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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Speak Shenzhen
A quark in cyberspace
     2014-July-29  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    Ming and his classmate Mark continue talking about words created by authors.

    Ming: Hi, Mark. Can you tell me some more of those words?

    Mark: You mean the ones coined by authors?

    Ming: "Coined." Does that mean they made them up?

    Mark: Basically, yes. Here goes: I know you love science. Do you know what a "quark" is?

    Ming: Sure. One of the tiny things that makes up protons and neutrons and stuff.

    Mark: That's right. Sort of the "building blocks" of matter. Well, the scientist who named them got the word from a book by James Joyce.

    Ming: Ugh, another author whose books are hard to read!

    Mark: That's right, and this word came from "Finnegan's Wake," his toughest.

    Ming: What's the meaning there?

    Mark: Well, the line is, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!" A "quark" there might be the call of a seagull--but it could be a mispronunciation of "quart," in which case it meant a beer!

    Ming: These things are so complex.

    Mark: I know. But language is seldom simple and straightforward. It's filled with hidden meanings and nuances.

    Ming: That makes it hard to learn.

    Mark: It sure does! The next word is one we've talked about recently, "utopia."

    Ming: Oh! A word for a perfect place, but it really means "nowhere." It was coined by... Sir Thomas More?

    Mark: That's right!

    Ming: At last--one I know!

    Mark: Good for you. Here's another: "tintinnabulation."

    Ming: What?

    Mark: It probably comes from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe called "The Bells."

    Ming: Oh, so it's the sound of a bell?

    Mark: That's right.

    Ming: What do you call that kind of word that sounds like what it is? Like "bang" and "beep?"

    Mark: "Onomatopoeia."

    Ming: Oh, yeah, I remember now. So "tintinnabulation" is onomatopoeic.

    Mark: Yes, it is. Here's another word: "grok." It means to fully understand something, to grasp it so completely that you almost become a part of it.

    Ming: I don't get it.

    Mark: Imagine two people in love, who are so in tune with each other that they finish each others' sentences. You could say they "grok each other."

    Ming: Would it have to be lovers?

    Mark: No, it could be grasping an idea, or something like that. It comes from a science fiction book, "Stranger in a Strange Land," by Robert A. Heinlein.

    Ming: Sounds kind of spacey.

    Mark: And speaking of space: how about "cyberspace?"

    Ming: Really? That was coined by an author?

    Mark: Yes, it was in the science fiction works of William Gibson in the 1980s, and had the same meaning we use for it today.

    Ming: The "virtual world" of the internet, right?

    Mark: That's right.

    Ming: Well, thanks, Mark. These are some great words!

    Mark: My pleasure.

    

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