Mouse potatoes joined couch potatoes (who spend much time watching TV on the couch),
google officially became a verb and drama queens (extremely emotional persons) finally found
the attention when they crossed over from popular culture to mainstream English language.
The mouse potato, the himbo (attractive, empty-headed man) and drama queen were among
100 new words added to the 2006 update of America"s best-selling dictionary, the Merriam-Webster
Collegiate Dictionary《韦氏大词典》. The Internet search engine Google also found its way into
the dictionary for the first time as a verb, meaning to find information quickly on the worldwide web.
New words and phrases from the fields of science, technology, pop culture and industry are
chosen each year by Merriam-Webster"s team of editors after months of looking through books,
magazines and even food labels. "They are not tracking spoken language. They are looking for
evidence that words have been used in the written English language," said Arthur Bicknell, senior
editor of Merriam-Webster.
Other words first coming into the dictionary this year were soul patch (a small growth of beard
under a man"s lower lip), unibrow (two eyebrows joining together) and supersize the fast food
industry phrase for extra large meals.
The technology world contributed ringtones (changeable incoming cellphone call signals) and
spyware (software installed in a computer to track a user"s activities) while biodiesel (生物柴油)
and avian influenza(禽流感) came from the world of science.
America"s first dictionary - Noah Webster"s A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language
was published 200 years ago and also introduced some fresh words that have now become familiar.
Those "new" words in 1806 included slang, surf, psychology, naturally and Americanize.
A.One year.
B.Two years.
C.Three years.
D.Four years
When she looked ahead,Florence Chadwick saw nothing but a solid wall of fog.Her body was
numb (麻木的).She had been swimming for nearly sixteen hours.Already she was the first woman
to swim the English Channel in both directions.Now,at age 34,her goal was to become the first
woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.
On that fourth morning of July in 1952,the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense
that she could hardly see her support boats.Sharks cruised (巡游)toward her lone figure,only to
be driven away by rifle shots.Against the frigid grip of the sea,she struggled on-hour after hour-while
millions watched on national television.
Alongside Florence in one of the boats,her mother and her trainer offered encouragement.They
told her it wasn"t much farther.But all she could see was fog.They urged her not to quit.She never
had...until then.With only a half mile to go,she asked to be pulled out.
Still thawing (使变暖和)her chilled body several hours later,she told a reporter,"Look,I"m not
excusing myself,but if I could have seen land I might have made it." It was not tiredness or even the
cold water that defeated her.It was the fog.She was unable to see her goal.
Two months later,she tried again.This time,despite the same dense fog,she swam with her faith
intact and her goal clearly pictured in her mind.She knew that somewhere behind that fog was land
and this time she made it!Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel,
eclipsing the men"s record by two hours!
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