英语杂谈：22 The problem of vocabulary 3

Gillian: Every two months or so, in a London suburb, a group of women have a meeting. They laugh a lot, talk excitedly and sometimes disagree quite strongly with each other. Every few days a 12-year old boy goes on the internet and writes a story about the character from his favorite children’s novel. Within a few days, other children, all over the world, have read his chapter on the internet.
Both the 12-year old and the group of women have something in common -they all enjoy reading books, and they want to share this pleasure and delight with other people. The women are part of a reading group; the boy is making use of a fan fiction website that encourages people to write stories about their favorite fictional¹ characters.
It’s often been said that reading a book is like having a conversation. And it seems that many people want to continue that conversation once they have read the book. Reading groups are one way of doing so. Typically, a reading group consists of six to twelve members who meet regularly to discuss a book they’ve all read. Reading groups take place in private homes, in libraries, in chatrooms on the internet. Reading groups read contemporary novels or the classics. And reading groups may even specialise in science fiction or romance², haiku or the crime novels of Dick Francis.

So why such enthusiasm for reading? A lot of reading we do is for information - to find out the times of a train, to discover what’s on a menu. But we also read because it satisfies our need for a good story. We try to make sense of our world by reading stories about it. In the past, reading was often a more social activity than it is today - those who could read, read aloud to those who could not, and everybody shared the stories. Stories which gave insights³ into the mysterious complexities⁴ of human experience.
So perhaps that’s why reading groups are so popular today. They enable people to share stories, and to see how other people’s responses to a story differ from their own. And from this sharing of stories, people form common bonds of friendship and community
Gary: Gillian Lazar, thank you. Next time, we’ll be finding out how to be a good
“book detective”!

1 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

2 romance   

n.恋爱关系，浪漫气氛，爱情小说，传奇

参考例句：

• She wrote a romance about an artist's life in Tokyo.她写了一个关于一位艺术家在东京生活的浪漫故事。
• They tried to rekindle the flames of romance.他们试图重燃爱火。

3 insights   

洞察力( insight的名词复数 )； 洞悉； 领悟； 顿悟

参考例句：

• This is a book full of profound, original and challenging insights. 这本书充满了深刻、新颖、令人深思的见解。
• Because his judgement was prudent, his insights were central to any consultation. 因为他考虑问题很慎重，所以他的意见在每次磋商时都最受重视。

4 complexities   

复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物

参考例句：

• The complexities of life bothered him. 生活的复杂使他困惑。
• The complexities of life bothered me. 生活的杂乱事儿使我心烦。