趣味英語小知識

1. “Goodbye” came from “God bye”， which came from “God be with you.”

“Goodbye”來自于“God bye”，原意是“上帝與你同在”。

2. The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.” uses every letter of the alphabet!

“The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.”（這只敏捷的棕色狐貍跳過了一只懶狗。）這句話用到了字母表中的所有字母！

3. “Go” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

“Go”是英語中最短的完整句子。

4. The onion is named after the Latin word “unio” meaning large pearl.

“onion”（洋蔥）來自于拉丁語“unio”，意思是“大珍珠”。

5. The word “Tips” is actually an acronym standing for “To Insure Prompt Service”.

“Tips”（小費）實際上是“To Insure Prompt Service”（保障快捷的服務）的首字母縮寫。

6. The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

“rule of thumb”（經驗法則）源自一條古老的英國法律，即不能用超過大拇指粗細的東西打老婆。

7. The longest word in the English language is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses!

英語中最長的單詞是“pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses”（硅酸鹽沉著病）！

8. More people in China speak English than in the United States.

會說英語的中國人比會說英語的美國人還多。

9. The word “listen” contains the same letters as “silent”.

“listen”和“silent”用到了一樣的字母。

10. Hoover vacuum cleaners were so popular in the UK that many people now refer to vacuuming as hoovering.

“胡佛真空吸塵器”在英國曾經非常流行，到現在很多人還把“vacuuming”（吸塵）說成“hoovering”。

11. Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards.

“Stressed”（壓力）倒過來拼就是“Desserts”（點心）。

12. The most used letter in the English alphabet is “E”， and “Q” is the least used!

英語字母表中使用最多的字母是“E”，用得最少的是“Q”。

13. Ernest Vincent Wright (1872—1939) wrote a novel， “Gadsby”， which contains over 50，000 words — none of them with the letter E!

作家厄爾尼斯特·文森特·萊特曾經寫過一部5萬字的小說《葛士比》，里面字母“E”一個都沒有！

Vocabulary

acronym n. 首字母縮略詞

derive v. 源自

state v. 表明

contain v. 包含

vacuum n. v. 真空；用真空吸塵器清掃