Mouse potatoes joined couch potatoes (who spend much time watching TV on the couch), google officially became a verb and drama queens (extremely emotional persons) finally found the attention when they crossed over from popular culture to mainstream English language.
The mouse potato, the himbo (attractive, empty-headed man) and drama queen were among 100 new words added to the 2006 update of America’s best-selling dictionary, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary《韦氏大词典》. The Internet search engine Google also found its way into the dictionary for the first time as a verb, meaning to find information quickly on the worldwide web.
New words and phrases from the fields of science, technology, pop culture and industry are chosen each year by Merriam-Webster’s team of editors after months of looking through books, magazines and even food labels. “They are not tracking spoken language. They are looking for evidence that words have been used in the written English language,” said Arthur Bicknell, senior editor of Merriam-Webster.
Other words first coming into the dictionary this year were soul patch (a small growth of beard under a man’s lower lip), unibrow (two eyebrows joining together) and supersize － the fast food industry phrase for extra large meals.
The technology world contributed ringtones (changeable incoming cellphone call signals) and spyware (software installed in a computer to track a user’s activities) while biodiesel (生物柴油) and avian influenza(禽流感) came from the world of science.
America’s first dictionary － Noah Webster’s A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language － was published 200 years ago and also introduced some fresh words that have now become familiar. Those “new” words in 1806 included slang, surf, psychology, naturally and Americanize.
小题1:The mouse potato refers to ____________.
A．a mouse that lives by potatoes
B．a person who spends much time on the computer
C．a mouse that is shown on the screen of the computer
D．a person who likes to eat mice and potatoes小题2:Which group of words and phrases is NOT the fresh words for the dictionary of this year?
A．mouse potatoes, google, supersize， drama queen.
B．himbo, soul patch, unibrow, supersize.
C．ringtones, spyware, biodiesel, avian influenza.
D．couch potatoes, surf, psychology, Americanize.小题3:Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the text?
A．New words and phrases were introduced into the dictionary have close relationship with the time.
B．New words and phrases chosen by the editors of the dictionary have been used in written English somewhere.
C．Some words that are now familiar to us used to be fresh words collected in the dictionary.
D．The Merriam-webster Collegiate Dictionary becomes the best-seller because 100 new words are added to it.
