2024年3月22日发(作者：系贤)
Unit 5 Lifelong Education
Passage A Tongue-tied
Several weeks ago I was riding in a cab when the driver's eyes caught mine in
the rear view mirror and he said, "Excuse me, Miss? Can you help me?"
As any hard-bitten city dweller knows, the correct answer to a question like
"Can you help me?" should always be some version of "It depends." I chirped,
"Sure."
"Thank you," he said. He passed a slip of yellow paper into the back seat.
I stared at the paper, wondering. Was this a joke? A threat? Hand-printed on
the paper in tiny block letters was this:
proverb
peculiar
idiomatic
"Please," he said. "What is the meaning of these words?"
I stared at the words in the distressed way you might stare at party guests
whose faces you've seen somewhere before but whose names have escaped your
mind. Proverb? Peculiar? Idiomatic? How on earth should I know? It's one thing to
use a word, it's another to explain it. I resorted to shifting the topic.
"Where did you get these words?"
The driver explained that he was Pakistani. He listened to the radio as he drove
and often jotted down unfamiliar, fascinating words whose meanings and spellings
he then sought from his passengers.
"Peculiar," he said. "What does this mean?"
I could manage that one. "Strange," I said. "Odd. Often with a hint of
something suspicious."
"Thank you, Miss. And idiomatic?"
I cleared my throat. "Um, it's a, well, um. It involves a peculiar use of the
language."
I thought my use of peculiar was kind of clever. He looked confused, a
reminder that clever's not clever if it doesn't communicate.
"Uh, let's see. 'Idiomatic' is related to the word 'idiom'. An idiom's something
that's used in, say, a particular part of the country or by a particular group of
people. People who aren't part of that group aren't likely to use it and might not
understand it."
2024年3月22日发(作者：系贤)
Unit 5 Lifelong Education
Passage A Tongue-tied
Several weeks ago I was riding in a cab when the driver's eyes caught mine in
the rear view mirror and he said, "Excuse me, Miss? Can you help me?"
As any hard-bitten city dweller knows, the correct answer to a question like
"Can you help me?" should always be some version of "It depends." I chirped,
"Sure."
"Thank you," he said. He passed a slip of yellow paper into the back seat.
I stared at the paper, wondering. Was this a joke? A threat? Hand-printed on
the paper in tiny block letters was this:
proverb
peculiar
idiomatic
"Please," he said. "What is the meaning of these words?"
I stared at the words in the distressed way you might stare at party guests
whose faces you've seen somewhere before but whose names have escaped your
mind. Proverb? Peculiar? Idiomatic? How on earth should I know? It's one thing to
use a word, it's another to explain it. I resorted to shifting the topic.
"Where did you get these words?"
The driver explained that he was Pakistani. He listened to the radio as he drove
and often jotted down unfamiliar, fascinating words whose meanings and spellings
he then sought from his passengers.
"Peculiar," he said. "What does this mean?"
I could manage that one. "Strange," I said. "Odd. Often with a hint of
something suspicious."
"Thank you, Miss. And idiomatic?"
I cleared my throat. "Um, it's a, well, um. It involves a peculiar use of the
language."
I thought my use of peculiar was kind of clever. He looked confused, a
reminder that clever's not clever if it doesn't communicate.
"Uh, let's see. 'Idiomatic' is related to the word 'idiom'. An idiom's something
that's used in, say, a particular part of the country or by a particular group of
people. People who aren't part of that group aren't likely to use it and might not
understand it."