英语听力精选进阶版 11226

 

Happy-clappy 

Professor David Crystal 

This is one of those reduplicated words, where the two words 

are almost the same, but they just change one little part: change 

the vowel¹, or change the consonants³ in this particular case - 

usually the consonant² at the front, like "willy-nilly" - and "Ping-Pong" is one where the vowel changes.  

Well 'happy-clappy' came in in the, oh 1980s I suppose, referring 

to a member of usually a Christian⁴ charismatic group, 

characterised by enthusiastic handclapping and a very extrovert⁵ 

emotion, set of emotions being expressed – but it isn’t restricted 

to that. I’ve heard it used in all sorts of other contexts as well. It’s 

a mildly mocking word. If somebody says that somebody is 

'happy-clappy', there’s a sort of feeling of distaste about it.  

And the thing is, that the idea has moved beyond the religious circumstance now. 

It refers to anybody showing some kind of extrovert emotion, some kind of rather 

superficial feeling very often. You might say of somebody "he’s got a very happy-clappy attitude". It means he’s just producing his emotions without much thought 

all the time. So anybody who gets very enthusiastic and suddenly becomes a little 

over the top... starts to act out something... I'm now getting very happy-clappy 

about all this... 'cos I’m so happy to be on the radio, and now ... well, this isn’t really 

very appropriate for the BBC, is it?     

1 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

2 consonant   

n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的

参考例句：

• The quality of this suit isn't quite consonant with its price.这套衣服的质量和价钱不相称。
• These are common consonant clusters at the beginning of words.这些单词的开头有相同辅音组合。

3 consonants   

n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母

参考例句：

• Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants. 辅音往往被其邻近的辅音同化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

5 extrovert   

n.性格外向的人

参考例句：

• A good salesman is usually an extrovert,who likes to mingle with people.一个好的推销员通常很外向，喜欢和人们交往。
• Do you think you're an extrovert or introvert?你认为你是个性外向的人还是个性内向的人？