南开中学 段胜利

　　牙买加飞人博尔特以9秒69的成绩赢得奥运男子百米飞人大战，并打破世界纪录的惊人一幕，让人回肠荡气，叹为观止。我国的英文报纸《中国日报》报道：

　　Catch me if you can - Bolt saunters into history

　　He slowed up, stretched his arms out wide and put his palms out, then slapped his chest. He was still running.

　　It's not every day you see an Olympic sprinter saunter to victory, much less look around to check how his rivals are doing, before crossing the finish line. But then, it's not every day you see Usain Bolt coast into history by clocking 9.69 seconds in the 100m sprint final.

　　In doing so, the Jamaican sprinter Saturday broke his own record of 9.72 seconds that he set on May 31 in New York - less than a year after taking up the dash.

　　What was billed as a showdown thus ended in a walkover. Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago took the silver with 9.89, and Walter Dix of the United States was third with 9.91.

　　The 21-year-old Bolt's performance left no doubt whatsoever about who deserves the title of “World's Fastest Man”.

　　Former world record-holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica came fifth, while world champion Tyson Gay of the US failed to qualify for the final.

　　标题中“saunter”一词的英文释义是：“to walk in a slow relaxed way, especially so that you look confident or proud”，也就是“漫步，闲逛，溜达”的意思。用saunter这样一个词来描述博尔特以“闲庭信步”的姿态创造百米纪录，是再恰当不过了。

　　不过，Usain Bolt这个名字，也让我想到了bolt这个词。它不仅是博尔特这个神气的名字，bolt在英语中还有“箭和闪电”和意思，也许正是如此，赛场上我们看到的这样一幕就不是巧合了吧：

　　比赛开始前，在介绍到博尔特时，他做了个射箭的动作；枪响之后，他犹如离弦之箭，飞身而出，闪电般地一马当先；在最后十米处，他竟然减速，并以回头望月的姿势，拍着自己的胸口提前庆祝胜利！

　　Bolt，是伟大的运动员博尔特；

　　bolt，就是离弦之箭；

　　bolt，就是快如闪电。晴天霹雳就是a bolt from (out of) the blue

　　把博尔特的名字和它的英文寓意联系起来，并不是为了做什么“八卦”,而是借这样一个有趣的现象，告诉大家一种学习方式——不放过你眼前的单词，在生活中识记单词。

　　请阅读下面一段文字，猜测一个生词：

　　Children who use mobile phones risk suffering memory loss, sleeping disorders and headaches, according to research published in the medical journal(期刊) The Lancet.

　　Physicist Dr Gerard Hyland raised new fears over radiation caused by mobile phones and said under 18-year-olds, who represent a quarter of Britain’s 25 million mobile users, were more vulnerable(脆弱) because their immune systems(免疫系统) were less robust.

　　Radiation is known to affect the brain rhythms(节律) and children are particularly vulnerable.

　　…，…

　　Question: The underlined word “robust” means “ ”.

　　A. wise B. healthy

　　C. old D. lively

　　你一定会说robust是个生词，我们只能通过上下文的more vulnerable(脆弱)和less robust的因果对比来分析，猜出robust在这里当healthy讲。不过，我可以肯定地说，这个词你认识，甚至有一个时期你会天天见到它。

　　“乐百氏”就是这个词的中文译音，想必你不会不知道吧？问题就在于，你只看中文的“乐百氏”三个字，没有留意它的英文拼写，也更不会去想一想这个字会在英语里当什么讲。

　　由此特别想提醒同学们，英语的词汇和表达，可能就在我们身边。比如：当你踌躇于“不要随地乱扔垃圾”怎么表达更好，是不是要说“Don’t throw away rubbish here and there.”时，你只消留意包装袋上的Don’t litter.(请勿乱丢)，就能立刻得到答案；“不要踩踏草坪”，如果说成“Don’t step on the grass”，是不是你都会觉得有些“中国味”？看看公园草地上的警示牌Keep off the grass，你就会马上心领神会，原来地道英语就在身边，它会随时让我们感知和学习英语。对你的要求无非就是树立主动学习的意识，培养出积极的学习兴趣。这样日积月累，相信能给你的学习和复习带来很大的收益。