Unit-5-Lifelong-Education课文翻大学体验英语三.docVIP

Unit 5 Lifelong Education Passage?A Tongue-tied Several weeks ago I was riding in a cab when the drivers eyes caught mine in the rear view mirror and he said, Excuse me, Miss? Can you help me? 　 As any hard-bitten city dweller knows, the correct answer to a question like Can you help me? should always be some version of It depends. I chirped, Sure. 　Thank you, he said. He passed a slip of yellow paper into the back seat. 　 I stared at the paper, wondering. Was this a joke? A threat? Hand-printed on the paper in tiny block letters was this: 　　proverb 　　peculiar 　　idiomatic 　 　　Please, he said. What is the meaning of these words? 　 I stared at the words in the distressed way you might stare at party guests whose faces youve seen somewhere before but whose names have escaped your mind. Proverb? Peculiar? Idiomatic? How on earth should I know? Its one thing to use a word, its another to explain it. I resorted to shifting the topic. 　　Where did you get these words? 　 The driver explained that he was Pakistani. He listened to the radio as he drove and often jotted down unfamiliar, fascinating words whose meanings and spellings he then sought from his passengers. 　 Peculiar, he said. What does this mean? 　　I could manage that one. Strange, I said. Odd. Often with a hint of something suspicious. 　　Thank you, Miss. And idiomatic? 　　I cleared my throat. Um, its a, well, um. It involves a peculiar use of the language. 　 I thought my use of peculiar was kind of clever. He looked confused, a reminder that clevers not clever if it doesnt communicate. 　 Uh, lets see. Idiomatic is related to the word idiom. An idioms something thats used in, say, a particular part of the country or by a particular group of people. People who arent part of that group arent likely to use it and might not understand it. 　 Watching his puzzled look, I did what a person often does when at a loss for the right words: I went on talking, as if a thousand vague words would add up t