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《牛津英语词典》的故事(上)
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编写《牛津英语词典》的构想在1857年提出，是一个规模庞大的众包项目，堪称“19世纪的维基百科”。
双语精读
Spelling glee
词语的欢乐
In July 1915 an ailing James Murray, one of the early editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), defined one final word.
1915年7月，《牛津英语词典》的早期编辑之一詹姆斯·默里强撑病躯，给最后一个单词撰写了定义。（注：录音对1915的读音有误。）
He had dedicated 36 years to the dictionary; his toil had taken a toll. Knowing he would not see the project complete, he wrote his last entry: for "twilight".
他为这本词典奉献了36年的时间，长年的辛劳让他的身体健康付出了代价。默里知道自己看不到词典完成的那天了，于是他写下最后一个词条：“日暮”。
The poetic pathos of Murray's final days is one of many memorable tales in "The Dictionary People".
默里生命最后的这段充满诗意、哀伤动人的故事是《编写词典的人》中许多令人难忘的故事之一。
Conceived in 1857, the OED was a huge crowdsourcing project-"the Wikipedia of the 19th century"-comprising 3,000 people.
编写《牛津英语词典》的构想在1857年提出，是一个规模庞大的众包项目，堪称“19世纪的维基百科”，共有3000人参与其中。
The idea was to create a "descriptive" dictionary that tracked words' use and meaning over time (unlike its "prescriptive" 18th-century predecessor by Samuel Johnson, which told readers how to say and use words).
最初的想法是创建一部“描述性”词典，跟踪记录单词的用法和词义如何随时间而演变(不同于塞缪尔·约翰逊在18世纪编写的“规范性”词典，约翰逊的词典告诉读者单词如何发音和使用)。
Volunteers read widely, mailing in examples of how "rare, obsolete, old-fashioned, new, peculiar" words were used. What is surprising about this fairly random method is that it worked, achieving order through the large number of contributors.
志愿者们进行了广泛阅读，将各种“罕见的、淘汰的、老式的、新式的、奇特的”单词例句邮寄过来。令人惊讶的是，这种相当随意的方法竟然奏效了，因为贡献例句的人数众多而形成了某种秩序。
The origin story of Sarah Ogilvie's book is almost as improbable as that of the dictionary itself. Ms Ogilvie, a former lexicographer who served as an editor for the OED, went into the archives of Oxford University Press and stumbled across an old notebook.
萨拉·奥格尔维这本书的起源故事几乎和词典本身的故事一样离奇。奥格尔维曾是一名词典编纂者，曾担任《牛津英语词典》的编辑。有一天她走进牛津大学出版社的档案馆，偶然发现了一本旧笔记本。
It had belonged to Murray and contained the names and details of the dictionary volunteers, most of whom had previously been unknown. "The Dictionary People" is her work of detective scholarship, evoking the lives behind the names.
这是默里的笔记本，里面记录了词典志愿者的名字和详细信息，其中大多数人都藉藉无名。《编写词典的人》是她的学术侦探之作，再现了这些名字背后的人生百味。
The dictionary's contributors are an engaging cast, including three murderers, a vegetarian vicar, one of Karl Marx's daughters and J.R.R.Tolkien. Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper, aunt and niece, were lifelong lovers and successful writers, who co-wrote plays under a male pseudonym.
词典贡献者的阵容十分有趣，包括三名杀人犯、一名吃素的牧师、卡尔·马克思的一个女儿和J.R.R. 托尔金。凯瑟琳·布拉德利和伊迪丝·库珀是姨甥关系，但两人也是相伴一生的恋人和成功的作家，她们用男性笔名共同写作剧本。
For some, the dictionary was an obsession: one contributor supplied 165,061 quotations.
还有一些人对词典无比痴迷：一位贡献者提供了165 061条引文。
Murray, too, was assiduous. He once wrote to George Eliot of "Middlemarch" fame to ask about a word choice in "Romola", published 17 years earlier. (She responded courteously.)
默里本人也兢兢业业。他曾写信给以《米德尔马契》闻名的乔治·艾略特，询问她17年前出版的《罗慕拉》中的一个选词问题。(她彬彬有礼地给予了回复。)
Yet he also found time beyond his Herculean project to be humane, paying several visits to one contributor imprisoned in Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital.
然而，在完成这一艰巨项目之余，默里还留出时间做了一些仁慈之举，他多次探望了一位被关在布罗德穆尔的贡献者，布罗德穆尔是一所戒备森严的精神病医院。
词汇预习
Oxford [高考]
美[ˈɑːksfərd] | 英[ˈɒksfəd]
n. 牛津城；牛津大学；牛津布；牛津鞋
fairly [高考]
美[ˈferli] | 英[ˈfeəli]
adv. 公正地；相当地
fame [高考]
美[feɪm] | 英[feɪm]
n. 名声；名望 vt. 使出名
previously [高考]
美[ˈpriːviəsli] | 英[ˈpriːviəsli]
adv. 先前；在此之前
memorable [高考]
美[ˈmemərəbl] | 英[ˈmemərəbl]
adj. 值得纪念的；难忘的
lifelong [高考]
美[ˈlaɪflɔŋ] | 英[ˈlaɪflɒŋ]
adj. 终身的；毕生的
contributor [高考]
美[kən'trɪbjʊtə] | 英[kənˈtrɪbjətə(r)]
n. 贡献者；捐助者；赠送者；投稿人；原因
obsession [高考]
美[əbˈseʃn] | 英[əbˈseʃn]
n. 困扰；沉迷；着魔；妄想
editor [高考]
美[ˈedɪtər] | 英[ˈedɪtə(r)]
n. 编辑；编者；影片剪辑装置
former [高考]
美[ˈfɔːrmər] | 英[ˈfɔːmə(r)]
adj. 前者的；前任的；以前的 n. 创造者；[英]学校某一年级的学生
rare [高考]
美[rer] | 英[reə(r)]
adj. 罕见的；珍贵的；煎得嫩的
security [高考]
美[sɪˈkjʊrəti] | 英[sɪˈkjʊərəti]
n. 安全；保证；证券；债券；抵押；防护措施
unlike [高考]
美[ˌʌnˈlaɪk] | 英[ˌʌnˈlaɪk]
adj. 不同的，不相似的 prep. 不像，与…不同；与 ... 平时不同
male [高考]
美[meɪl] | 英[meɪl]
adj. 男性的；雄性的 n. 男子；雄性动物
random [高考]
美[ˈrændəm] | 英[ˈrændəm]
adj. 任意的；随机的；随意的 n. 随意；任意 adv. 随机地
entry [高考]
美[ˈentri] | 英[ˈentri]
n. 进入；进入权；入口；条目
scholarship [高考]
美[ˈskɑːlərʃɪp] | 英[ˈskɒləʃɪp]
n. 奖学金；学问；学识
cast [高考]
美[kæst] | 英[kɑːst]
v. 掷；抛；投；铸造；指定演员；加起来；投射(目光)；投(票)；预测 n. 演员阵容；投掷；[医]固定用敷料
niece [高考]
美[niːs] | 英[niːs]
n. 侄女；外甥女；教士的私生女
dedicated [高考]
美[ˈdedɪkeɪtɪd] | 英[ˈdedɪkeɪtɪd]
adj. 专注的；献身的；专用的
poetic [高考]
美[poʊˈetɪk] | 英[pəʊˈetɪk]
adj. 诗的；富有诗情的
toil [高考]
美[tɔɪl] | 英[tɔɪl]
n. 辛苦；苦工；罗网；圈套 v. 费力地做；苦干；跋涉
toll [高考]
美[toʊl] | 英[təʊl]
n.（道路、桥梁等的）通行费；（事故、灾难、战争等的）伤亡人数；损坏，破坏；（缓慢的）钟声；[美]长途电话费 v.（缓慢地）敲（钟），鸣（钟）；鸣钟告知；收取（桥梁或道路的）通行费
would [高考]
美[wʊd , wəd] | 英[wʊd , wəd]
aux. 将；可能；大概；总会；愿意；will的过去式
peculiar [四级]
美[pɪˈkjuːliər] | 英[pɪˈkjuːliə(r)]
adj. 奇怪的；特殊的；独特的；古怪的 n. 特权
descriptive [四级]
美[dɪˈskrɪptɪv] | 英[dɪˈskrɪptɪv]
adj. 描述的；叙述的
old-fashioned [四级]
美[ˈoldˈfæʃənd] | 英[ˈəuldˈfæʃənd]
adj. 老式的；老派的；守旧的 n. 古典鸡尾酒
twilight [四级]
美[ˈtwaɪlaɪt] | 英[ˈtwaɪlaɪt]
n. 黄昏；微光；含糊不清；衰落时期
vegetarian [四级]
美[ˌvedʒəˈteriən] | 英[ˌvedʒəˈteəriən]
n. 素食者 adj. 素食的
predecessor [六级]
美[ˈpredəsesər] | 英[ˈpriːdəsesə(r)]
n. 祖先；前任；原有事物
obsolete [专四]
美[ˌɑːbsəˈliːt] | 英[ˈɒbsəliːt]
adj. 已废弃的；过时的
humane [专四]
美[hjuːˈmeɪn] | 英[hjuːˈmeɪn]
adj. 仁慈的；人道的
surprising [专八]
美[sərˈpraɪzɪŋ] | 英[səˈpraɪzɪŋ]
adj. 令人惊讶的，出人意料的
assiduous [专八]
美[əˈsɪdʒuəs] | 英[əˈsɪdjuəs]
adj. 勤勉的；刻苦的
glee [专八]
美[ɡli] | 英[gli:]
n. 欢乐；高兴
improbable [考研]
美[ɪmˈprɑbəbl] | 英[ɪmˈprɒbəbl]
adj. 不大可能的；不像会发生的；似不可信的
engaging [托福]
美[ɛnˈɡedʒɪŋ] | 英[ɪnˈgeɪdʒɪŋ]
adj. 动人的；迷人的；有魅力的
lexicographer [雅思]
美[ˌleksɪˈkɑːɡrəfər] | 英[ˌleksɪˈkɒɡrəfə(r)]
n. 辞典编纂者
重点讲解
Spelling glee
词语的欢乐
glee n. 欢乐；喜悦
【例】laugh with glee/be in great glee 欢快地大笑/兴高采烈
【近义词】joy/delight n. 欢乐；喜悦
ailing adj.
1. 生病的
【例】She looked after her ailing father.
她照顾她有病的父亲。
【近义词】sick/ill/unwell adj. 生病的
2. 境况不佳的；每况愈下的
【例】the ailing economy/shopping mall
不景气的经济/日渐冷清的购物中心
【拓展】ail v. 困扰；造成问题
【例】Debts ail his business.
债务问题困扰着他的生意。
In July 1915 an ailing James Murray, one of the early editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), defined one final word.
1915年7月，《牛津英语词典》的早期编辑之一詹姆斯·默里强撑病躯，给最后一个单词撰写了定义。（注：录音对1915的读音有误。）
glee n. 欢乐；喜悦
【例】laugh with glee/be in great glee 欢快地大笑/兴高采烈
【近义词】joy/delight n. 欢乐；喜悦
ailing adj.
1. 生病的
【例】She looked after her ailing father.
她照顾她有病的父亲。
【近义词】sick/ill/unwell adj. 生病的
2. 境况不佳的；每况愈下的
【例】the ailing economy/shopping mall
不景气的经济/日渐冷清的购物中心
【拓展】ail v. 困扰；造成问题
【例】Debts ail his business.
债务问题困扰着他的生意。
He had dedicated 36 years to the dictionary; his toil had taken a toll. Knowing he would not see the project complete, he wrote his last entry: for “twilight”.
他为这本词典奉献了36年的时间，长年的辛劳让他的身体健康付出了代价。默里知道自己看不到词典完成的那天了，于是他写下最后一个词条：“日暮”。
take a toll on 对……造成重大损失
【例】The stress of his job has taken a toll on his health.
工作压力对他的健康造成了损害。
【拓展】death toll 死亡人数
【近义词】do harm to/have a negative impact on
对……造成伤害/产生负面影响
pathos n. 感染力；激起悲悯共鸣的力量
【例】The Butterfly Lovers, an ancient Chinese folktale, is notable for its pathos.
中国古代民间故事《梁祝》以哀婉动人而著称。
【拓展】pathos/logos/ethos n. （修辞手法）情感/逻辑/信誉
The poetic pathos of Murray’s final days is one of many memorable tales in “The Dictionary People”.
默里生命最后的这段充满诗意、哀伤动人的故事是《编写词典的人》中许多令人难忘的故事之一。
take a toll on 对……造成重大损失
【例】The stress of his job has taken a toll on his health.
工作压力对他的健康造成了损害。
【拓展】death toll 死亡人数
【近义词】do harm to/have a negative impact on
对……造成伤害/产生负面影响
pathos n. 感染力；激起悲悯共鸣的力量
【例】The Butterfly Lovers, an ancient Chinese folktale, is notable for its pathos.
中国古代民间故事《梁祝》以哀婉动人而著称。
【拓展】pathos/logos/ethos n. （修辞手法）情感/逻辑/信誉
Conceived in 1857, the OED was a huge crowdsourcing project—“the Wikipedia of the 19th century”—comprising 3,000 people.
编写《牛津英语词典》的构想在1857年提出，是一个规模庞大的众包项目，堪称“19世纪的维基百科”，共有3000人参与其中。
conceive v. 构想（主意、计划等）
【例】to conceive an idea/a plan/design of...
想出一个……的主意/计划/设计
【搭配】conceive of sth as 把某物想象成……
【例】to conceive of God as male 把上帝想象成男性
【拓展】inconceivable/conception adj./n. 无法想象的/构想；概念
prescriptive adj. 规范性的
【例】The teacher's feedback was too prescriptive, leaving no room for creativity or individuality.
老师的反馈过于具有规范性，没有给予学生发挥创造力或个性的空间。
【拓展】prescribe v. 规定；指定
【例】The syllabus prescribes which books should be studied.
教学大纲规定了哪些是必读的书。
The idea was to create a “descriptive” dictionary that tracked words’ use and meaning over time (unlike its “prescriptive” 18th-century predecessor by Samuel Johnson, which told readers how to say and use words).
最初的想法是创建一部“描述性”词典，跟踪记录单词的用法和词义如何随时间而演变(不同于塞缪尔·约翰逊在18世纪编写的“规范性”词典，约翰逊的词典告诉读者单词如何发音和使用)。
conceive v. 构想（主意、计划等）
【例】to conceive an idea/a plan/design of...
想出一个……的主意/计划/设计
【搭配】conceive of sth as 把某物想象成……
【例】to conceive of God as male 把上帝想象成男性
【拓展】inconceivable/conception adj./n. 无法想象的/构想；概念
prescriptive adj. 规范性的
【例】The teacher's feedback was too prescriptive, leaving no room for creativity or individuality.
老师的反馈过于具有规范性，没有给予学生发挥创造力或个性的空间。
【拓展】prescribe v. 规定；指定
【例】The syllabus prescribes which books should be studied.
教学大纲规定了哪些是必读的书。
Volunteers read widely, mailing in examples of how “rare, obsolete, old-fashioned, new, peculiar” words were used. What is surprising about this fairly random method is that it worked, achieving order through the large number of contributors.
志愿者们进行了广泛阅读，将各种“罕见的、淘汰的、老式的、新式的、奇特的”单词例句邮寄过来。令人惊讶的是，这种相当随意的方法竟然奏效了，因为贡献例句的人数众多而形成了某种秩序。
improbable adj. 不可能真实存在的
【例】an improbable story/It is improbable that ....
荒唐的故事/某事不可能发生
【近义词】unlikely/far-fetched adj. 不可能的/牵强的
【辨析】impossible adj. 无法做到的
stumble across 意外发现；偶然遇见
【例】I was browsing the internet and stumbled across an interesting article about ancient civilizations.
我在浏览网页时偶然发现了一篇有关古代文明的有趣文章。
【近义词】come across 偶然发现
【拓展】stumble into 无意中涉足
【例】I was lost in the city and stumbled into a charming little cafe.
我在城市里迷路了，无意中走进了一家很有情调的小咖啡馆。
The origin story of Sarah Ogilvie’s book is almost as improbable as that of the dictionary itself. Ms Ogilvie, a former lexicographer who served as an editor for the OED, went into the archives of Oxford University Press and stumbled across an old notebook.
萨拉·奥格尔维这本书的起源故事几乎和词典本身的故事一样离奇。奥格尔维曾是一名词典编纂者，曾担任《牛津英语词典》的编辑。有一天她走进牛津大学出版社的档案馆，偶然发现了一本旧笔记本。
improbable adj. 不可能真实存在的
【例】an improbable story/It is improbable that ....
荒唐的故事/某事不可能发生
【近义词】unlikely/far-fetched adj. 不可能的/牵强的
【辨析】impossible adj. 无法做到的
stumble across 意外发现；偶然遇见
【例】I was browsing the internet and stumbled across an interesting article about ancient civilizations.
我在浏览网页时偶然发现了一篇有关古代文明的有趣文章。
【近义词】come across 偶然发现
【拓展】stumble into 无意中涉足
【例】I was lost in the city and stumbled into a charming little cafe.
我在城市里迷路了，无意中走进了一家很有情调的小咖啡馆。
It had belonged to Murray and contained the names and details of the dictionary volunteers, most of whom had previously been unknown. “The Dictionary People” is her work of detective scholarship, evoking the lives behind the names.
这是默里的笔记本，里面记录了词典志愿者的名字和详细信息，其中大多数人都藉藉无名。《编写词典的人》是她的学术侦探之作，再现了这些名字背后的人生百味。
evoke v. 唤起；使再现
【例】evoke memories of my childhood 唤醒了我的童年回忆
Some characters in the novel are evoked with brilliance.
小说中的某些人物被描绘得有声有色。
pseudonym n. 假名
【例】adopt the pseudonym of Henry 化名亨利
【拓展】pseudo-science 伪科学
synonym/antonym/anonymous 同义词/反义词/匿名的
The dictionary’s contributors are an engaging cast, including three murderers, a vegetarian vicar, one of Karl Marx’s daughters and J.R.R.Tolkien. Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper, aunt and niece, were lifelong lovers and successful writers, who co-wrote plays under a male pseudonym.
词典贡献者的阵容十分有趣，包括三名杀人犯、一名吃素的牧师、卡尔·马克思的一个女儿和J.R.R. 托尔金。凯瑟琳·布拉德利和伊迪丝·库珀是姨甥关系，但两人也是相伴一生的恋人和成功的作家，她们用男性笔名共同写作剧本。
evoke v. 唤起；使再现
【例】evoke memories of my childhood 唤醒了我的童年回忆
Some characters in the novel are evoked with brilliance.
小说中的某些人物被描绘得有声有色。
pseudonym n. 假名
【例】adopt the pseudonym of Henry 化名亨利
【拓展】pseudo-science 伪科学
synonym/antonym/anonymous 同义词/反义词/匿名的
For some, the dictionary was an obsession: one contributor supplied 165,061 quotations.
还有一些人对词典无比痴迷：一位贡献者提供了165 061条引文。
humane adj. 人道的；仁慈的
【例】the humane treatment of prisoners 对俘虏的人道待遇
【拓展】humanitarian adj. 人道主义的
【例】to provide humanitarian aid/humanitarian crisis
提供人道主义援救/人道主义危机
Murray, too, was assiduous. He once wrote to George Eliot of “Middlemarch” fame to ask about a word choice in “Romola”, published 17 years earlier. (She responded courteously.)
默里本人也兢兢业业。他曾写信给以《米德尔马契》闻名的乔治·艾略特，询问她17年前出版的《罗慕拉》中的一个选词问题。(她彬彬有礼地给予了回复。)
humane adj. 人道的；仁慈的
【例】the humane treatment of prisoners 对俘虏的人道待遇
【拓展】humanitarian adj. 人道主义的
【例】to provide humanitarian aid/humanitarian crisis
提供人道主义援救/人道主义危机
Yet he also found time beyond his Herculean project to be humane, paying several visits to one contributor imprisoned in Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital.
然而，在完成这一艰巨项目之余，默里还留出时间做了一些仁慈之举，他多次探望了一位被关在布罗德穆尔的贡献者，布罗德穆尔是一所戒备森严的精神病医院。
humane adj. 人道的；仁慈的
【例】the humane treatment of prisoners 对俘虏的人道待遇
【拓展】humanitarian adj. 人道主义的
【例】to provide humanitarian aid/humanitarian crisis
提供人道主义援救/人道主义危机
课后练习
What did James Murray do according to the text?
A. He wrote a book called "The Dictionary People."
B. He defined many words in the Oxford English Dictionary.
C. He was the first person to use the word “twilight.”
D. He was a famous poet who died of a disease.
One of the characteristics of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was that ____.
A. it taught British people how to use words properly.
B. a large staff of language experts were hired to collect the words.
C. it was created through a collaborative effort involving 3,000 people.
D. readers across the country sent letters to praise the dictionary.
What is the origin of Sarah Ogilvie's book "The Dictionary People"?
A. Her personal interest in the dictionary.
B. Her research on some detective novels.
C. An old notebook found in the archives.
D. Her job to revise the Oxford English Dictionary.
What was the characteristic of the volunteers?
A. Most of them were famous writers.
B. They came from diverse social backgrounds.
C. Many of them didn’t reveal their real name.
D. The words they contributed were all very interesting.