VOA慢速英语:Words and Their Stories: Grapevine

Some of the most exciting information comes by way of the grapevine.
一些最令人兴奋的消息是通过小道消息的方式传播的。

That is so because reports received through the grapevine are supposed to be secret. The information is all hush hush. It is whispered into your ear with the understanding that you will not pass it on to others.
之所以如此，是因为通过小道消息收到的报告本应是秘密。这些信息都极为秘密的,它被轻声传入你耳朵的，并认为你不会再传给其他人。

You feel honored and excited. You are one of the special few to get this information. You cannot wait. You must quickly find other ears to pour the information into. And so, the information - secret as it is – begins to spread. Nobody knows how far.
你感到荣幸和兴奋。你是少数获得此信息的人之一。你迫不及待，你必须赶紧把这消息传达给别人。所以，这个消息 - 作为秘密开始传播延。没人知道它传了多远。

The expression by the grapevine is more than one hundred years old.
by the grapevine这个表达已有1百多年历史。

The American inventor, Samuel F. Morse, is largely responsible for the birth of the expression. Among others, he experimented with the idea of telegraphy – sending messages over a wire by electricity. When Morse finally completed his telegraphic instrument, he went before Congress to show that it worked. He sent a message over a wire from Washington to Baltimore. The message was: “What hath God wrought?” This was on May twenty-fourth, eighteen forty-four.
美国发明家，Samuel F. Morse，对该表达的诞生负很大一部分责任。其中，他对电报的想法进行了实验 - 通过电线发送消息。当Morse最终完成了他的电报仪器，他在国会展示了自己的作品。他在华盛顿通过电线发送一条消息到巴尔的摩。该消息是：“What hath God wrought?” 这是在1844年5月24日。

Quickly, companies began to build telegraph lines from one place to another. Men everywhere seemed to be putting up poles with strings of wire for carrying telegraphic messages. The workmanship was poor. And the wires were not put up straight.
很快，公司开始铺设从一个地方到另一个地方那个的电报线路。到处都看到人们在电线杆拉线用于传输电报信息。做工很差，电线也没有拉直。

Some of the results looked strange. People said they looked like a grapevine. A large number of the telegraph lines were going in all directions, as crooked as the vines that grapes grow on. So was born the expression, by the grapevine.
有些结果看起来很奇怪。人们说这些电线看起来像葡萄藤。大量的电报线路通向四面八方，如葡萄生长的藤蔓一样歪歪曲曲的。因此，by the grapevine这个表达就诞生了。

Some writers believe that the phrase would soon have disappeared were it not for the American Civil War.
一些作家认为，这句话如果不是因为美国内战将很快消失。

Soon after the war began in eighteen sixty-one, military commanders started to send battlefield reports by telegraph.  People began hearing the phrase by the grapevine to describe false as well as true reports from the battlefield.  It was like a game.  Was it true? Who says so?
战争在1861年开始后不久，军事指挥官开始通过电报发送战报。人们开始听到用by the grapevine这个短语来形容或真或假的战报。这就像一个游戏。是真的吗？谁这么说的？

Now, as in those far-off Civil War days, getting information by the grapevine remains something of a game. A friend brings you a bit of strange news. “No,” you say, “it just can’t be true! Who told you?” Comes the answer, “I got it by the grapevine.”
现在，内战的日子早已远去，通过小道获取信息仍像游戏般保留。一位朋友给你带来一点奇怪的消息。 “不，”你说，“这不可能是真的！谁告诉你的？”他回答道：“这是我得到的小道消息。”

You really cannot know how much – if any – of the information that comes to you by the grapevine is true or false. Still, in the words of an old American saying, the person who keeps pulling the grapevine shakes down at least a few grapes.
如果有得到消息的话，你真的不知道这些传到你这里的消息有多少是真，多少是假。尽管如此，还是美国的那句老话，一直在摇晃葡萄藤的人至少能摇下几个葡萄。

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