It is perhaps unsurprising there are so many distinctions between British and American English when it comes to automobiles: they were invented long after American independence.
In the 1890s, before motor cars were in wide usage, horse-drawn wagons called “shooting-brakes” were used to transport shooting parties and their guns, ammunition and game from the hunt to the estate. In the 1900s, automotive models, with plenty of storage space in the back, were made for this purpose. The terms “shooting-brake” and “estate” were used interchangeably for these in England during the 1920s and 1930s, after which the former term largely disappeared.
In the US, cars with storage space in the back (initially, these were often specially converted Model T Fords) were used to carry people and their luggage to and from train stations. These became known as station wagons.
The distinction between estate car and station wagon still exists in British and American English, as does that between the words for a type of passenger car: in British English, a “saloon” — derived from the French salon, meaning “gathering” — and in American English a “sedan” — perhaps inspired by the “sedan chair” (a wheel-less compartment carried by two people and seating a single, usually wealthy, individual) — after the Speedwell Motor Car Co. of Dayton, Ohio, US, began manufacturing the Speedwell Sedan in 1911.
(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
英式英文和美式英文的汽車用語有很多不同,或許不足為奇──畢竟美國脫離英國獨立後許久,汽車才被發明出來。
在汽車尚未普及的一八九○年代,稱做「shooting-brakes」(獵裝車)的馬拉貨車被用來將狩獵隊及其槍枝、彈藥和獵物,從狩獵區載運到莊園(estate)。一九○○年代所製造的車尾有大型置物空間的車款,即是為此目的而設計。「shooting-brake」和「estate」這兩個詞在一九二○、三○年代的英格蘭常交替使用,後來「shooting-brake」一詞則大致不用了。
在美國,車尾有置物空間的汽車(最初常是特別改裝的福特T型車)用於往返火車站,以載運乘客與行李。這樣的車稱為「station wagons」(旅行車)。
英式和美式英文中仍有「estate car」和「station wagon」之區別,一種載客汽車的名稱在英式和美式英文中也有所不同:轎車∕房車在英式英文中稱為「saloon」」──源自法文「salon」(沙龍)一字,意為「聚會」;美式英文則稱做「sedan」,沿用美國俄亥俄州岱頓市的Speedwell 汽車公司一九一一年開始生產的「Speedwell Sedan」車款名。該車型名稱之靈感來源或許是「sedan chair」(轎子)──由兩人扛著、可乘坐一個人(通常是有錢人)的無輪車廂。
(台北時報林俐凱譯)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
Everyone has seen a piece of fruit turn brown after being cut. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It is a common phenomenon that occurs due to a chemical reaction called enzymatic browning. The appearance, flavor and nutritional value of the fruit are all affected by this reaction. Some fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, avocados and peaches, are more prone to enzymatic browning than others. These fruits contain high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, or PPO for short. __1__ This causes a chain of chemical reactions that ultimately transforms the phenolic compounds into
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