評論
打印
Jingjing: Hey Mark, there you are. I thought you'd be waiting for me in the lobby.
京晶：嘿，馬克，你在這啊。我還以為你會在大廳等我呢。
Mark: Nah, I found this armchair here and have been waiting comfortably for the last five minutes.
馬克：不，我在這兒看見一把扶手椅，已經舒舒服服地坐著等了你五分鐘了。
Jingjing: Ok. What's that you're watching?
京晶：好吧。你在看什么？
Mark: It's a video of a fireplace. I finished a chapter in the book I'm reading and started this video. It just shows a fireplace. I'm totally mesmerized by it though.
馬克：看一個壁爐的視頻。我讀完了最近正在讀的書的一章，然后開始看這個視頻。它就展示了一個壁爐而已，但我卻徹底被它迷住了。
Jingjing: A small fire can have that effect. It kind of hypnotizes people. Hey, that's a weird word: mesmerize.
京晶：小火苗就能達到這種效果。它甚至可以催眠人。嘿，這是個奇怪的詞:催眠術。
Mark: Yeah, the word comes from the name of an Austrian doctor from the late 1700s and early 1800s. He was popular for using a form of hypnosis. So, when people get intensely interested in something, but it's not really that exciting, we say they get mesmerized.
馬克：是的，這個詞來自18世紀末19世紀初一位奧地利醫生的名字。他因使用催眠術而出名。所以，當人們對某事極度感興趣，但這事本身并非那么令人興奮時，我們就說他們被催眠了。
Jingjing: That's kind of an obscure word origin.
京晶：這是一個鮮為人知的詞源。
Mark: It is, and we don't use the word much. Well, I just saw an article with four other words and their origins. Want to know about those?
馬克：是的，我們很少用到這個詞。我剛看了一篇文章，里面有其他四個單詞和它們的詞源。想知道這些嗎?
Jingjing: Sure. Are they common words?
京晶：當然。它們是常用詞匯嗎？
Mark: Yes, and their origins will surprise you. The first one is quiz.
馬克：是的，它們的起源會讓你大吃一驚。第一個是quiz小測驗。
Jingjing: You mean like a test or an exam, but shorter or less important?
京晶：你的意思是測驗或考試，但時間更短或不那么重要的?
Mark: Right. That's what a quiz is nowadays. A man in Ireland bet his friends that he could make up a word and make it popular. He then asked people working for him to write the word quiz on walls and windows everywhere in the city.
馬克：對。這就是今天quiz的含義（小測驗）。愛爾蘭的一名男子和他的朋友打賭說他可以編造一個詞，并且能讓它流行起來。然后，他雇人在城市各處的墻上和窗戶上寫上這個詞quiz。
Jingjing: Let me guess, people got curious about what the words meant.
京晶：讓我來猜一下，人們開始對這個新詞的意思很好奇。
Mark: Exactly. So, people thought the word was a kind of test. No wonder it has that meaning now.
馬克：非常正確。所以，人們就認為這個詞是某種測試。現在它有這個意思就不奇怪了。
Jingjing: That's a cool story. What's the second one?
京晶：這個故事很酷啊。第二個詞是什么?
Mark: It's the word clue. It comes from an ancient Greek story of Theseus, who had to walk into the center of a big maze. He used a ball of yarn to make sure he could get back out. In Greek, a ball of yarn is called a clew.
馬克：是clue（線索）這個詞。它出自于一個古希臘英雄Theseus忒修斯的故事，他不得不進入一個大迷宮的中心。他用了一團紗線來確保自己能走出迷宮。在希臘語中，一團紗線就被稱為線索。
Jingjing: And now a clue is something that helps people solve a mystery. That makes sense.
京晶：那如今，線索一詞是幫助人們解開謎團的東西。這說得通。
New words : 習語短語
mesmerize 施催眠術 迷住 使著迷
to make someone fascinated (interested and focused on something)
hypnotize 對（某人）施催眠術 使（某人）著迷；迷住
to make someone very relaxed, so that they will more easily remember earlier parts of their life or take the doctor's suggestions
obscure 無名的；鮮為人知的
not commonly used nowadays
Jingjing: Mark, you said there were four word origins from the article you read. What were the other two?
京晶：馬克，你說你讀的文章里有說到四個字的詞源。另外兩個是什么?
Mark: They're both about public transportation. Do you know the origin of the word bus?
馬克：它們都是關于公共交通的。你知道單詞bus的起源嗎?
Jingjing: That comes from omnibus, doesn't it? I'm not sure how the word came to be used for a large vehicle that carries lots of passengers, though.
京晶：那是來自于公共汽車omnibus，不是嗎？不過，我不確定這個詞如何開始被用來形容一輛搭載乘客的大型交通工具。
Mark: The story is about a guy surnamed Baudry who ran a bathhouse in France. To get more business, he gave people rides in a vehicle he called an omnibus.
馬克：這個故事講的是一個姓鮑德里的人，他在法國經營一家澡堂。為了做更多生意，他搭載人們乘坐一種他稱之為“omnibus”的交通工具。
Jingjing: Yeah, omnibus is Latin, meaning: for all.
京晶：對了，omnibus是拉丁語，意思是:面向所有人的。
Mark: Right. So, as the omnibus became more popular, and people started taking it regularly, not just to go to the bathhouse, they called it a bus for short.
馬克：正解。因此，隨著公共馬車越來越受歡迎，人們開始定期乘坐它，但不僅僅是去澡堂，大家把它簡稱為bus。
Jingjing: Now bus can be a verb or a noun. That's an interesting origin story.
京晶：現在bus既可以做動詞，也可以是名詞。這是一個有趣的詞源故事。
Mark: Alright. So, the next word is taxi. Believe it or not, it comes from the time before motorized vehicles.
馬克：好吧。下一個單詞是taxi. 信不信由你，它出現的時代比機動車還早。
Jingjing: Wasn't it always a car with a driver that could be hired for a short ride? Or was it also used for horse-drawn carriages?
京晶：它不是一直都指的是有司機的還可以短程租用一段的汽車嗎?或者也用于馬車?
Mark: Well, it comes from an invention. A German named Wilhelm Bruhn made the first taximeter. It measured time and distance.
馬克：嗯，它來自一項發明。德國人威廉·布魯恩制作了世界上第一個計價器。它能測量時間和距離。
Jingjing: Again, let me guess: vehicles were called taximeters?
京晶：那讓我再猜猜看:裝了這個機器的交通工具就被叫做taximeters計價器?
Mark: Close. They were called taximeter cabs, then taxicabs, then finally taxis.
馬克：非常接近了。他們被稱為計價器出租車，然后合并縮略成taxicabs，最后成了taxis .
Jingjing: Again, taxi can be a verb or a noun nowadays. It's good to know word origins. I'm not sure I'll remember them all, though.
京晶：同樣的，如今taxi也是可作動詞或名詞。知道單詞的起源挺好的，不過，我不確定我能否全記住。
Mark: I bet you will, especially quiz.
馬克：我敢說你能，特別是quiz。
Jingjing: Why, because you'll ask me about it later, to test me?
京晶：為啥？因為你稍后就會來問我，給我一個小測試？
Mark: Yeah, I'll give you a quiz. Ha ha.
馬克：好吧，我來考考你吧。哈哈。
New words : 習語短語
omnibus 公共的
Latin, meaning for all or for everyone
surname 姓氏
a person's family name
taximeter 計價器；車費指示器
a machine that measures time spent and distance travelled in a vehicle
