2014
楂樿�冭嫳璇槄璇荤悊瑙ｉ檺鏃惰缁冩瀬鍝侀锛?/p>
4
锛夊強绛旀
闃呰鐞嗚В
---------C
Whoever named the bird turkey
鈥?/p>
a word that English speakers began mentioning
as long ago as 1541
鈥?/p>
made a big mistake. Although that bird came from Guinea
锛堝嚑
鍐呬簹锛?/p>
in Africa, the English apparently first imported it from Turkish merchants.
So,
naturally,
they
called
it
a
turkey.
When
English
speakers
established
their
first
colony
in
Jamestown,
Virginia,
in
1607,
they
thought
they
saw
turkeys
there
too.
鈥淲e
found an island, on which there were many turkeys,鈥?nbsp;wrote on
e. These birds were not
from Turkey and were not related to the Guinean fowl
锛堝绂斤級
of Africa. But turkeys
they were called, and turkeys they remain.
Much
of
what
we
know
about
the
Jamestown
colony
was
written
by
Captain
John
Smith,
whose
efforts
preserved
the
colony
from
collapse
锛堝灝鎺夛級
and
who
in
turn
was
preserved
by the Indian 鈥減rincess鈥?nbsp;Pocahontas. Smith鈥檚 accounts of the colony frequently
mention turkeys as food, gifts, and objects of trade. In 1607, Smith wrote, to
celebrate the first peace after the first armed fight, the Indians brought turkeys,
bread and what they had, singing and dancing in celebration of friendship till they
departed. Elsewhere Smith noted that the Indians made warm and beautiful cloaks
锛堟姭
椋庯級
from turkey feathers. Further north, as the Plymouth colony neared the end of
its
first
year
in
1621,
Governor
William
Bradford
also
observed
a
great
flock
of
wild
turkeys,
of
which
they
took
many. Undoubtedly, turkeys
were
among
the
fowls
served
at the first Thanksgiving dinner.
Despite
those
signifi
cant
beginnings
and
Benjamin
Franklin鈥檚
lobbying锛堟父璇达級
,
the
turkey
lost to the
bald
eagle in the
contest for American
bird. And
it is a loser
in modern English slang, too. Since the 1920s, turkey has been a term for a play or
movie that is a failure, and since the 1950s for a person who
is not fit for his
job.
But though the turkey never succeeded in becoming the American symbol, it did become
the American feast. Thanksgiving is Turkey Day, and the turkey has come into our
language more than other birds. We n
ever 鈥渢alk eagle鈥? we 鈥渢alk turkey鈥?nbsp;when we
speak frankly.