http://vk.com/learning_english?w=wall-17650165_1585 NB: This is not a word for word transcript Продолжение транскрипта: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/6minute/100902_6min_new_words.pdf
Alice: Hello! I’m Alice and this is 6 Minute English…. I’m joined today by Rob. Hi Rob. Rob: Hello Alice. Alice: Today we’re talking about some of the new words which have entered the English language recently. Rob: These are words which have been added to the Oxford Dictionary of English this year. Alice: There are quite a few but we thought we’d pick some which you might enjoy using. But first – a question – Rob can you guess how many new words or phrases were added in this latest edition? Is it: 100, 2,000 or 10,000. Rob: I would think that there are thousands of new words every year but not all of them are added to the dictionary. Let me have a think about it. Alice: I’ll let you know at the end of the programme, but first let’s hear from Catherine Sommes from the Oxford English Dictionary talking about how they choose which new words will make it into the new edition. Extract 1: What we can do – we’ve got software tools that actually show how words are being used, how widely they’re being used, so it’s not just a question of numbers, it’s a question of different places it’s being used so everywhere from magazines, to newspapers to chatrooms. Alice: So the company have software tools which are able to monitor new words, how and when they are used. Rob: Catherine Sommes says it’s not just a question of numbers – they don’t just measure how often a new word is used Alice: And she uses that phrase again. It’s a question of different places – they also look at the different places where the word is used – for example she says in magazines, newspapers and chatrooms. Rob: So a word must be used in a variety of places. Alice: That’s right. In order to make it into the dictionary it can’t just be jargon – words which are specific to particular fields of interest. Many of the new words this year come from social networking. Here’s Catherine Sommes again to explain: Extract 2 Social networking as well is so huge – so we’re getting words in the dictionary now like de-friend, or un-friend which means take somebody off your friend list on a social networking site such as Facebook. We’re seeing lots of words like that come into the language now. Alice: Rob have you heard the words ‘de-friend’, or ‘un-friend’? Rob: I’ve never used them myself but I know what they mean! Alice: If you remove someone from your friend list on social networking sites you might de-friend them, or un-friend them. It’s easy to make a new word just using the prefix de- and un- but it does sound a bit clumsy! Rob: How about blogging? Alice: Blogging has been in the dictionary for a while – but what about micro-blogging? That’s a blog which is really small – it could just be a sentence, a quick video-link or an image. Rob: Now, Alice, Do you know what a dictionary attack is? Alice: No. Rob: It’s an attempt to find out your secret computer password by trying an enormous number of words which might unlock it. Alice: That sounds nasty! And so do some of the new words and phrases which come from talking about the problems in the world’s economy. Can you explain what toxic debt is Rob? Rob: I’ll try! It’s the phrase used to describe a class of assets which were once valuable – mortgages or financial products – which are now worthless. Alice: Pretty good! A toxic debt can be worthless or at least have a reduced value which is hard to find out. Here’s another one we’ve heard quite a lot over the last couple of years. Quantitative easing. That’s when governments put new money into the national money supply to ease pressure on the economy. ...