时间:2019-01-25 作者:英语课 分类:词汇大师(Wordmaster)


英语课

  AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the paradox 1 of a social greeting designed not to offend anyone that, by its very design, offends some people.

RS: Next Sunday, most Americans will celebrate Christmas. This year, by coincidence, Sunday is also the first night of Hanukkah, a minor 2 festival in Judaism. And the next day is the start of Kwanzaa, a seasonal 3 African-American celebration.


  AA: As America has grown more diverse -- in fact, experts see more Muslims than Jews in its future -- the traditional greeting "Merry Christmas" is often replaced with "Happy Holidays." Many "Christmas trees" are now "holiday trees." The reasoning goes that "Happy Holidays" is all-inclusive: it can also include the New Year.

RS: But what some people see as cultural sensitivity looks to others like nothing more than political correctness gone wild.

The Global Language Monitor is a California company that tracks the use of language on the Internet and in the media. Its president, Paul J.J. Payack, says his small staff has been following the debate over "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" all the way to Washington.

PAUL PAYACK: "The main thing in the capital is Bush's Christmas cards, OK? He sent out his Christmas cards and they say "Happy Holidays" all over them. And people are offended because they think it's giving in to political correctness. On the other hand, he's always said 'Happy Holidays' on his Christmas cards.

"And if you go back through the history of presidential Christmas cards, [which] really started with John Kennedy -- John Kennedy actually only sent out a few thousand, and he had his staff demarcate between those who celebrate Christmas and those that celebrate Hanukkah. Now the president sends out 1.4 million cards! [laughter]"

RS: "So what's the deal here?"

PAUL PAYACK: "What we're finding is that there's, it's kind of like there's a backlash where people are trying to say 'Merry Christmas' where they normally might say 'Happy Holidays,' because they see it as what's called the 'war against Christmas,' as some of the commentators 4 are calling it. And there's not really a war against Christmas, but it's the idea that many major companies just take the name Christmas out of everything.

"OK, in Boston, this was an interesting one, that a farmer, a tree farmer in Nova Scotia, donated this large, magnificent tree as the Christmas tree for the Boston Common. So the mayor sends out something that says, we're going to have a holiday tree-lighting ceremony. Well, people went berserk, and the fellow that donated the tree said, I want it back if it's not a Christmas tree. It's not a holiday tree, it's a Christmas tree."

AA: "So what happened?"

PAUL PAYACK: "Well, they changed it back to Christmas tree."

AA: Which probably made our next guest happy. Joseph Farah hosts a radio talk show and is editor of WorldNetDaily.com. For the past few years he's gotten Christmas cards from the president. We asked him his reaction to this year's greeting.

JOSEPH FARAH: "Well, it looked like the cards from the previous three years that I saw. It was a 'Happy Holidays' message, and I opened it, looked at it briefly 5 for about five seconds, and put it in the garbage."

AA: "Because it didn't use the word Christmas."

JOSEPH FARAH: "Yep. I know a lot of people say -- why would, I mean he's wishing you a happy holiday, what's wrong with that? And what's wrong with it is, that 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas in this country. Ninety-six percent -- you don't get that kind of unanimity 6 on very many issues. But yet for some reason we want to pretend that Christmas is equal to Kwanzaa, Christmas is equal to Hanukkah.

"I don't know any Jews who think, by the way, that Hanukkah has the same kind of importance in their life that the birth of Jesus has to Christians 7. And so it's not equal. But yet there's this determined 8 effort by our culture -- and evidently some of our political leaders -- to, eh, make it all one big, happy picture.

"And, by the way, I would also point out that the president has been outspoken 9 in courting Muslims in recent years, holding Ramadan dinners in the White House, and he doesn't say 'Happy Holidays' to those folks. He talks about Ramadan, what it means, in very specific terms."



n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法;自相矛盾的人(物)
  • The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
  • The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修
  • The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
  • I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。
adj.季节的,季节性的
  • The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
  • The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。
n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 );时事评论员;注释者;实况广播员
  • Sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 体育解说员翻来覆去说着同样的词语,真叫人腻烦。
  • Television sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 电视体育解说员说来说去就是那么几句话,令人厌烦。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adv.简单地,简短地
  • I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
  • He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。
n.全体一致,一致同意
  • These discussions have led to a remarkable unanimity.这些讨论导致引人注目的一致意见。
  • There is no unanimity of opinion as to the best one.没有一个公认的最好意见。
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )
  • Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
  • His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。
adj.坚定的;有决心的
  • I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
  • He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
adj.直言无讳的,坦率的,坦白无隐的
  • He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
  • She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。
学英语单词
0831
aberrant behavior
anti-biological warfare
antizymes
auto-lumbomassage
be barred from
bioscientists
biotin complex of yeast
bipolarmos
black rots
body surfing
bowl vent valve
butenafine
certificate on progress
class or representative action
combining characters
common lead method
cospace
delugeth
description of forest
Diclinixin
diffuse tissue
diphasic strain
Diplosporium
direct dialing-in
Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich
don't rush me
epidemic encephalitis
ethnoculturally
exponential time base
fact-checkers
feudal rush
fiorinia linderae
Fuck it all!
Geluwe
golden image
Gorelovka
guayule rubber (fer-thenium argentum)
Hall angular displacement transducer
harlon
Hassidic
high magnification
high pressure jet
homograft reaction
hot air distributor
IAAG
It never rains but it pours
Ivdel'
left averted photography
look through the fingers at
louzeiro
lower tail coverts
market body
mcilvaine
metaperceptual
Meyer's organ
national labor relations act
nonextended address space
Novadel
nutritional agents
orthopraxy
Ottawa R.
overvolted
Pambula
pathogenic dryness
pernio bullosus
photographic mapping
pissane
potassium phosphate,tribasic
previvation
Priupskiy
pulverized fuel line
ralph bunches
range octagon
rare earth doped glasses
reduced inspection
relations
representation of plans
reserve factor
reset router
reticulated veins
retrospective
root bend test
S. G.
solid state power amplifier
spectral projector
staurolite kyanite subfacies
steel pipe pile
string together
STX
take sb in tow
telluric method
the lid
translate
turbine locomotive
tyre inflator
value voter
valve three way
VITC
wind egg
withered zone
wordmongers