外刊精读 | 为什么世界各国的语言都管妈妈叫 Mama（A）

今天是小芳老师陪你精读外刊的第75天

难度指数6级（共8级）

前期回顾：

第一步：泛读原文（盲听1遍，泛读1遍，对照文本听1遍）

Why do some words sound similar in completely unrelated

Across the world, the term for “mother” usually begins with an m-sound. A mapbouncingaround social media shows “languages where the word for ‘mother/mom’ takes an m-sound”. It puts old maps ofdefunctempires to shame; scores of countries are shaded red. There are two ways this near-universality might have come about.

第二步：精读原文（精读1遍，对照文本听1遍，精读1遍）

读原文（精读1遍，对照文本听1遍）

单词

1）bounce：(of an object, especially a ball) move quickly up, back, or away from a surface after hitting it; rebound (once or repeatedly). (指物体，尤指球)在击中表面后迅速向上、向后或离开表面;反弹(一次或多次)。

英语例句

A. The ball bounced off the goalpost and into the net.

球从门柱上弹开，射入球门。

B. The children had broken the bed by bouncing (= jumping up and down) on it.

孩子们在床上蹦蹦跳跳，把床弄坏了。

2）defunct

记忆方法：defunct = de + funct

de 大家应该不陌生，是【词根】：“反，向下”的意思，funct 是 function 的压缩版，而 function 的意思是：n. 作用，功能，所以 defunct 可以解释为“没用功能的，没有作用的，不行使责任的”；也可理解为“功能衰退的，作用下降的”。

例句：By the end of the year the currently defunct Freeview channel eight will start to glow with local fare. 到今年年底，之前已停播的自由观点第八频道将通过地方收费重获新生。---经济学人。

短语

put sb/sth to shame

Meaning:to be much better than someone or something else 使某人/某事相形见绌

例句：Your cooking puts mine to shame.

Shame的补充用法：

It is a shame that… ⋯真遗憾

It would be a shame to waste this 把这浪费掉太可惜了

What a shame! 太遗憾了!

It shamed him to admit… 他羞愧地承认

to shame sb into sth/into doing sth 使某人羞愧地做某事No.

句子

A map bouncing around social media shows “languages where the word for ‘mother/mom’ takes an m-sound”. It puts old maps of defunct empires to shame; scores of countries are shaded red.

本句中，主语是A map，动名词引导定语bouncing around social media，谓语shows，宾语：“languages where the word for ‘mother/mom’ takes an m-sound”.

那如何理解：It puts old maps of defunct empires to shame; scores of countries are shaded red. 字母意思是：它让昔日帝国的旧地图相形见绌；几十个国家被标记为红色。

进一步解释就是因为社交媒体上流传着这张显示“‘母亲/妈妈’一词带m音的语言”的地图，其中国家之多，让昔日帝国相形见绌（即时是昔日帝国也没有占据这么多国家版图）。

第三步：阅读双语文章

上下滑动阅读双语全文

Why do some words sound similar in completely unrelated languages?

为什么有些词在完全不相关的语言中听起来很相似?

Across the world, the term for “mother” usually begins with an m-sound. A map bouncing around social media shows “languages where the word for ‘mother/mom’ takes an m-sound”. It puts old maps of defunct empires to shame; scores of countries are shaded red. There are two ways this near-universality might have come about.

在世界各地，“母亲”一词通常以m音开头。社交媒体上流传着一张显示“‘母亲/妈妈’一词带m音的语言”的地图。它让昔日帝国的旧地图相形见绌；几十个国家被标记为红色。这种近乎普遍性的产生可能有两种方式。

第四步：回答问题（评论区回答问题）

Reading Questions：

1. What does the map bouncing around social media show?

2. What do old maps of defunct empires have to do with this phenomenon?

3. What is the cause of some words sounding similar in completely unrelated languages?

4. 跟读+模仿（这是学习英语口语最好的方法），群提交语音作品

滑动查看答案

Q1

Languages where the word for “mother/mom” takes an m-sound.

Q2

Nothing; they are put to shame by the much larger map showing countries with words for “mother/mom” taking an m-sound.

Q3

The cause of some words sounding similar in completely unrelated languages is unknown, but there are two possible ways it might have come about.

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