时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:2013年VOA慢速英语(六)月


英语课

 


Rx: Why It Means "Take Your Medicine"



Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories.


Every week at this time, the Voice of America tells about popular words and expressions used in the United States. Some of these words and expressions are old. Some are new. Together, they form the living speech of the American people.


Our story today is very old. It goes back about 5,000 years. It is about a sign that is used to represent some words.


We see this sign on drug stores and whenever we visit a doctor to get an order for medicine. It also appears on bottles of pills and other medicines.


The sign is formed by a line across the right foot of the letter “R.” It represents the word “prescription.” It has come to mean “take this medicine.”


The sign has its beginnings 5,000 years ago in Egypt. At that time, people prayed to Horus, the god of the Sun. It was said that when Horus was a child, he was attacked by Seth, the demon 1 of evil.


The evil Seth put out the eye of the young Horus. The mother of Horus called for help. Her cry was answered by Thoth, the god of learning and magic. Thoth, with his wisdom and special powers, healed the eye of Horus. And the child was able to see again.


The ancient Egyptians used a drawing of the eye of Horus as a magic sign to protect themselves from disease, suffering and evil. They cut this sign in the stones they used for buildings. And it was painted on the papyrus 2 rolls used for writing about medicine and doctors.


For thousands of years, the eye of Horus remained as a sign of the god’s help to the suffering and sick.


Long after the fall of the ancient Egyptian civilization, doctors and alchemists in Europe continued the custom of showing a sign of the gods’ help and protection. But over the years, the sign changed from the eye of Horus to the sign for Jupiter 3, the chief god of the Romans. Jupiter’s sign looked much like the printed number “four.”


That sign changed, also. Today, it is the easily-recognized capital “R” with a line across its foot.


The sign no longer offers heavenly assistance to the sick. It now means “take this medicine.”


This VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrator was Maurice Joyce. I’m Warren Sheer 4.




1 demon
n.魔鬼,恶魔
  • The demon of greed ruined the miser's happiness.贪得无厌的恶习毁掉了那个守财奴的幸福。
  • He has been possessed by the demon of disease for years.他多年来病魔缠身。
2 papyrus
n.古以纸草制成之纸
  • The Egyptians wrote on papyrus.埃及人书写用薄草纸。
  • Since papyrus dries up and crumble,very few documents of ancient Egypt have survived.因草片会干裂成粉末所以古埃及的文件很少保存下来。
3 Jupiter
n.木星
  • Jupiter is unlike the Earth in almost every way.木星与地球几乎完全不同。
  • The astronomers were taking an observation of Jupiter.天文学家们正在观测木星。
4 sheer
adj.绝对的,全然的,峻峭的;v.躲开,躲避,使...避开; adv.完全,全然,峻峭
  • He achieved his aim by sheer strength of will.他纯粹靠意志力达到了目的。
  • I guess It'sheer waste of time arguing about it.看来争论这件事纯粹是浪费时间。
学英语单词
1.3-diphosphoglyceraldehyde
aerial overlap
Anton Chekov
arterial-alveolar carbon dioxide difference
at usance
atranorin(e)
audit risk
auto-gain control
bank barn
benzylpiperidine
BHK cells
birch beer
bistatic radar
blue shortness zone
chuck nut
clanny lamp
conboy
DCEE
diagnostic and statistical manual
drug den
Dusodril
ectopterygoids
escort minesweeper
ethercuff
evgenia
explicit transfer of control
fatties
ferryer
filtering surface
fluid diet
foreign travel account
Gondwana old land
had as good do sth
hydraulic spraying
Indonesian Register
inter record gap
Internet engineering note
kiselevsk
laissez-faire economy
Lanedrax
like a hundred of bricks
lividest
Lofigué
mariposa lily
merchandise declaration
metadata repository
metaprotocols
Mysore(Maisur)
nonidempotent
Omeliansky's nutritive culture-medium
ophthalmopligia
outside centres
over-clamour
oxymethoxyallylbenzene
Pawsey stub
per aspera ad astra
plague serum
platyphyllum
Poisson exponential series
polydecker sandwich complex
Polysome/polyribosome
popehead
portuguese kale
pre-shampoos
raytech
rebuyte
revitalizes
rising characteristic
rising market
Saguna
side seam
simant
sneckdown
snow tower
soft crab
solid magnetic pole
Stornarella
streetlight
strongyloidiasis
subha
subtransient short-circuit time constant
superplastic
synchronous transfer
telangiectatic dyskinesia
temperature difference
tension pulley block
the Eight Diagrams walking
thin pipe
three compartment mill
Thuy Nguyen
timber formwork
top - down approach
trailing-edge
trans-stereoisomer
tuber scapusae
tubular flow
Uniat Church
Unjǒng-ri
upper decking level
weft backed weave
yellow mud
youth unemployment