您現(xiàn)在的位置: > Language Tips > Audio & Video > Special Speed News  
 





 
Words and stories: Mouse potato
[ 2006-08-21 10:33 ]

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

Some unusual words describe how a person spends his or her time. For example, someone who likes to spend a lot of time sitting or lying down while watching television is sometimes called a "couch potato." A couch is a piece of furniture that people sit on while watching television.

Robert Armstrong, an artist from California, developed the term couch potato in nineteen-seventy-six. Several years later, he listed the term as a trademark with the United States government. Mr. Armstrong also helped write a funny book about life as a full-time television watcher. It is called the "Official Couch Potato Handbook."

Couch potatoes enjoy watching television just as "mouse potatoes" enjoy working on computers. A computer mouse is the device that moves the pointer, or cursor, on a computer screen. The description of mouse potato became popular in nineteen-ninety-three. American writer Alice Kahn is said to have invented the term to describe young people who spend a lot of time using computers.

Too much time inside the house using a computer or watching television can cause someone to get "cabin fever." A cabin is a simple house usually built far away from the city. People go to a cabin to relax and enjoy quiet time.

Cabin fever is not really a disease. However, people can experience boredom and restlessness if they spend too much time inside their homes. This is especially true during the winter when it is too cold or snowy to do things outside. Often children get cabin fever if they cannot go outside to play. So do their parents. This happens when there is so much snow that schools and even offices and stores are closed.

Some people enjoy spending a lot of time in their homes to make them nice places to live. This is called "nesting" or "cocooning." Birds build nests out of sticks to hold their eggs and baby birds. Some insects build cocoons around themselves for protection while they grow and change. Nests and cocoons provide security for wildlife. So people like the idea of nests and cocoons, too.

The terms cocooning and nesting became popular more than twenty years ago. They describe people buying their first homes and filling them with many things. These people then had children.

Now these children are grown and have "left the nest." They are in college. Or they are married and starting families of their own far away. Now these parents are living alone without children in their "empty nest." They have become "empty nesters."

(MUSIC)

This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I'm Faith Lapidus.

(MUSIC)

cabin fever  : 幽居病(由于缺乏外界刺激而導(dǎo)致的不快或痛苦,如住在一個偏僻的,人煙稀少的地區(qū)或一個很小的、封閉的空間里)

(來源:VOA   英語點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯)

 
 

 

 

 
 

48小時內(nèi)最熱門

     

本頻道最新推薦

     
  Cooking meals with the sun for fuel
  Lebanese army arrives in the South
  Flooding kills hundreds in Ethiopia
  Indra Nooyi to lead PepsiCo
  Bush's speech on British terror






主站蜘蛛池模板: 美国农夫激情在线综合| xxxx日本免费| 欧美日韩精品久久久免费观看| 国产一级淫片a免费播放口之| 91大神在线免费观看| 无码国产69精品久久久久孕妇| 亚洲情a成黄在线观看| 精品无码国产自产拍在线观看 | 五月婷婷丁香六月| 狠狠做深爱婷婷综合一区| 国产一区二区三区内射高清| 亚洲欧美7777| 在线看欧美日韩中文字幕| 中文字幕无码日韩专区免费| 最新国产三级久久| 亚洲精品一卡2卡3卡三卡四卡| 糟蹋顶弄挣扎哀求np| 国产午夜无码精品免费看动漫| 又大又硬又爽又粗又快的视频免费| 女人与禽交视频免费看| 丰满多毛的陰户视频| 最近免费观看高清韩国日本大全| 亚洲精品午夜国产va久久| 精品国产一区二区三区2021| 国产亚洲精品精品国产亚洲综合| 2023天天操| 国内剧果冻传媒在线观看网站| 丁香六月激情综合| 日本三级香港三级人妇99| 亚洲AV无码精品国产成人| 欧美激欧美啪啪片sm| 伊人久久大香线蕉综合爱婷婷| 老司机67194免费观看| 国产区精品视频| 婷婷六月丁香午夜爱爱| 国产高清一级片| maomiav923| 性欧美黑人巨大videos| 久久av无码专区亚洲av桃花岛| 日韩精品亚洲人成在线观看| 亚洲国产精品自产在线播放|