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True story

One time while dining in a hotel cafeteria，I noticed a funny spelling error．Instead of writing “Hash Brown Potatoes’’ the sign read‘‘Harsh Brown Potatoes”．The words“hash’’ and‘‘harsh”look similar，but that extra“r’’creates a big difference in meaning．Instead of sayin9‘‘hash browns”．the sign ends up meanin9“涩口的棕色薯饼”．Doesn’t sound very good!The word“harsh”

has several meanings：“涩口，粗糙”and“苛刻”．

一次在一家酒店的餐厅吃饭，我注意到了一个很有趣的拼写错误。菜牌上写着：“Harsh Brown Potatoes”，而不是“Hash Brown Potatoes”。hash和harsh 这两个单词看上去很像，但是多出来一个字母“r”，意思就有天壤之别了。菜牌上的“Harsh Brown Potatoes”指的就是“涩口的棕色薯饼”，而不是“hash browns”(炸薯饼)。这听}：去感觉可不怎么好!单词“harsh”有好几种意恩

“涩口，粗糙”和“苛刻”。

文化背景：

Potatoes are an important part of most Western diets．For many foreigners，they are considered a type of staple food(主食)．

与“土豆”相关的词汇：

请慢用Bon Appetit

True story

A foreign friend of mine once noticed the following spelling error at a salad bar．Instead of saying“coleslaw” it read“cole slow．”Coleslaw is a type of salad made with raw cabbage and it is written as one word But in this example，the name of the saladis written as two words“colesla w”literally meaning“请慢慢吃你的蔬菜”．

我的一位外国朋友曾经在一家沙拉店里注意到了下面的拼写错误：“coleslaw”被写成了“cole slow”。coleslaw是一种由生的卷心菜做成的沙拉．是一个完整的单词。但在这里，这种沙拉的名字被写成了两个单词——“cole slow”，它字面上的意思是“请慢慢吃你的蔬菜”。

饮食文化：

Eating raw vegetables and salads is very common in Western countries and is a part of almost every meal for most Westerners as they are considered light and healthy．

相关词汇：

mixed greens凉拌蔬菜

Greek salad希腊式沙拉(黄瓜、奶酪、橄榄、洋葱、灯椒、蕃茄、橄榄油、醋、调料)

Caesar salad恺撒沙拉(蔬菜、培根火腿、烤面包块儿、大蒜、色拉酱)

Nicoise salad尼斯沙拉(金枪鱼、橄榄、熟绿豆、蕃茄、撖榄油、彩醋、调料) common salad dressings普通沙拉酱：

Thousand Island千岛French法式Italian意式blue cheese蓝(臭)奶酪

沙漠点心Food or Place

Dialogue:

Zhang: So，what do you think of Western food?

Wang: I think most of it is pretty tasty．

Zhang: Do you have any particular dishes?

Wang: Well，I’m really fond of deserts．

张：你认为西方食物怎么样?

王：我认为大部分都相当好吃。

张：你有什么特别喜欢的吗?

王：我非常喜欢沙漠。

注意重音：

The words “desert”and “dessert”both have two syllables(音节)；the difference in pronunciation comes from whether the first syllable is stressed：DESert or whether the second syllable is stressed：desSERT．

Funny Drink Name “二锅头“和两个头

Dialogue:

Chinese：And now we should order something to drink．

Foreigner：Ok，sounds good．

Chinese：Should we try something Chinese?

Foreigner：Sure，why not?

Chinese：Ok，let’s order some“Two Pots of Head”．

Foreigner：(confused)That sounds．．．interesting．

中国人：我们应该叫点喝的东西。外国人：好，不错。

中国人：我们要点中国的怎么样?外国人：好，为什么不呢?

中国人：那我们要“头的两个锅”吧。

外国人：(迷惑)这听起来……有点意思。

问题分析：

Of course，the Chinese host was trying to order a famous Beijing brand of rice wine，“Er Guo Tou——二锅头”，which，when translated character by character，literally means“tw o，pot，head．’’By sayin9“two pots of head’’it’s even worse though，because it means“头的两个壶”．

与“酒”相关的词汇：

发音不准Poor Pronunciation Leads to Misunderstanding I Was having a conversation with a friend about food and he was telling me how fond he was of Western food．At one point，how ever，he said something that sounded like，“I really like pizza pizza．” It would be like a Westerner saying “I like dumplings dumplings．” The problem was poor pronuncia— tion．What the student really wanted to say was，“I really like a piece of pizza．”

我和一位朋友讨论食物，他告诉我他很喜欢西餐。但忽然他说的听起来像：“I really like pizza pizza．(我真喜欢比萨饼比萨饼)”，就好像西方人的说法：“I like dumplings dumplings．(我喜欢饺饺子)”。问题就在于发音不准。这个学生真正想说的是：“I really like a piece of pizza．(我很喜欢比萨饼)”

分析提示：

The pronunciation problem here is essentially a problem of “word joinin g”(连读)．In English，when certain words are read together ,the sounds blend together：piece of=pieca

发音练习：

Now take a look at some other common examples of phonetics

苍蝇炒虱子Some People Will Eat Anything

I 0ften ate Chinese food when l was young in Canada．One time l went into a restaurant and ordered a “fried rice”．When the waiter repeated the order to me，however，I was startled．He had trouble pronouncing the letter “r”．So it sounded to me like he said，“okay，you want one fly lice．’’

我年轻的时候，经常在加拿大吃中国菜。一次，我去一家餐馆点了一份“fried rice(炒饭)”。当侍应生重复菜单的时候，我大吃一惊。他不会发字母“r”，所以他说的听起来就像是：“Okay, you want one fly lice．(你点了一份苍蝇炒虱子)”

发音练习：

脸面Talking About Noodles

A friend told me that he recently went to a noodle shop，although you wouldn’t have known it from the English sign that read“Face Powder”．The reason for this mistake is because of the Chi nese characters“面”．0ne of the meanings of“面”is“face”，but not in this case．

我的一位朋友告诉我，他最近去过一家面馆，但是从英文招牌“Face Powder”不会知道这是家面馆。误解的原因就是因为汉字“面”。“面”的一个意思是“face”，但不能用在这里。

与“面”相关的词汇：

吃过炒沙拉吗？To Cook or Not to Cook?

I love to cook and one time I invited several friends over for dinner．We decided that it would be “potluck”，meaning that each person would prepare a dish．I made several dishes，one of which was a “salad”．Most of my friends liked but one person was curious and asked．‘‘Who cooked this salad?’’The correct answer is that no one ‘‘cooked’’ the salad because salads are‘‘raw”．我喜欢烹饪。一次我邀请几位朋友来吃饭，我们决定采取“potluck”的形式，就是说每一个人准备一个菜。我准备了几个菜，其中一个是沙拉。大部分朋友都很喜欢，但有一位朋友很好奇地问：“Who cooked this salad?(谁炒的沙拉)”正确的回答是：没有人“cooked(炒)”沙拉，因为沙拉是生的。

提示：

In Chinese w e say“沙拉(sha—la)”，and consequently many students，when speaking English have trouble differentiating between “s”and ‘‘sh”．Many stu dents often say,“I like to eat sha—la”or“I like to eat“shalad’’

发音练习：

你喜欢吃什么What Do You Like Eat?

I once had an interesting discussion about food with a friend．We were talking about what our favorite foods were when suddenly，he said something that sounded like．“I really like to eat snakes．”At first I thought that was his meanin9，because I knew that in some pans of China，eating snakes is common．But as the conversation went on I realized it definitely was not his meanin9．What he wanted to say was．“I really like to eat snacks”．Poor pronunciation was the problem．