词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Listener Mail

Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": February 27, 2003

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we catch up with some listener mail.

RS: ... starting with Azmul Haque in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who writes: "We catch so many things, but what is the meaning of a 'Catch 22 situation'?"

AA: It's true. We catch a ball, catch a fish, catch a cold. But here's what the American Heritage Dictionary has to say about "Catch 22": 1. A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain¹ because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions.

RS: 2. A situation or predicament characterized by absurdity² or senselessness.

AA: And 3. A contradictory³ or self-defeating course of action.

RS: The expression comes from a book published in 1961, the war novel "Catch 22" by the late author Joseph Heller. Heller himself flew many bombing missions during World War Two. The main character in his book is a flier named Yossarian.

AA: Yossarian is obsessed⁴ with the fear of dying and doesn't want to fly anymore. He's angry that his commander -- hoping for a promotion⁵ to general -- keeps raising the number of missions his unit must fly.

RS: Here's the scene from the 1970 movie "Catch 22" in which Yossarian -- played by actor Alan Arkin -- appeals to a military doctor to ground him:

YOSSARIAN: I'm crazy!

DOCTOR: "Who says so?"

YOSSARIAN: "Ask anybody. Ask Nately, Dobbs -- hey, Orr, Orr, tell him.

ORR: "Tell him what?"

YOSSARIAN: "Am I crazy?"

ORR: "He's crazy, doc. He won't fly with me. I take good care of him, but he won't. He's crazy, all right."

YOSSARIAN: "Is Orr crazy?"

DOCTOR: "Of course he is. He has to be if he keeps flying after all the close calls he's had."

YOSSARIAN: "Then why can't you ground him."

DOCTOR: "I can but first he has to ask me."

YOSSARIAN: "That's all he's got to do to be grounded."

DOCTOR: "That's all."

YOSSARIAN: "Then you can ground him?"

DOCTOR: "No, then I cannot ground him. There's a catch."

YOSSARIAN: "A catch?"

DOCTOR: "Sure, Catch 22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat isn't really crazy, so I can't ground him."

YOSSARIAN: "OK, let me see if I got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy anymore and I have to keep flying."

DOCTOR: "You got it -- that's Catch 22."

YOSSARIAN: That's some catch, that Catch 22.

DOCTOR: "The best there is."

RS: And the same could be said for the expression itself. It caught on during the 1960s as many Americans opposed their country's involvement in the Vietnam War.

AA: Azmul Haque in Dhaka also asks another question: What's the meaning of "huffing and puffing⁶."

RS: That's simple: Imagine yourself doing something really strenuous⁷ -- like shoveling all that snow we've been having here in Washington. Your heart races, You start breathing heavily, so heavily that it's hard to talk. That's huffing and puffing.

AA: Next, a question from Helen Wong in the Chinese city of Wuhan. She would like to know what "second-guess" means, as used in this sentence: "While the court was skeptical⁸ about the wisdom of the copyright extension, seven justices believed it was not their role to second-guess [Congress]." When you "second-guess" someone else's decision, it means you presume to know better.

RS: It's not a positive expression, since it's hard to imagine many people would appreciate being second-guessed.

AA: Song Xiaolu in Shanghai has this question: "Why do American women like to call a man a 'beefcake' or 'stud muffin' if he is well-built with muscles? Why 'cake' and 'muffin'?"

RS: After all, cakes and muffins are baked goods. Well, the Random⁹ House Historical Dictionary of American Slang dates "beefcake" back to 1949. The term started out to describe -- quote -- "photographs or motion pictures of partially¹⁰ clad muscular men." It was suggested by the existing term "cheesecake" to describe pictures of women.

AA: As for "studmuffin," the Dictionary of American Slang by the late Robert Chapman dates that term to students in the 1980s, and defined as "an attractive young man." But "stud" by itself was in use as a term of virility¹¹ by the early 1900s.

AA: Now here's another question, from a listener by the e-mail address of Marshield: "What does 'a flip¹² answer' mean?" For that we turn to a special guest:

ANU GARG: "A flip answer is something irreverent or something which is not serious. You might give a flip answer to a question when you are not really wanting to give a serious answer."

RS: That's Anu Garg, the man behind the internationally popular online service called A.Word.A.Day. You'll hear lots more words next Thursday when he's our guest on Wordmaster.

AA: Our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is [email protected]. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 attain   

vt.达到，获得，完成

参考例句：

• I used the scientific method to attain this end. 我用科学的方法来达到这一目的。
• His painstaking to attain his goal in life is praiseworthy. 他为实现人生目标所下的苦功是值得称赞的。

2 absurdity   

n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论

参考例句：

• The proposal borders upon the absurdity.这提议近乎荒谬。
• The absurdity of the situation made everyone laugh.情况的荒谬可笑使每个人都笑了。

3 contradictory   

adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立

参考例句：

• The argument is internally contradictory.论据本身自相矛盾。
• What he said was self-contradictory.他讲话前后不符。

4 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

5 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

6 puffing   

v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• He was puffing hard when he jumped on to the bus. 他跳上公共汽车时喘息不已。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe. 父亲坐着心满意足地抽着烟斗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 strenuous   

adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的

参考例句：

• He made strenuous efforts to improve his reading. 他奋发努力提高阅读能力。
• You may run yourself down in this strenuous week.你可能会在这紧张的一周透支掉自己。

8 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

9 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

10 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

11 virility   

n.雄劲，丈夫气

参考例句：

• He wanted his sons to become strong,virile,and athletic like himself.他希望他的儿子们能长得像他一样强壮、阳刚而又健美。
• He is a tall,virile man with rugged good looks.他是个身材高大、体魄健壮、相貌粗犷英俊的男子。

12 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。