英语听力精选进阶版 11220

Mwah! 

Professor David Crystal 

You've seen it on television, or in the street, hundreds of times, 

thousands of times. Two people come towards each other, they 

obviously know each other very well, and they start to kiss each 

other - but it's not a full frontal kiss. No, what happens, one 

person puts the cheek against the other person's cheek and they 

have what is often called an 'air' kiss. They make a kissing noise, 

which shows that they're coming together, as great intimates, but 

it's not a real kiss at all. And many people then give this air kiss a 

noise, a word, and it's usually 'mwah', 'mwah' - something like 

that.  

Now, how do you write it?  Well nobody knows quite how to 

write it, but it's really m-w-a-h. I saw it written in about the mid-nineties for the first time. And, there's a plural¹ too:  "there's lots 

of mwahs about these days" I remember reading in somebody's 

journal at one point. It's an affectation, it's associated with a social elite² – probably 

everybody does it to a degree or another.  

What's unusual is to get the effect coming out as a word. It's a sort of 'sound 

symbolic³' word - mwah - it's a lovely way of expressing the actual noise that takes 

place when you do a phoney kiss of this kind. And I've never done it myself - I'm 

not a 'mwah' type person - but I think an awful lot of people are. I certainly don't 

think I've ever heard it on the radio and certainly not as a way of saying goodbye 

to listeners - but I'll try it out and see what happens, so 'mwah'!!     

1 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

2 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

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。