今日主題：Does punctuation matter? / 標點符號重要嗎？
凱妃老師&派老師共同推薦：雅思聽力最好的課外教材：BBC
康康精選雅思會考的主題，堅持每天精聽一定會進步的哦!!
建議方法：
1. 先聽兩三遍 (不看文稿)
2. 再一句一句聽寫 (每句都要聽寫數遍，直到寫出85%以上的字)
3. 最後check文稿，看哪聽不出來，單字沒背過，還是發音不熟。
4. 堅持天天聽，就能每天進步哦。
#BBC 六分鐘英語
MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：喜歡的同學，幫忙推或按讚哦~~
http://static.iyuba.com/sounds/minutes/1061.mp3
只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：
中英文稿：
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Alice…
大家好，歡迎收聽六分鐘英語，我是愛麗絲。
And I’m Neil.
我是尼爾。
So, Neil, you texted me earlier and didn’t put a full stop at the end.
尼爾，你之前給我發短信，但是最後你沒有打句號。
You’re right, I never use full stops in texts – they’re much too stuffy – or formal. Texting is like conversation and you don’t need lots of punctuation.
沒錯，我發短信從來不打句號，不然太死板正式了。發資訊就像是口頭交流，你不需要那麼多標點符號。
Well, punctuation is the subject of today’s show. And I know I’m a bit of a stickler about this, but I think you’re letting the standards of written English language slip.
標點符號是今天節目的主題。我對標點比較堅持，我覺得你這種做法使得書面英語標準下滑。
A stickler is someone who insists on a certain way of doing a particular thing. Surely you aren’t such a stickler for punctuation rules that you want to stop the evolution of English, Alice?
stickler 是指某人堅持做某件特殊的事。所以你也不是一個堅持標點規則，想要阻止英語進化的人了？
No, of course not, but I am a stickler when people don’t follow the rules of punctuation because this makes written text ambiguous or difficult to understand.
當然不是，但當人們不遵守標點規則時，我很固執，因為這使書面資訊變得模棱兩可，很難理解。
Ambiguous means when something has two or more meanings. Can you give me some examples of punctuation making text easier to understand?
Ambiguous是指一個事物有兩種或多種含義。你能給我舉幾個例子證明使用標點使資訊更易理解嗎？
Alright then, here you are: Let’s eat Grandma.
好的，有這樣一個例子：我們吃祖母吧。
Ugh! It brings to mind the children’s story Little Red Riding Hood, about a girl, her grandmother and a hungry wolf. Is that the wolf talking to another wolf friend of his?
哇，這讓我想起小紅帽的故事，小女孩和她的祖母，以及一隻饑餓的狼的故事。這是那只狼再和另一隻狼交談嗎？
No, it’s the girl, Red Riding Hood, talking to her grandmother.And with a well-placed comma it becomes: Let’s eat, Grandma. Without proper punctuation the sentence is ambiguous.Now, before we look at more reasons why punctuation is important, let’s have today’s quiz question.
不，是小紅帽在和祖母說話。其間應當放置一個逗號，就變成了：我們吃飯吧，祖母。沒有合適的標點，這個句子就變得有歧義了。在繼續談論標點的重要性之前，我們先回答今天的問題吧。
OK. What is another word for the keyboard sign that represents a paragraph? Is it…a) pilcrow? b) bodkin? or c) pica?
哪一個鍵盤符號代表一個段落？a) pilcrow（段落符號）？b) bodkin（錐子）？ c) pica （十二點活字）？
I’ll say c) pica.
我選 c) pica。
Well, we‘ll find out later in the show if you got that right or wrong.
好的，之後再看你回答的是否正確。
Moving on now, punctuation was invented by the Ancient Greeks.They used a series of dots to indicate different lengths of pauses. A short unit of text was a comma, a longer unit was a colon, and a complete sentence was a periodos. We used these terms to name our punctuation marks– although they actually refer to the clauses not to the dots themselves.
我們現在繼續說，標點符號是古希臘人發明的。他們用一系列原點表示不同長度的停歇。短一點的資訊用逗號，長一點的用冒號，完整的句子用句號。我們用這些屬於來命名我們的標點符號。儘管它們實際上是指子句，而非圓點本身。
So early punctuation wasn‘t really about grammar, then?
所以早期標點符號並不是語法方面的？
No, it was about public speaking. The different dots indicated different lengths of pauses: short, medium, and long. These pauses broke up the text so it was easier to read and therefore easier to understand.
沒錯，是關於口語的。不同的圓點代表不同長度的停歇：短的，中等長度的，較長的。這些停頓將資訊分開，使之更容易讀懂和理解。
OK, let’s hear from the punctuation expert, Keith Houston, who is author of Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and Other Typographical Curiosities. Here he’s talking on BBC Radio 4’s programme Word of Mouth.
我們聽聽標點符號專家Keith Houston的觀點，他是《隱晦的符號：和，疑問感嘆號及其他印刷新奇符號》一書的作者。他在BBC第四套廣播《口耳相傳》節目做客時發表了自己的觀點。
Punctuation started off being all about rhetoric – about speech– but we started to assign rules, I think around about the 8th century or so. We started to associate the marks, not just with pauses, but with the actual grammatical units that were used to punctuate. So, a comma wasn’t just a dot that meant, pause for this length of time. It now actually marked out a clause, you know, it marked out a sort of consistent logical bit of writing.
標點符號最初是關於修辭，關於口語的，我們開始制定標點規則大概是在八世紀左右。我們開始將標點與停頓聯繫在一起，同時還將其與實際的語法單元聯繫在一起。所以一個逗號不僅僅是一個代表停頓時間的圓點。它實際上是劃分了一個從句，劃分了一個連續的有邏輯性的句子。
So rhetoric – or the art of persuasive speaking – was very important to the Greeks and to the Romans. And to be persuasive, you need to be understood. And these little punctuation marks helped the speaker to deliver their text more effectively.
所以修辭，說服性語言的藝術，對希臘人和羅馬人非常重要。要想說服別人，你得先讓別人明白你的意思。這些小的標點符號幫助說話人更有效的傳遞資訊。
Later on, these marks were given grammatical functions. The comma marks out a clause – or grammatical unit containing a subject and a verb – as well as telling the reader to pause briefly.
之後，這些標點被賦予了語法的意義。逗號劃分了一個從句，即包含一個主語和一個動詞的語法單元，同時告訴讀者要簡單地停頓一下。
Are you beginning to see why being sloppy – or careless – with punctuation isn’t a good thing, Neil?
你想要知道為什麼隨意亂用標點不好嗎？
Yes, I am.Though recent research into texting and punctuation suggests that people consider messages ending in full stops to be less sincere than ones without.
我想知道。儘管最近對短信和標點的研究表明，人們認為資訊後帶有句號不太真誠。
Really? Well, now might be a good time to hear about how it can be hard to make writing unambiguous. We can misinterpret the written word, even with punctuation to guide us.Here’s Keith Houston again, talking to Michael Rosen, presenter of Word of Mouth.
真的嗎？那是時候聽一聽標點如何難以清楚地表達資訊。我們可能會曲解資訊的含義，即便有標點存在。下面再聽聽 Keith Houston 和《口耳相傳》主持人Michael Rosen 的對話。
Quite often I notice on Twitter and places like that people misunderstand irony. I mean because we only have text in front of us not intonation. So do we need an irony punctuation –hello, I’m being ironic now – do we need that?
我經常在推特或其他社交媒體上看到人門誤解了反語的意思。我是指只有文字，沒有語調，所以我們是不是需要一個標點表明“嗨，我在說反話”。我們需要這樣嗎？
You might say that emoticons are the best way to go about that – a little winking emoticon – you know, semicolon, dash, closing parenthesis.
也許表情符號是最好的表達反語的方式，一個眨眼的表情符號，由分號，破折號和右括弧組成。
Oh yes, yes, of course - they’ve invented all these with the punctuation that we have on the keyboard.
沒錯。他們用鍵盤上的標點符號發明了很多表情符號。
Irony means using words to mean something that is the opposite of its literal – or most usual – meaning.But when we’re online – using email or Twitter – you don’t hear the words, and that’s why it can be hard to know what feelings the writer intended.
反語是指使用某個單詞表達和其字面意思完全相反的含義。當我們上網，使用郵件或推特時，我們聽不到話語，所以很難瞭解資訊背後隱藏的情感。
That’s right. When we use emoticons – facial expressions made out of keyboard characters– we can signpost the feelings we intend.
沒錯。當我們使用表情符號，及用鍵盤上的標點組成的符號時，我們可以表現我們意欲表達的情感。
Now, Alice, remember I asked you: What is another word for the keyboard sign that represents a paragraph? Is it a) pilcrow, b) bodkin or c) pica?
好了，愛麗絲，還記得我之前問你的問題嗎？鍵盤符號中哪一個詞代表一個段落？a) pilcrow（段落符號）, b) bodkin（錐子） or c) pica (十二點活字)?
Yes, I said pica.
我選的是pica。
And you were wrong, I’m afraid. The right answer is pilcrow, which comes from the Greek word paragraphos. The earliest reference of the modern pilcrow is from 1440 with the Middle English word pylcrafte.
你答錯了。正確答案是pilcrow，來自希臘語paragraphos。最早指現代段落符號的是1440年的中世紀英語詞彙pylcrafte。
Oh dear, sad face. I hate it when I get the quiz question wrong.Now, can we hear the words we learned today?
天啊，悲傷臉。我討厭答錯題。現在我們能聽聽今天學到的單詞嗎？
Yes, they are:
當然，分別有：
stuffy 古板的
stickler 頑固的人
rhetoric 修辭
clause 子句
sloppy 草率的
irony 反語
literal 文字的
emoticons 表情符號
Well, that’s the end of today’s 6 Minute English. Please join us again soon!
今天的六分鐘英語就到這裡。我們下次再會！
Bye!
再見！
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