朗文听说教程2听力原文.doc

Unit 1 What’s in a Name? TEACHER: Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Felipe, Monica, Theo, . . . and I can’t rememberyour name. STUDENT 1: Patricia. TEACHER: Right, Patricia. Those are all beautiful names, and that’s our topic today—names. Names area cultural universal. This means everyone uses names. A person’s name can tell us a bit about a person’sfamily. Today, we’ll begin by looking at first names and how people choose names for their children. Andthen we’ll talk about family names, and look at the different categories of family names. Although thescope of the lecture today is English-language names, we can use the same approach, you know, to look atnames from any culture.Let’s take a brief look at first, or given, names. There are several ways parents choose the first name fortheir child.The first way is by family history. Parents may choose a name because it is passed from generation togeneration; for example, the firstborn son might be named after his father or grandfather. Although familynames are also passed to daughters, it is usually as a middle name. Adding “junior” or “the second” —forexample, William Parker the second—is only done with boys’, not with girls’ names.The second way parents choose a name is after a family member or friend who has died recently, or aftersomeone they admire, like a well-known leader or a famous musician. Although most English first namesmean something, for example, “Richard” means powerful and “Ann” means grace, nowadays meaning is not the main reason people select their baby’s name.The third way is to provide a “push” for the child. Parents want to choose a name that sounds very“successful.” A strong name might help them in the business world, for example. Or they might choose a name that works for either gender, like Taylor or Terry. So, given these three methods, what is the most common way parents choose a name? Many parents choose a name simply because they like it, or because it’s fashionable or classic. Fashions