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英语杂文:牛津词典收录山寨、房奴等新词

时间:2010-09-17 09:01:29

(单词翻译:单击)

拥有115年悠久历史的牛津词典本月推出了新版《牛津英汉-汉英词典》,其中收录了“山寨”、“房奴”等近年来流行的中文词汇。据介绍,为了编纂这本新发行的中英文词典,中英两国的出版社共计60名编辑人员花费了近5年的时间。

The 115-year-old prestigious(有名望的) Oxford1 Dictionary will now include popular new Chinese terms like "shanzhai" "youtiao" and "fangnu", as part of the modern Chinese language.

As China plays a more and more important role in the world economy, the Chinese language is forever evolving, attracting more attention from people who want to understand this ancient yet vibrant(充满生气的) language.

For instance, the word "shanzhai" is used to describe the plethora(过多,过剩) of cheesy(下等的) wigs2 on sale in many shops and markets. Or another example would be the countless3 knockoffs(名牌仿制品) of iPhones or designer(享有盛名的) bags imprinted4 with Louis Vuitton logos.

Another new term in the new edition is the word "fangnu", or a "mortgage slave" - a term used to describe the phenomenon in larger cities whereby well-educated youth complain of a miserable5 existence due to the heavy burden of a home mortgage.

All these new or often fashionable terms can be found in the new Oxford English-Chinese,  Chinese-Englishdictionary that was unveiled in the recently concluded Beijing International Book Fair(书展) last week.

The dictionary now is available for retail6 sales since the beginning of this month.

This dictionary is the largest single volume English-Chinese, Chinese-English dictionary and contains 670,000 words and phrases after five years of preparation. Sixty editors from the Oxford University Press and its partner in China - the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press - worked together on the project. According to Julie Kleeman, the dictionary's chief editor, most of the firm's editors were Chinese, while about one fourth were native-English speakers.

"We don't want to make it florid(绚丽的) , we want it to be modern and conversational7... many of the words in the present dictionary are no longer in use," said Kleeman. "The need for studying Chinese by foreigners today is totally different from decades ago... Precise, native and practical - that is our core advantage," she said.

She added the dictionary also has a sidebar(工具条,侧边栏) section that explains words that pack in too much cultural information, like "hutong", a traditional architecture style common in the narrow lanes of Beijing. Another would be "youtiao" the popular Chinese breakfast staple8 usually eaten with soybean milk(豆浆) .

According to the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press' press release, terms included in the new version of dictionary were selected from both the Oxford English Corpus and the, City University of Hong's LIVAC Synchronous9 Corpus.

Kleeman said newer publications updates will be available only for the online version as language often changes too quickly for book versions to keep pace. The online version will also offer a Chinese phonetic10 pronunciation guide.

The online version, allowing access via different platforms from the PC to the iPad, will be ready "as soon as possible", Kleeman said.

文化教育类英语新闻


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1 Oxford Wmmz0a     
n.牛津(英国城市)
参考例句:
  • At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
  • This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。
2 wigs 53e7a1f0d49258e236f1a412f2313400     
n.假发,法官帽( wig的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • They say that wigs will be coming in again this year. 据说今年又要流行戴假发了。 来自辞典例句
  • Frank, we needed more wigs than we thought, and we have to do some advertising. 弗兰克,因为我们需要更多的假发,而且我们还要做点广告。 来自电影对白
3 countless 7vqz9L     
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的
参考例句:
  • In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
  • I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。
4 imprinted 067f03da98bfd0173442a811075369a0     
v.盖印(imprint的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • The terrible scenes were indelibly imprinted on his mind. 那些恐怖场面深深地铭刻在他的心中。
  • The scene was imprinted on my mind. 那个场面铭刻在我的心中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 miserable g18yk     
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的
参考例句:
  • It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他,这是可耻的。
  • Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。
6 retail VWoxC     
v./n.零售;adv.以零售价格
参考例句:
  • In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
  • These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。
7 conversational SZ2yH     
adj.对话的,会话的
参考例句:
  • The article is written in a conversational style.该文是以对话的形式写成的。
  • She values herself on her conversational powers.她常夸耀自己的能言善辩。
8 staple fGkze     
n.主要产物,常用品,主要要素,原料,订书钉,钩环;adj.主要的,重要的;vt.分类
参考例句:
  • Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
  • Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。
9 synchronous bqswx     
adj.同步的
参考例句:
  • The message can be used only with synchronous operations.消息只能与同步操作一起使用。
  • Synchronous machines do not easily fall out of step under normal conditions.在正常情况下,同步电机不易失去同步。
10 phonetic tAcyH     
adj.语言的,语言上的,表示语音的
参考例句:
  • Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。
  • English phonetic teaching is an important teaching step in elementary stages.语音教学是英语基础阶段重要的教学环节。