英国新闻听力 失传的英语词汇“重出江湖”(在线收听) |
Terms of endearment in the English language like "darling" and "my dove" have been used for hundreds of years, 英语里的昵称 “darling” 和 “my dove”等已经流传百年, but others fell out of favor. 但有些词汇却备受冷落。 Now you can find out more about lots of phrases over the past thousand years in a vast database of English words and phrases that's just been published online. 如今,大量的英语词汇和短语被发布在网上,从中你可以找到一千年以来更多的英语表达。 Doctor Mark Alexander is senior lecturer of English at Glasgow University. 马克·亚历山大博士是格拉斯哥大学的高级英语讲师。 Valory Sanderson asked him for more examples of phrases or words that have now become obsolete. 瓦洛里·桑德森向他请教更多的英语废词和短语。 So why does the language change dramatically over the years? 多年来,为什么语言的变化如此之大? So about 70% of English is borrowed. 70%左右的英语词汇都是借过来的。 We just borrow a better word or a different word for variety. 为丰富英语词汇,我们借来了更好的或不同的单词。 So words like "belly" try to get replaced by the Latin "abdomen". 所以像”belly”这样的单词就逐渐被拉丁语“abdomen”替代了。 Just because people like show off. 就是因为人们都爱卖弄, They like variation in their life. 喜欢生活中的多样性。 Or sometimes because the middle-classes adopt a term which distinguishes them from the working classes and so on. 或者因为中产阶级想使用一个不一样的词和工人阶级区分开来,诸如此类。 For a long time, the animal sheep and the meat that you got from a sheep was "sheep". 曾经有很长一段时间,羊和羊肉都叫作“sheep”。 And then after the French came over in Norman Conquest, you then had words like "mutton" appearing which is the French for "sheep". 但法国诺曼征服之后,”mutton”一词出现了,它在法语中是“羊肉”的意思。 And "muttons" apply to the meat. 就这样,”mutton”成了英语中“羊肉”。 You can see how society has changed very quickly just by looking at words, for example "foreign people". 从词汇就能看出社会的变化有多快,比方说“外国人”。 And you can see some very offensive terms and been replaced in later years with much nicer terms. 这个词在以前的表达中极具攻击色彩,后来被更加友善的表达替代。 Same for woman. “女人”也一样。 A lot of the terms for woman in the history of English are quite offensive. 历史上关于女人的英语表达也十分无礼。 Doctor Mark Alexander. 马克·亚历山大博士。 Google says it was drawing its Internet-connected glasses, the so-called Google glasses. 谷歌称目前正在召回联网眼镜,即所谓的谷歌眼镜。 The company will stop taking orders for the product from next week, but insists it's committed to developing future versions of the glasses. 从下周起,谷歌将停止接受谷歌眼镜订单,但强调公司将致力于开发谷歌眼镜的未来版本。 Our technology correspondent Rory Cathleen-Jones reports. 本台科技记者罗里·凯瑟林·琼斯报道。 When Google glass first went on sale two years ago to a select group of software developers, 两年前谷歌眼镜上市时,首先发售给一些软件设计师, it was held as a futuristic product which could change the way we live. 它的定位是可以改变人类生活方式的未来主义产品。 The smart glasses allowed users to receive information from the Internet in a small screened perched above their right eye. 这款智能眼镜可以使用户通过右眼上方的小屏幕接收互联网信息。 It could also take photos and videos, and give directions. 也能拍摄照片或视频,还能指路。 But after the initial enthusiasm, doubts began to grow. 但最初的热情消退以后,质疑也就接踵而来。 There was concern about the privacy implications of the device. 有人担心该设备可能触及隐私。 And it was banned from some restaurants and cinemas. 所以一些餐厅和电影院里都禁止使用谷歌眼镜。 Some users felt it made them look strange and stopped wearing it in public. 有些用户感觉这种眼镜会让自己看起来很奇怪,所以就不再在公众场合佩戴。 Now Google has announced that it will end the experimental program and stop making glass in its present form. 现如今,谷歌宣布将终止这一实验性项目,不再以当前的形式制造眼镜。 The company insists that its smart glasses team will continue its work with the aim of bringing out new versions at an unspecified date in the future. 同时,谷歌强调它的智能眼镜团队将继续努力工作,有朝一日生产出新版谷歌眼镜。 |
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