VOA慢速英語:Words and Their Stories: The Grapevine

[00:10.62]Now, the VOA [00:12.51]Special English program [00:14.41]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [00:17.30]Some of the most [00:18.59]exciting information comes [00:20.66]by way of the grapevine. [00:23.20]That is so because reports [00:25.79]received through the grapevine [00:28.02]are supposed to be secret. [00:30.13]The information is [00:32.12]all hush hush. [00:33.52]It is whispered into your ear [00:36.33]with the understanding that [00:38.91]you will not pass it on to others. [00:41.25]You feel honored and excited. [00:44.15]You are one of the special few [00:46.84]to get this information. [00:48.99]You cannot wait. [00:51.19]You must quickly find other ears [00:54.23]to pour the information into. [00:56.89]And so, the information [00:59.28]- secret as it is [01:01.23]– begins to spread. [01:03.77]Nobody knows how far. [01:05.76]The expression by the grapevine [01:09.85]is more than one hundred years old. [01:12.68]The American inventor, [01:15.12]Samuel F. Morse, [01:16.88]is largely responsible [01:18.83]for the birth of the expression. [01:21.37]Among others, he experimented [01:24.61]with the idea of telegraphy [01:27.12]– sending messages over a wire [01:30.01]by electricity. [01:31.95]When Morse finally completed [01:34.64]his telegraphic instrument, [01:36.65]he went before Congress [01:38.96]to show that it worked. [01:40.55]He sent a message over a wire [01:43.76]from Washington to Baltimore. [01:46.56]The message was: [01:48.40]"What hath God wrought?" [01:50.79]This was on May twenty-fourth, [01:54.43]eighteen forty-four. [01:56.24]Quickly, companies began [01:59.42]to build telegraph lines [02:01.42]from one place to another. [02:03.92]Men everywhere seemed to [02:06.76]be putting up poles [02:07.81]with strings of wire [02:09.62]for carrying telegraphic messages. [02:12.31]The workmanship was poor. [02:14.65]And the wires were not [02:17.06]put up straight. [02:18.65]Some of the results looked strange. [02:21.89]People said they looked [02:23.99]like a grapevine. [02:25.43]A large number of the telegraph lines [02:28.63]were going in all directions, [02:30.97]as crooked as the vines [02:33.21]that grapes grow on. [02:34.81]So was born the expression, [02:37.69]by the grapevine. [02:39.59]Some writers believe that [02:42.58]the phrase would soon have disappeared [02:44.72]were it not for the American Civil War. [02:48.25]Soon after the war began [02:50.60]in eighteen sixty-one, [02:52.59]military commanders started [02:55.73]to send battlefield reports by telegraph. [02:59.62]People began hearing the phrase [03:02.46]by the grapevine to describe false [03:06.30]as well as true reports [03:08.54]from the battlefield. [03:10.48]It was like a game. [03:12.12]Was it true? Who says so? [03:15.17]Now, as in those far-off Civil War days, [03:19.97]getting information [03:21.51]by the grapevine remains [03:23.96]something of a game. [03:25.45]A friend brings you a bit of strange news. [03:29.02]"No," you say, "it just can't be true! [03:32.85]Who told you?" Comes the answer, [03:36.00]"I got it by the grapevine." [03:38.44]You really cannot know how much [03:41.52]– if any – of the information [03:43.46]that comes to you by the grapevine [03:45.80]is true or false. [03:47.41]Still, in the words of [03:50.39]an old American saying, [03:52.33]the person who keeps pulling [03:54.72]the grapevine shakes down [03:56.97]at least a few grapes. [03:59.12](MUSIC) [04:09.04]You have been listening to [04:10.74]the VOA Special English program [04:12.95]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [04:15.53]I'm Christopher Cruise.

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