Unit 3 Period 2 Grammar and composition—Euphemism-【步步高】2023-2024学年高二英语选修第三册（译林版2020）

Period 2　Grammar and composition—Euphemism

阅读以下短文，感知并猜测黑体部分的意思

Mr Smith，a ①landscape architect，devoted all his life to the work of landscape.As time went by，he became ②not all there and had ③a weight problem.Gradually he was ④hard of hearing.In his late seventies，his wife ⑤was gone and he had to live a poor life by ⑥welfare benefits.Now the old man is ⑦on his last legs and can not eat anything.

1．landscape architect园林工人

2．not all there呆头呆脑

3．a weight problem肥胖

4．hard of hearing耳聋

5．was gone去世

6．welfare benefits救济金

7．on his last legs行将就木，濒临死亡

委婉语

委婉语(euphemism)是一种礼貌的表达方式，用间接的话语来代替禁忌、敏感或令人尴尬的说法。在语言交际中恰当使用委婉语，可以有效地达成交际目的，维持良好的人际关系。在英语中，委婉语通常用于谈论以下话题：

1．表达禁忌或较为敏感的词语

(1)人们忌讳说“死亡”“倒闭”等词语

His grandfather passed away last week. The funeral will be held this Friday.

他祖父上周去世了。 葬礼将于本周五举行。

Dick’s firm is on its last legs.

迪克的公司就要倒闭了。

说明　也许人们在生活中比较忌讳死亡，尤其对于受人尊敬和爱戴的人的死亡，更忌讳直接运用die, 因此出现了许多表达死亡的委婉语，如：pass away (逝世)，depart(去世)，be gone (走了), to go west (归西了)，to be at peace(平静了)，final sleep (最后一觉)等。

(2)人们忌讳说“年老”等词语

Last year, my father set up a club for senior citizens.

去年，我父亲创立了一个老年人俱乐部。

说明　在西方国家，年龄是一个非常敏感的话题。所以old (老) 一词是令人难以接受的，于是便产生了许多关于老年的委婉语。这些词语表达了老年人的某种愿望，希望自己生命永恒，或希望自己容颜不衰，体型不改。下列词语也常用来表示老年人：senior citizen(高龄公民，资深公民)，the elderly (年长者)，the mature (成熟的人)，seasoned man (经验丰富的人，历经沧桑的人)。

(3)人们忌讳说“笨拙”“残疾”“肥胖”等与智力或身体缺陷有关的词语

The boy is a bit slow for his age.

在同龄人中这男孩脑子慢一点。

The girl is hard of hearing.

这女孩耳朵不好使。

The school is for people who are physically challenged.

这所学校是专为身体有残疾的人设立的。

2．替代不文雅词语的委婉用语

(1)常用的厕所名称有：

ladies(原意是女士，转指女厕所，被认为是最常用、最典雅的委婉语，而且无尊卑之分)。

gentlemen(原意是先生，转指男厕所)。

美国人常用的厕所名称是washroom (原意是洗手间，转指厕所，使用频率较高)。

Where can I wash my hands? 卫生间在哪里？

(2)人们忌讳说那些表示“地位低、收入少”的服务性行业或职业的词语

The sanitary engineer cleaned the hospital.

清洁工人打扫医院。

They decided to employ a domestic engineer to help them clean the house.

他们决定雇用一名家政工程师帮助他们打扫房子。

说明　在英美国家，工作和社会地位的高低贵贱悬殊，那些从事被认为地位低下、挣钱不多的服务性工作或职业的人害怕被别人瞧不起，忌讳别人直接提到他们的职业。当他们要提到自己的职业时，常会用一些委婉动听的名称来取代：如shoe rebuilder 指补鞋匠 (shoemaker)，meat technologist指屠夫(butcher)，landscape architect指园林工人(landscape worker)等。

(3)人们忌讳说“失业、贫穷”等词语

My father has a lot of free time because he is between jobs at the moment.

我父亲因为目前失业，有的是时间。

They did not sell a single car for a month and had to lay off workers.

他们一个月来一辆汽车都没卖出去，只好裁员。

完成下列语段，尽可能多地使用委婉语

玛丽是一名正在日趋变老的老年人。因为缺乏锻炼，她有点胖。她决定进行锻炼因为她可不想早早面对死亡。凌晨三点，在家里佣人的陪同下，她开始在街上跑步。大约二十分钟后，她遇到了一位清洁工。攀谈中，那人告诉她说，在罢工后，他上个月失业了。幸运的是，他又找到了目前的工作。为了养家糊口，他必须努力。

Mary,1.a senior citizen，is growing old day by day.Lacking in enough exercise，she has 2.extra pounds.She is determined to do exercise because she does not want to 3.go to heaven so early.At 3：00 in the morning she began to run on the street，accompanied by her 4.domestic engineer.About 20 minutes later，they came across 5.a sanitary engineer.During the talk，the man told her that he had been out of work after an 6.industrial action the last month.Fortunately，he found this present job and had to work hard to support the family.

Ⅰ.阅读理解

A

With lion dance，Chinese Kongfu，Chinese crosstalk，songs and dances，and award-winning speeches，students from across New Zealand showed their Chinese language skills in the annual “Chinese Bridge” event held on Saturday.

Fifteen secondary school students and two primary school students participated in the event，which was organized by the Confucius Institute in Auckland.

Naisi，a New Zealand member of parliament(议会)，reflected on his own experience of learning Chinese.He came to New Zealand at five.He had very patient Chinese teachers and passed the Chinese language tests smoothly.The capability to speak Chinese grounded him well in his Chinese culture.He is looking forward to hearing from bilingual(双语) talents who will help New Zealand become more diverse and promote cross-cultural exchanges.

Elijah from the Lincoln High School started learning Chinese when he was eleven.It was his fifth time to participate in the “Chinese Bridge”．He said that learning Chinese is of great help for him to know China better and he wished to visit the Great Wall in Beijing，the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai and the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan.

Ryan from the Christchurch Boys High School said that learning Chinese provides him with more opportunities for future career development.He said it was awesome that learning Chinese could allow him to make friends with 1.4 billion people.