛中没有被人发现。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• They camouflaged in bushes. 他们隐蔽在灌木丛中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 caption   

n.说明，字幕，标题；v.加上标题，加上说明

参考例句：

• I didn't understand the drawing until I read the caption.直到我看到这幅画的说明才弄懂其意思。
• There is a caption under the picture.图片下边附有说明。

9 ambush   

n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击

参考例句：

• Our soldiers lay in ambush in the jungle for the enemy.我方战士埋伏在丛林中等待敌人。
• Four men led by a sergeant lay in ambush at the crossroads.由一名中士率领的四名士兵埋伏在十字路口。

10 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

11 foxhole   

n.（军）散兵坑

参考例句：

• On an impulse he kicked some sand into Ridge's foxhole.一时性起，他就提起脚来将一些沙子踢进里奇的坑里。
• The sentry guard dived into his foxhole and closely observed the stranger towards him.哨兵跳入了散兵坑，密切注视着陌生人向他走来。

12 concealed   

a.隐藏的，隐蔽的

参考例句：

• The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
• I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。

13 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

14 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

15 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。

16 sordid   

adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的

参考例句：

• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively.他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。
• They lived in a sordid apartment.他们住在肮脏的公寓房子里。

17 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

18 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。