词汇大师-- Special Edition

　　The Bush administration's proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry is the talk of Washington right now. But where exactly did the term "bailout" come from? In this special edition of Wordmaster, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble turn to dictionary editor, Ben Zimmer, for the answer.

　　BEN ZIMMER: "Originally a bailout referred to a way that a pilot could get out of a plane very quickly by opening up a parachute and parachuting to safety. And that is spelled b-a-i-l-out in American usage, but British speakers tend to spell it b-a-l-e-out. But either way, it then became applied² to financial situations, where a company or corporation would have to be rescued in the same way that someone had to be rescued from a plane, by making an emergency landing by parachute."
AA: "My first thought when I would hear that term was maybe it had something to do with a boat taking on water and you would bail¹ it out. You're saying it had to do with a pilot bailing³ out of a plane?"
BEN ZIMMER: "Yeah, actually it is also related to the idea of bailing water out. The general image is of letting something out. If you spell it as b-a-l-e you can understand it as letting a bundle out, through a trap door, for instance. You're --
RS: "A bale of hay."
BEN ZIMMER: " -- bailing out that way. So it had these various senses relating to just trying to get something out the door very quickly. But the financial expression comes specifically from the idea of someone in a plane needing to make an emergency parachute landing."
RS: "A jump to safety."

　　BEN ZIMMER: "Right. A 'golden parachute.'"
AA: "Right, a golden parachute, what the CEOs get, right? And just briefly⁴, a golden parachute, since you brought that up, what exactly is a golden parachute?"
BEN ZIMMER: "The idea is that as the company is going downhill, as the company is about to crash, the CEO [chief executive officer] or other executives get some very sweet deal to get out of the situation. So they're not just being bailed⁵ out, but they're getting a tidy sum of money. So that became referred to as a golden parachute. Starting in the nineteen eighties we heard about that, where sometimes there'd be a contract that was agreed upon so that if, for instance, an executive -- not necessarily if that company was going to go bankrupt, but just if the company was going to fire someone, the executive would make sure that he or she had something in the contract stating that they would get a very large sum of money if that should happen. And that was also called a golden parachute."

1 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

2 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

3 bailing   

（凿井时用吊桶）排水

参考例句：

• Both fountains were going furiously and both pumps bailing with might and main. 两个人的口水只管喷泉似地朝外涌，两个抽水机全力以赴往外抽水。
• The mechanical sand-bailing technology makes sand-washing operation more efficient. 介绍了机械捞砂的结构装置及工作原理，提出了现场操作注意事项。

4 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

5 bailed   

保释，帮助脱离困境( bail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Fortunately the pilot bailed out before the plane crashed. 飞机坠毁之前，驾驶员幸运地跳伞了。
• Some water had been shipped and the cook bailed it out. 船里进了些水，厨师把水舀了出去。