事实：字母"Q"是第二大不常用单词-“Q” is the Second Least Common Letter

Pre-Listening Vocabulary

 

digraph: two letters that make a single sound (e.g., ph)

successive: appearing one after the other

dread¹: to think about with fear or worry

loanword: a word from a foreign language that maintains its spelling and form in a new language

qi: life energy force in Chinese medicine

“Q” is the Second Least Common Letter

As you can probably guess, the letter Z is the least commonly used letter in the English alphabet. (In American English, this letter is pronounced “zee.”) The letter Q is the second least commonly used letter. In English words, Q is almost always followed by the letter U. The letters QU form a digraph. A digraph is a single sound made from two successive letters. When playing word games like SCRABBLE, many players dread the letter Q. Not only is it difficult to think of words that contain this rarely used letter, it is almost always necessary to have a tile² with the letter U in order to play a Q. After all, most words that contain a Qq without a U are proper nouns like Iraq and Qantas, which are not permitted. Some loanwords from other languages are permitted in word games. In fact qi, also spelled c-h-i, is the most commonly played word in SCRABBLE tournaments.

1 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。

2 tile   

n.砖瓦；vt.铺以瓦，铺以瓷砖

参考例句：

• The bathroom is faced with tile.浴室铺着瓷砖。
• I pointed to a number of scratches in the tile floor.我指向地板砖上的一道道划痕。