在云彼方

不得不说,不会国骂人的人那一定不是土生土长中国人,相对的,不会用这英文四字真经的绝对也不是土生土长美国人. “Fuck” 是现代英语中最强烈，最有争议的粗语之一，这个词可能也是世界上最著名的亵渎语。但何时这个词从一个友好用法变成亵渎用法却仍然无法解释。一些证明显示，在一些英语为母语的地区，这个词直到17世纪才有一种攻击和亵渎的含义; 而另外一些证明却表明，早在16世纪的英国，这个词已经变成粗语。因此一些诸如牛津大英字典的权威资料仍然无法确定这个粗语的来源，但倾向于相信撒克逊人(英国人)起源说，然后再流传到英国殖民地，再到全世界。 　　 　　在现代英语中，”Fuck”是一种高度冒犯性的用词，是最为严厉的4字母词。”Fuck” 原意就是性交(操，干)，但它往往被用作一个咒骂语和语气加强词。一些”Fuck”原意的例子有： 　　 　　”Let‘ s fuck.” (让我们操吧) 　　”That was a good fuck.” (那真是一次美妙的性交) 　　”I can‘t believe she‘s fucking him!” (我不能相信她正在操他！) 　　”I fucked my teacher!” (我干了我老师) 　　 　　其他则是一些粗直语用法，但这些用法往往牵涉到性，譬如强奸(fuck you)或者自慰(fuck yourself). 　　 　　”Fuck you!” or “Go fuck yourself!” (我不喜欢你，快滚开) 　　”He”s a dumb fuck.” (他是个白痴) 　　”Sorry, I fucked up your computer.” (不好意思，我弄坏了你的电脑) 　　”He‘ s pretty fucked up.” (他心理或者心情不稳定) 　　”I fucked up on this test.” (我这次测验做的很糟) 　　”Let‘s fuck around for a couple hours.” (让我们浪费2个小时好了) 　　”I‘m fucked.” (结果) 　　”What the fuck!” (到底刚才发生了什么?) 　　”Shut the fuck up!” (闭嘴) 　　”I‘m so fucked up right now.” (我已经烂醉或者被药物搞的晕晕乎乎了。) 　　其他一些粗直用法则...

Kamila Shamsie       "I want you to come and talk to my class about Burnt Shadows," an academic friend said to me earlier this year while I was on a book tour in America. "But first you have to promise me one thing: you won't tell the students you did most of the research for your novel via Google."       "Not even if I say I used Google to find books or journal articles which I then checked out of libraries?"       "Not even then."       "What if I say I used Google Images to find photographs of Nagasaki before the bomb?"       "Perhaps."       "And Google Earth to help me visualise places I was writing about but had never visited."       "Well, OK."       "And YouTube to understand how to dismantle an AK-47?"       "Hmm...

Ben Stein   My father's father came to the United States as a small child in the late 19th century, His father abandoned the family. When my grandpop was 15, he borrowed his old brother's birth certificate and joined the U.S. Army. He became a cavalryman and fought in the Philippines against the Aguinaldo uprising. When he came back to America he was a skilled tool and die maker at Ford Motor and then at GE. He was unemployed during most of the Great Depression and lived with extreme frugality on my brave grandmother's wages as a department store clerk and his odd jobs.   My father, a certified genius, entered Williams College, one of the best colleges in the nation, at 15, in 1931, in the depths of the Great Depression. He worked his way through at every kind of odd job including washing dishes at a fancy fraternity that did not admit Jews. He was never bitter about it, just grateful he had a chance to go to a fine college in a terrible depression.   My fa...