英语听力精选进阶版 11217

 

Alcopops 

Professor David Crystal 

One of the big questions always with a language is: “how do new 

words come into being?”. Well, you can borrow them from other 

languages of course;  a lot of English words are like that. But one 

of the lesser-known ways of making new words is to form a blend 

– and a blend is when you run two words together to make a 

third word. And people have done it since the beginning of English 

actually. To take a recent example:  alcopops – carbonated fruit 

flavoured drinks containing alcohol – a very controversial thing this 

was when they first came in a few years ago, because it was 

obviously being aimed at children, and people were very 

concerned that children would now have some alcohol introduced 

into them that they weren’t expecting.  

But it’s the word I want to talk about today – a very interesting 

word indeed!  Alco-pops. Alco is obviously the first part of the 

word, shortened version of “alcohol”. And pops is the second part 

of the word. Pop you might not know so much about. It has quite a long-standing 

usage. It’s basically the word for lemonade once upon a time. Pop bottles – 

because of the sound that’s made when a cork¹ is drawn² out of an effervescing 

drink – that sort of sound! – and pops suddenly became a very quick sound 

symbolic³ way of expressing that kind of  notion; so the two words have come 

together:  alcohol and pop …and becomes alco-pops.  

There are lots of words like this in English. Brunch⁴ is another one – for a mixture 

of breakfast and lunch, and you can actually have quite a fun game making these 

blends up yourself. For instance, if you decide that you want to invent a cross 

between a helicopter and a bicycle shall we say?  Well, make a blend about it. You 

could call it a “helicycle” for instance, or maybe a “bicopter”.  

1 cork   

n.软木，软木塞

参考例句：

• We heard the pop of a cork.我们听见瓶塞砰的一声打开。
• Cork is a very buoyant material.软木是极易浮起的材料。

2 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

3 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

4 brunch   

n.早午餐

参考例句：

• They eat much the same thing for brunch every day.每天早午餐他们总是吃同样的东西。
• What did you have for your brunch?你早午饭都吃些什么？