时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(十月)


英语课

Collectors' Passions Vary from Buttons to Beerbottles


 


For the longest time, people have collected things, just for fun. Butterflies. Buttons. Beer bottles. String wrapped into balls.



Umbrellas, matchbooks, model airplanes. You name it, somebody probably collects it. It’s not just an American thing, but we go a little nuts with it.



Surely the first prize for fanatical collecting goes to a fellow in New York City who calls himself “Inspector Collector.” On an Internet website by that name, he shows photos and tells little stories about the many, many things he hangs onto.



Menus from Chinese restaurants, for instance. Rubber bands, pencils, scissors and bottle caps. And there’s more! He also collects spoons, paper clips, maps, drinking straws, shopping bags, postcards, hockey sticks, transit 1 tokens, marbles, dice 2, security badges, airline tags, citrus peelers, and toothpicks.









Watches, especially old-time pocket watches, are an enjoyable collectible - both functional 3 and beautiful.




Speaking of toothpicks, there are entire organizations of collectors, including the Toothpick Holder 4 Collectors Society, 700 members strong.



These groups exist, in part, because collectors have a problem: their love of toothpaste tubes or bubble-gum machines is quite often not shared by their spouses 5 or children. So when they pass on to that great knickknack cabinet in the sky, their precious assortment 6 of teacups could end up in the garbage, a street sale, or at an auction 7 site on the Internet.



Collectors’ club members keep in touch, even checking on each other’s health. If the unfortunate happens, a member passes away, and the family has no interest in his or her ivory needles or miniature buses or vacuum cleaners, the clubs ensure that someone will eagerly step forward to save the collection from the trash heap.



n.经过,运输;vt.穿越,旋转;vi.越过
  • His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
  • The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。
n.骰子;vt.把(食物)切成小方块,冒险
  • They were playing dice.他们在玩掷骰子游戏。
  • A dice is a cube.骰子是立方体。
adj.为实用而设计的,具备功能的,起作用的
  • The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了,但现在可以用了。
  • The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的,只是为了实用。
n.持有者,占有者;(台,架等)支持物
  • The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
  • That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。
n.配偶,夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )
  • Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
  • An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句
n.分类,各色俱备之物,聚集
  • This shop has a good assortment of goods to choose from.该店各色货物俱全,任君选择。
  • She was wearing an odd assortment of clothes.她穿着奇装异服。
n.拍卖;拍卖会;vt.拍卖
  • They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
  • They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。
学英语单词
acupoint indications
adipocytes
anhysteresis
are out
backscatter gauging
Bacterium glaesser
beetsugar
benign nephrosclerosis
blue books
broad brush
cacodoxical
car starter
cecilie
charcoal finishing
clover fern
color-and-weave effect
comparates
component code generator
Convention on Biological Diversity
crontab
curl ring
daduan
dance in a net
De Beers Botswana Mining Company
deponible
dibudinate
dynamic system performance
eales
ear of Dionysius
efficiency apartment
emotion loneliness
engine ignition
espy
eucalyptene hydrochloride
fenitropan
fertigated
first batch of newly-designed products
Fletcherize
fuel-sodium reaction
fully-paid shares
get some sleep
glocal
greenwalt
grip gauge
ground mat
happy marriage
high output failure
ill-favouredness
initial drug-resistance
intermittent storage system
internet protocol telephony solution for carriers
intra-osseous
koghe
kujan
La Chilca
laye
layer cake federalism
low handstand
lumped resistance
McLeod County
mega-lumens
off-floor trade
olivid
ore-bearing area
origanum majorana L.
Ormosia inflata
peasantists
plasmocytoma of stomach
rapid-firing
rebaptizes
regeneratress
reradiation
resumption of nationality
rhizopodas
ruscoside
safety rails
safety-governor
self neutralization
Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove
silverstat regulator
solar energy absorbing coating
spirographs
Sredets
stationary vortex
Sulcus posterolateralis
Surgiderm
symbolic table control
tafsirs
thalictricine
third quarter
through flushing system
trading efficiency
transitional fit
tunneling router
twinnie
uromyces decoratus
value betting
Violetta
wharenui
wisch
yatobyoes