英语听力精选进阶版 11221（在线收听）

Phwoar! 

Professor David Crystal 

Interjections are words which express emotions and some of 

them are very old:  words like 'cooer', 'gosh' or 'phew'. You don't 

get new interjections very often, but one did arrive in the 1980s. It 

was a sort of expression of enthusiastic desire - usually by a man 

about a woman.  

Easy to say 'phwoar!' like that - less easy to write. How do you 

spell such a thing? All interjections have this kind of problem. Well, 

I've seen it spelled f-o-o-o-a-r for instance…all sorts of things 

beginning with 'f'. But the one that is most widely used these days 

is p-h-w-o-a-r:  'phwoar!' like that.  

Well it's becoming very frequent, in all kinds of television 

programmes I've heard it used recently. Interestingly, although it 

was originally a male noise, it's now being used by women. Women are using it 

back to the men. 'Phwoar' these days could be a man looking at a woman in an 

enthusiastic way, or a woman looking at a man in an enthusiastic way. Nobody's 

ever said it to me; I just can't be an object of enthusiastic desire I suppose!