BBC地道英语:-gate 事件门

William: Hello, I'm William Kremer and this is Authentic Real English.

Wang Fei: 大家好，我是王飞。William, can I choose the word for today's programme?

William: Well, actually, Wang Fei, I've got lots of really good words to talk about.

Wang Fei: Oh go on, please!

William: OK, go on then.

Wang Fei: Thanks. I was reading a newspaper and I found this word: Climategate. Climate 意思是气候，那 Climategate 是什么意思呢？

William: Ah. That's a little bit complicated. Basically, the word gate is used after another word to indicate that something is a scandal.

Wang Fei: A scandal 丑闻。

William: And possibly the biggest scandal in American history was the Watergate scandal.

Wang Fei: Watergate… that was why President Nixon had to resign wasn't it?

William: Yes, you know your history!

Wang Fei: Yes. Was it a scandal about water?

William: No, no. The word Watergate was actually the name of a building but it came to be used to refer to the whole scandal. And it is because Watergate was such a big scandal that nowadays, whenever there is any kind of scandal, the media likes to use the word –gate as a suffix.

Climategate was a scandal about the climate

Wang Fei: A suffix 后缀。So Climategate is a scandal about the climate?

William: That's right! It happened a couple of years ago now. It was when some emails and other documents from a university in England led to people asking questions about the way that scientists researched climate change.

Wang Fei: Climategate 也就是气候门事件，那是几年前的一个新闻事件。当时一些泄漏的电子邮件和文件，导致了人们对那些研究气候变化科学家们的质疑。

William: Let me give you another example from last year. Gordon Brown, who was Prime Minister at the time, was overheard calling an old lady a "bigot".

Wang Fei: A bigot 老顽固。Wow, William, that's not a very good word.

William: No, it's a very strong word. Unsurprisingly this was a bit of a scandal and it came to be known in the media as 'bigotgate'.

Wang Fei: Bigotgate. 听起来很滑稽，是不是？

William: I think you're right. I think using –gate on the end of a word can make it seem a little bit humorous. And it is possible to use this word –gate in normal conversation to make a joke. Listen to this:

Example

Man A: Have you seen Mark recently?

Man B: Mark – he hasn't spoken to me since beergate!

Man A: Beergate? What do you mean?

Man B: We had a big argument because I said Mark never bought a round of beer in the pub! He got very upset and went home.

Wang Fei: 在刚才的例句中，说话者造了一个词，beergate 意思是说关于在酒吧买啤酒引起的争执！I wonder, could there ever be an Authentic Real Englishgate?

William: Ooh, I hope not. I can't really imagine what that could be!

Wang Fei: No, neither can I. 好了，别忘了登录我们的网站，学习更多的地道英语表达。我们的网址是： www.bbcukchina.com. 再见！

William: Bye bye.