单词 | 大多数人 |
释义 | 〔alibi〕Alibi (noun) in its nonlegal sense of "an excuse" is acceptable in written usage to almost half of the Usage Panel.As an intransitive verb (they never alibi ), it is unacceptable in written usage to a large majority of the Panel.Alibi (名词)作为没有法律意义的“借口”解释时, 差不多半数以上的用法使用小组成员认为其书面用法是可以接受的。而作为不及物动词(they never alibi(他们从不为自己辩解) ), 用法使用小组中的大多数人不接受其书面用法〔working〕a working majority.可以成事的大多数人〔convince〕In an earlier survey, a majority of the Usage Panel held that this distinction should be maintained,but the use ofconvince with an infinitive has become increasingly common even among reputable writers, and it is unlikely that this stricture can be maintained for much longer.在更早的一次调查中,用法专题使用小组成员的大多数人认为这一区别应当保持,但是甚至在知名作家中convince 和不定式连用的用法也已变得日渐普遍起来, 这一限制不可能会保持很久〔majority〕When it refers to a group of persons or things that are in the majority,it may take either a singular or plural verb,depending on whether the group is considered as a whole or as a set of people considered individually.So we sayThe majority elects (not elect ) the candidate it wants (not they want ), since the election is accomplished by the group as a whole;butThe majority of the voters live (not lives ) in the city, since living in the city is something that each voter does individually. ·Majority is often preceded by great (but not by greater ) in expressing emphatically the sense of "most of": 当它是指处于多数地位的一组人或事物时,其动词既可以用单数也可以用复数,取决于把这个集体当作一个整体来看待还是当作个别的人的组合。所以我们说大多数人选举了 (不用 elect ) 他们所想要的候选人 (不用 they want ), 因为选举是由一个作为整体的群体所完成的;但是大多数投票者住在 (不用 lives ) 市区, 因为住在城市里是每个投票人作为个人所做的事情。Majority 的前面往往加一个 great (但是不加 greater ), 用来强调指出“大多数”的含义: 〔democratic〕Of or for the people in general; popular:大众的:大多数人的或为大多数人的;公众的:〔sometime〕This latter use, however, is unacceptable to a majority of the Usage Panel.See Usage Note at someday 然而,后一种用法对于词语用法讨论小组的大多数人来说都是不可接受的 参见 someday〔Singhalese〕A member of a people constituting the majority of the population of Sri Lanka.僧伽罗人:构成斯里兰卡大多数人口的一个民族的成员〔man〕Traditionally,man and words derived from it have been used generically to designate any or all of the human race irrespective of sex.In Old Englishthis was the principal sense ofman, which meant "a human being" regardless of sex;the wordswer and wyf (or w÷pman and wifman ) were used to refer to "a male human being" and "a female human being" respectively. But in Middle Englishman displaced wer as the term for "a male human being,”whilewyfman (which evolved into present-day woman ) was retained for "a female human being.” The result of these changes was an assymetrical arrangement that many criticize as sexist.Many writers have revised some of their practices accordingly.But the precise implications of the usage vary according to the context and the particular use ofman or its derivatives. · Man sometimes appears to have the sense of "person" or "people" when it is used as a count noun, as inA man is known by the company he keeps and Men have long yearned to unlock the secrets of the atom, and in phrases likethe common man and the man in the street. Here the generic interpretation arises indirectly:if a man is known by the company he keeps,then so, by implication, is a woman.For this reasonthe generic interpretation of these uses ofman is not possible where the applicability of the predicate varies according to the sex of the individual. Thus it would be inappropriate to say thatMen are the only animals that can conceive at any time, since the sentence literally asserts that the ability to conceive applies to male human beings.This usage presumes that males can be taken as representatives of the species.In almost all cases,however, the wordsperson and people can be substituted for man and men, often with a gain in clarity. · By contrast,man functions more as a generic when it is used without an article in the singular to refer to the human race, as in sentences likeThe capacity for language is unique to man or in phrases like man's inhumanity to man. But this use ofman is also ambiguous, since it can refer exclusively to male members of the human race.In most contexts wordssuch ashumanity or humankind will convey the generic sense of this use of man. · On the whole,the Usage Panel accepts the generic use ofman, the women members significantly less than the men. The sentenceIf early man suffered from a lack of information, modern man is tyrannized by an excess of it was acceptable to 81 percent of the Panel (including 58 percent of the women and 92 percent of the men).The Panel also accepted compound words derived from genericman. The sentenceThe Great Wall is the only man-made structure visible from space was acceptable to 86 percent (including 76 percent of the women and 91 percent of the men).The sentence"The history of language is the history of mankind" (James Bradstreet Greenough and George Lyman Kittredge) was acceptable to 76 percent (including 63 percent of the women and 82 percent of the men). Such compounds were acceptable even when the context required that they be applied chiefly to women.Thus, 66 percent of the Panel (including 57 percent of the women and 71 percent of the men) accepts the wordmanpower in the sentence Countries that do not permit women to participate in the work force are at a disadvantage in competing with those that do avail themselves of that extra source of manpower. · A related set of problems is raised by the use ofman in forming the names of occupational and social rolessuch asbusinessman, chairman, spokesman, layman, and freshman, as well as in analogous formationssuch asunsportsmanlike and showmanship. Some condemn this use categorically;however, these words remained acceptable to a majority of the Usage Panel when they were used to refer to a role or class in the abstractbut were rejected when they were used to refer to a woman.Thus the general use ofchairman was acceptable to 67 percent of the Panel (including 52 percent of the women and 76 percent of the men) in the sentence The chairman will be appointed by the Faculty Senate. But only 48 percent (including 43 percent of the women and 50 percent of the men) accepted the use of the word inEmily Owen, chairman of the Mayor's Task Force, issued a statement assuring residents that their views would be solicited, where it is applied to a woman. · Several strategies have been suggested for replacing the categorical use of compounds formed withman. Parallel terms likebusinesswoman, spokeswoman and chairwoman are increasingly used to refer to women. Also in use are common-gender terms coined withperson, such asbusinessperson, spokesperson, and chairperson. For occupational titles ending inman, new standards of official usage have been established by the U.S. Department of Labor and other government agencies.In official contexts termssuch asfirefighter and police officer are now generally used in place of fireman and policeman. · A majority of the Panelists rejected the verbman when it was used to refer to an activity performed by women. The sentenceMembers of the League of Women Voters will be manning the registration desk was unacceptable to 56 percent of the Panel (including 61 percent of the women and 54 percent of the men). See Usage Note at -ess ,people 传统上,man 以及它的衍生字一般是用来指任何人或整个人类, 不考虑性别。在古英语中,这就是man 这个字主要的意思, 即“人” 而不分性别;单词wer 和 wyf (或 woepman 和 wifman )则分别用以指“男人”和“女人”。 但在中古英语时man 取代了 wer 这个词, 也具有“男人”的意义了;而wyfman (这个字发展演变成了今天的 woman 这个字)作为“女人”这个意思被保留了下来。 这些变化的结果是,作为性别歧视者所批评的匀称排列。为此,许多作家相应地修订了他们部分的创作活动。但是这用法的准确含义取决于它的上下文以及man 的具体用途或它的衍生字。 当man 这个字被当作一个可数名词来用时,它有时似乎具有“一个人”或“人们”的意思, 如在被他所在的那个公司熟悉了解的人 和 很久以来,人们都期盼着解开原子的秘密 , 以及如下短语中普通的人 和 街上的人 。 这里,一般的理解源于间接地推理:如果一个男人是被他所在的公司了解的话,其言下之意是,一个女人也是被他所在的公司熟悉了解的。正是这个原因,使得man 当此一般理解之义用时,其谓语随着个人性别的改变而变化是不可能的。 所以,说人是唯一能在任何时候思考的动物 是不适当的, 因为这句话字面之义是指男人的思考能力。这种用法是假定男人可以作为人类的代表。几乎毫无例外的是,词person 和 people 可以用 man 和 men 来取代,且后两字意思更清楚。 相反,当man 以单数不带冠词出现用以指人类时,它更是指一类、一属, 如在象句子只有人才有语言能力 或象短语 人类对人类的不人道 中。 但man 若以这种形式出现,其意思也会模糊不清, 因为其可只指人类中的男性成员。在大多数的行文中,例如humanity 或 humankind 这样的字也传达了 man 这种用法的一般意义。 总的说来,在用法专题使用小组成员中接受man 这种一般用法的女性比男性明显少得多。 下面这句话如果说古代人受信息不足之苦的话,那么现代人则是受信息过量之虐待了 在小组中有81的成员可接受 (其中女性成员中的接受率为58,男性中则为92)。专题小组会还接受作为一般意义的man 构成的复合词。 长城是太空中的唯一可见的人造物 这句话有86的成员接受 (其中女性成员的接受率为76,而男性中为91)。“语言史就是一部人类史” (詹姆士·布拉斯瑞特·格里诺和乔治·莱曼·基特里奇)这句话的接受率为76(基中在女性成员中有63接受,而男性中为82)。 即使是上下行文所需的字主要指的是女人,这种复合词仍然被接受。因此小组中的66(其中女性委员的57,男性的71)接受了manpower 这个词在下句的用法: 那些不允许女人加入生产力大军的国家和那些允许女人加入生产力大军的国家相比,在处理剩余劳动力这一点上明显处于竞争的劣势 。 由于man 的使用所引起的一系列相关问题产生了, 在构成职业或社会角色类别的名称,如商人、主席、发言人、外行 和 渔夫 , 以及将这个字用于类似的构词法中,如违反运动精神的 和 善于表演的才能 。 有些人谴责这种类别的用法;然而,当它们抽象地指某种角色或阶层时,这些词仍能得到用法专题使用小组大多数人的接受;但当它们用由于指女性时,这些词就被拒绝了。因此在句子主席由职工委员会指定 中 主席 的这种一般用法就得到了67小组成员的接受(其中在女性成员中为52,而男性中为76)。 但是,在句子艾米莉·欧文,市长任务小组的主席,发表了一个声明,向市长保证将考虑他们的观点 中这个字的用法,由于是指女性,只有48的成员接受(其中在女性成员中的接受率为43,而男性中为50)。 对于如何替换用man 构成的类别复合词,几种构思被提了出来。 与之相对的复合词如女商人、女发言人 和 女主席 越来越多地被用来指女性。 另外,用person 构成的中性词也创造了出来, 如商人、发言人 和 主席 。 对于用man 结尾的职业名称, 美国政府劳工部和其它政府机构已建立起了新的官方运用标准。在官方行文,现在一般用如firefighter 和 police officer 代替 fireman 和 policeman 。 大多数的小组成员反对将动词man 用于指那些女性从事的活动。 句子登记处将配备女性选民联盟的成员 在用法专题使用小组中的反对率是56(其中在女性成员中的反对率是61,而男性中为54) 参见 -ess,people〔offense〕"All men are liable to error;and most men are . . . under temptation to it" (John Locke).“所有的人都会犯错误;大多数人都会…受它的诱惑”。 (约翰·洛克)〔utilitarianism〕The ethical theory proposed by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill that all action should be directed toward achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.功利主义:一种杰里米·边沁和詹姆斯·穆勒提出的伦理学理论,这种理论认为所有行动须为最大多数人获得最大幸福〔fiction〕"The latest fiction" to most people means the latest novels or storiesrather than the most recently invented pretense or latest lie.All three senses of the wordfiction point back to its source, Latin fictiō, "the action of shaping, a feigning, that which is feigned.” Fictiō in turn was derived from fingere, "to make by shaping, feign, make up or invent a story or excuse.” Our first instance offiction, recorded in a work composed around 1412, was used in the sense "invention of the mind, that which is imaginatively invented.”It is not a far step from this meaning to the sense "imaginative literature,” first recorded in 1599.“最新的小说”对大多数人来说是指最新的小说或故事,而不是指最新捏造出的谎言。Fiction 这一词的所有的三个意思都追溯到拉丁语中的词源 fictio ,“假装,伪造,做假的行为。” 反过来fictio 则起源于 fingere, “捏造一个故事或编一个借口”。 我们可以在一部写于1412年前后的作品中找到fiction 的第一个例子, 文中所用的意思是“头脑中的虚构,是充满想象的虚构的”。这一意思已经和1599年首次记录的“虚构的文学作品”这层意思相去不远了〔durance〕"There should be a durance vile for justices who use an argument as weak as the one the majority used"(George F. Will)“如果法官的辩论象大多数人那样软弱无力,他就该受监禁的惩罚”(乔治F.威尔)〔impulse〕"Respect for the liberty of others is not a natural impulse in most men"(Bertrand Russell)“对大多数人来说,尊重他人的自由并不是一种自然的本能”(伯特兰·罗素)〔many〕The majority of the people; the masses:大多数人;群众:〔if〕With all deference to the traditional rules governing the use of the subjunctive,it should be noted that a survey of the prose of reputable writers over the past 200 years would reveal a persistent tendency to use the indicativewas where the traditional rule would require the subjunctive were. A sentence beginningIf I was the only boy in the world, while not strictly correct, is wholly unremarkable. But the corresponding practice of using the subjunctive in place of the indicative may be labeled a hypercorrection. ·In spoken Englishthere is a growing tendency to usewould have in place of the subjunctive in contrary-to-fact clauses, as inif I would have been the President, but this usage is still widely considered incorrect.See Usage Note at doubt ,should ,wish 在与指导虚拟语气使用方法的传统规则相冲突的一系列不同用法中,我们应注意到一项对过去200年散文作家的调查显示,在传统语法要求使用虚拟式的were 的情况下,有一种持久的使用直陈式 was 的趋势。 一句用假如我是世界上唯一的男孩 开头的句子不会引起人们的注意。 而一定要把其中的直陈式换成虚拟式就显得矫正过了头。在英语口语中,在与事实相反的从句中,使用would have 一词的趋势有所增加, 例如如果我会是总统, 但这种用法仍然被大多数人认为是不正确的 参见 doubt,should,wish〔leave〕Leave alone is acceptable as a substitute for let alone in the sense "to refrain from disturbing or interfering.” The following examples were approved by a majority of the Usage Panel in an earlier survey: Leave alone 在用作“防止干搅或干扰”这一意义时,可以替代 let alone 。 在早期进行的用法调查中,大多数人都认可以下的例句: 〔Entebbe〕A town of southern Uganda on Lake Victoria. At its airport in 1976 Israeli commando forces rescued most of the hostages held aboard an Air France plane by Palestinian hijackers. Population, 21,289.恩德比:乌干达南部城市,位于维多利亚湖畔。1976年在其机场,以色列突击队救出了被巴勒斯坦人劫持的法航班机上的大多数人质。人口21,289〔common〕Vulgar describes what is associated with the great mass of people: Vulgar 描述的是与大多数人们相联系的: 〔Wednesday〕We say the names of the days of the week constantly,but for most of us they are nonsense syllables. The seven-day system we use is based on the ancient astrological notion that the seven celestial bodies (the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn) revolving around stationary Earth influence what happens on itand that each of these celestial bodies controls the first hour of the day named after it.This system was brought into Hellenistic Egypt from Mesopotamia,where astrology had been practiced for millenniums and where seven had always been a propitious number.Ina.d. 321 the Emperor Constantine the Great grafted this astrological system onto the Roman calendar, made the first day of this new week a day of rest and worship for all,and imposed the following sequence and names to the days of the week:Diēs Sōlis, "Sun's Day"; Diēs Lūnae, "Moon's Day"; Diēs Martis, "Mars's Day"; Diēs Mercuriī, "Mercury's Day"; Diēs Iovis, "Jove's Day" or "Jupiter's Day"; Diēs Veneris, "Venus's Day"; andDiēs Saturnī, "Saturn's Day.” This new Roman system was adopted with modifications throughout most of western Europe:in the Germanic languages, such as Old English, the names of four of the Roman gods were converted into those of the corresponding Germanic gods.Therefore in Old English we have the following names (with their Modern English developments):Sunnandæg, Sunday; Mōnandæg, Monday; Tīwesdæg, Tuesday (the god Tiu, like Mars, was a god of war); Wōdnesdæg, Wednesday (the god Woden, like Mercury, was quick and eloquent); Thunresdæg, Thursday ( the god Thunor in Old English or Thor in Old Norse, like Jupiter, was lord of the sky;Old NorseThōrsdagr influenced the English form); Frīgedæg, Friday (the goddess Frigg, like Venus, was the goddess of love); andSaeternesdæg, Saturday. 我们经常说一周各天的名字,但对我们中的大多数人来说,它们是毫无意义的音节。我们使用的七天制度是建立在古代星象学的观点上,即绕着静止不动的地球旋转的七个天体(太阳、月亮、火星、水星、木星、金星和土星),影响着地球上发生的事情,并且这些天体控制着以它们的名字命名的周日的第一个小时。这个体制从美索不达米亚引进到具有古希腊文明的埃及,在美索不达米亚,星象术已流行了上百万年,七一直是个吉利的数字。在公元 321年伟大的康斯坦丁国王把星相学系统用于罗马历, 把这种新星期的第一天作为休息与做礼拜的一天,并把以下的次序及名字加在其它的周日上:Dies solis ,“太阳日”; Dies Lunae “月亮日”; Dies Martis “金星日”; Dies Mercurii ,“水星日”; Dies Iovis, “朱维日”或“木星日”; Dies Veneris, “金星日”; 和Dies Saturni, “土星日”。 这种新罗马体制在西欧的大部地区有所改变后被采用:在日耳曼语言中,如古英语中,四位罗马神的名字被改为相应的日耳曼神的名字。所以在古英语中我们看到以下的名字(以及他们的现代英语形式):Sunnanhd?g, 星期日; Monand?g, 星期一; Tiwesd?g, 星期二(蒂乌神,象玛尔斯一样,是战神); Wodnesd?g, 星期三(沃登,象墨丘利一样,行动敏捷,善于词辩); Thunresd?g, 星期四( 古英语中的撒纳及古挪威语的索,象朱庇特一样,是宇宙之主;古挪威语的Thorsdagr 影响了英语中的该词的形式); Friged?g, 星期五(女神弗丽嘉,象维纳斯一样,是爱神); 和Saeternesd?g, 星期六 |
随便看 |
|
英汉汉英双解词典收录301015条英汉双解翻译词条,可根据汉字查询相应的英文词汇,基本涵盖了全部常用汉字的英文读音、翻译及用法,是英语学习及翻译工作的有利工具。