英语单词大师：The Thing

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the language of Hurricane Katrina.

RS: Debra Howell is an artist who has lived in New Orleans on and off since the late 1960s. She says she never evacuated¹ for a hurricane before in her life. Last August she waited until the last hours before the storm hit to leave.

AA: Her neighborhood was lucky. Debra Howell was back in her house by the end of October.

DEBRA HOWELL: We had wind damage around here, but we had very little flooding. The floodwaters from the levee breeches reached about three blocks away ... and stopped as they approached the river. I'm part of what they refer to as the 'Sliver² by the River,' the area that didn't flood from the levee breeches.

AA: So now when you and your neighbors and your friends talk about the storm and the effects and so forth³, let us in a little bit on what influence Katrina has had on the language, the local language in New Orleans.

DEBRA HOWELL: There's a local columnist⁴ at the Times-Picayune newspaper named Chris Rose and he has coined this phrase 'The Thing.' He will not refer to Katrina by name, and he always calls it The Thing, and a lot of people have picked up that habit.

A lot of people are very -- they infuse the word Katrina with so much venom⁵ that it's almost hard to say. And people who are named Katrina have been using their middle names, for example. I adopted a little dog who was a stray living in City Park on her own, and the thing I remember the most frequent comment being was, 'Whatever you do, don't name her Katrina.' That name has just taken on such a world of significance.

People have other things, people talk about 'Katrina brain.' Everybody here suffers from short-term memory loss and it just seems universal. And of course it's one of the first signs, or first, um ...

AA: Of shock.

RS: Of shock.

DEBRA HOWELL: Of post-traumatic stress disorder⁶, otherwise known as PTSD which everybody refers to. And, you know, people laugh about it, but it is just sort of universally referred to as Katrina brain or a Katrina moment. No more senior moments, it's all Katrina moments.

RS: So what are some other words that describe your situation, unique to New Orleans and the hurricane.

DEBRA HOWELL: Well, let's see. 'Pre-K' and 'post-K,' which have nothing to do with school.

AA: Kindergarten, yeah.

DEBRA HOWELL: Yeah, nothing to do with kindergarten whatsoever⁷. Everything is pretty much pre-K and post-K, and the acronyms⁸ for the 'New New Orleans,' N-U-N-O. You see that written a lot, as a short term for New New Orleans.

RS: N-U-N --DEBRA HOWELL: N-U-N-O.

RS: -O, right. NUNO.

AA: For a city that's often known as NOLA, for New Orleans Louisiana, right?

DEBRA HOWELL: Right.

AA: N-O-L-A. So you talked earlier about how the term Katrina is often infused with a lot of anger and bitterness, and that's certainly understandable. I'm curious, are there other terms that have developed, maybe more humor or humorous or ironic⁹ or kind of ...

DEBRA HOWELL: Well, funny, a perfect example of that is we just had the Tennessee Williams literary festival this past weekend, which is an annual thing, and part of the festival every year -- y'all might already know about this -- part of the festival every year is a Stella shouting contest. Somebody stands on a balcony and people in the street, one at a time, compete over the best shout of 'Stella.'

AA: As if they're Marlon Brando --DEBRA HOWELL: As if they're Marlon Brando [in 'A Streetcar Named Desire.']

MARLON BRANDO: Hey Stella!!

DEBRA HOWELL: And it's a contest, and it's a very popular contest, lots of people go to watch. This year the winner surprised everybody. This middle-aged¹⁰ man got up there, looked like he was going to do the regular thing, and he shouted 'FEMA!! [laughter] FEMA!!' And oh my god, it was hysterical¹¹ -- and he won.'

AA: FEMA, for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, much criticized around New Orleans.

DEBRA HOWELL: Very, very much so. And he just infused the word with all the hopelessness it deserved.

RS: Debra Howell is a self-employed printmaker and photographer in New Orleans.

AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is [email protected]. And you can download all of our segments for free at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

2 sliver   

n.裂片，细片，梳毛；v.纵切，切成长片，剖开

参考例句：

• There was only one sliver of light in the darkness.黑暗中只有一点零星的光亮。
• Then,one night,Monica saw a thin sliver of the moon reappear.之后的一天晚上，莫尼卡看到了一个月牙。

3 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

4 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

5 venom   

n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨

参考例句：

• The snake injects the venom immediately after biting its prey.毒蛇咬住猎物之后马上注入毒液。
• In fact,some components of the venom may benefit human health.事实上，毒液的某些成分可能有益于人类健康。

6 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

7 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。

8 acronyms   

n.首字母缩略词( acronym的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Scratch the subject of defence and acronyms, abbreviations, and buzzwords fly out. 话题触及国防，缩合字，缩写字和行话就满天飞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some acronyms as scientific terminology are used as a lexical item. 一些科学术语缩写用作词汇项目。 来自互联网

9 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

10 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

11 hysterical   

adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的

参考例句：

• He is hysterical at the sight of the photo.他一看到那张照片就异常激动。
• His hysterical laughter made everybody stunned.他那歇斯底里的笑声使所有的人不知所措。