英语听力精选进阶版 11236

 

Bling 

Professor David Crystal 

Bling, bling – it arrived in English in the late 1990s, used 

to describe diamonds and jewellery and all kinds of showy 

clothing, accoutrements …  

Well, it became nationally known in the USA when the 

artist Baby Gangster¹ - Cash Money artist - made a hit hip-hop song called 'Bling Bling'. And it soon arrived in Britain, 

where it was more usually used without the reduplication, 

you know, 'bling', by itself. It was in dictionaries by 2002.  

Well, the sound-symbolic character of the word - glistening 

light reflected by metal - it caught popular attention. The 

Times ran an article on it. It was the title of a novel by 

Erica Kennedy, and its sense began to broaden² as people 

began to use the word in new ways. There's a website, 

'Think Bling!' defining³ it as 'anything shiny and worth a 

good amount of money'. Cars can now be bling.  

And even that definition is passé - a rich meal can be bling. 'Bling 

Breakfast' was the headline of a newspaper article in New York a couple 

of years ago.  

But the word's takeover by the middle-classes has made it worthless to 

the rapping⁴ community. My rapping contacts tell me – they'd never use it 

now, except as a joke! 

1 gangster   

n.匪徒，歹徒，暴徒

参考例句：

• The gangster's friends bought off the police witness.那匪徒的朋友买通了警察方面的证人。
• He is obviously a gangster,but he pretends to be a saint.分明是强盗，却要装圣贤。

2 broaden   

v.放宽，变宽，扩大

参考例句：

• We broaden in experiences by traveling.旅行增长我们的经验。
• Let's broaden out the discussion to talk about education as a whole.我们来扩大一下讨论范围，全面谈谈教育问题。

3 defining   

规定( define的现在分词 )； 使明确； 精确地解释； 画出…的线条

参考例句：

• You can customise the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集，您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为，通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。
• This point can be put another way in defining poverty. 这一点还能从另一方面来加以说明以佐证贫困的涵义。 来自英汉非文学 - 新闻报道

4 rapping   

n.轻击修光（锻造中）v.突然说出( rap的现在分词 )；（公开地）严厉批评；突然大声说出；连续敲叩

参考例句：

• All at once there was a brisk rapping at the door. 这时忽听得有人急匆匆的在敲门。 来自辞典例句
• A sharp metallic rapping came on the front door. 前门上响起一阵刺耳的金属敲击声。 来自辞典例句