Passage 17 小道消息 By the Grapevine1

Step 1 阅读行不行

Some of the most exciting information comes by way of the grapevine.

That is so because reports received through the grapevine are supposed to be secret. The information is all hush-hush. It is whispered2 into your ear with the understanding that you will not pass it on to others.

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.

The expression by the grapevine is more than one hundred years old.

The American inventor, Samuel F. Morse, is largely responsible for the birth of the expression. Among others, he experimented with the idea of telegraphy3 —sending messages over a wire by electricity. When Morse finally completed his telegraphic instrument, he went before Congress4 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 24th, 1844.

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.

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 crooked5 as the vines that grapes grow on. So was born the expression, by the grapevine.

Some writers believe that the phrase would soon have disappeared were it not for the American Civil War.

Soon after the war began in 1861, military commanders started to send battlefield6 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?

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.

keywords and phrases

1 grapevine /'greɪpvaɪn/ n. 葡萄藤；谣传，流言；小道消息

2 whisper /'wɪspə/vt. 低声说；私语；密谈vi. 耳语，密谈

3 telegraphy /təˈlegrəfɪ/ n. 电报技术

4 congress /ˈkɒŋgres/ n. 国会；代表大会

5 crooked /ˈkrʊkɪd/ adj. 弯曲的；不正当的

6 battlefield /'bætlfi:ld/ n. 战场，战地

phrase to know

hush-hush 这个短语很有趣，hush可以在要求或命令别人安静的时候用，相当于汉语中的“嘘”，也可以表示“（使）安静下来”和“鸦雀无声”。如：Hush now and try to sleep. 表示“别出声了，睡吧”。而两个hush连在一起则表示“机密；机密的”，如：Their wedding was very hush-hush. 意为“他们的婚礼十分保密”。

pass sth on 表示“转交；（用后）递给，传给”，如：I passed your message on to my mother. 意为“我把你的留言转给我妈了”。在本文中，作者用这个短语表示“把小道消息传给下一个人”。

Step 2 手写行不行

★ 我听到了办公室的传闻，说你失败了。(hear about)

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★ 开会之前，她跟你私下交谈了吗？(whisper in one's ear)

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★ 摩尔斯电码是一种早期在电报技术中使用的电码。(telegraphy)

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★ 国会制定了一项新的法律。(congress)

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★ 在蜿蜒的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。(crooked)

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★交战双方在战场上发射了火箭弹。(battlefield)

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Step 3 口语行不行

Q1 What does“hear something through the grapevine”mean? “hear something through the grapevine”是什么意思？

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Q2 What are the features of grapevine？小道消息有什么特点？

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Q3 How does grapevine spread in an organization? Give an example.小道消息在团体中是如何传播的？举例说明。

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试题解答篇

Step 2 手写行不行答案

1．I heard about your defeat on the office grapevine.

2．Did she whisper in your ear before the meeting?

3．Morse code was an early code that was used in telegraphy.

4．Congress has legislated a new law.

5．You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.

6．The two opposing armies have launched rocket bombs across the battlefield.

Step 3 口语行不行答案

1．To hear something through the grapevine is to learn of something informally and unofficially by means of gossip and rumor. The usual implication is that the information was passed person to person by word of mouth, perhaps in a confidential manner among friends or colleagues. It can also imply an overheard conversation or anonymous sources of information.

2．There is no formal control over grapevine, so it is more flexible than other forms of communication and it is faster than any form of communication. Besides, there is no evidence which can be documented for future reference. In addition, the message which is passed gets distorted when it passes from one person to another.

3．The way grapevine communication works may be as follows: one person, Person 1, sends a message to Person 2 and Person 3. Then, Person 2 tells Person 4 and Person 5. And Person 3 tells Person 6. Not all participants within the grapevine send messages. Some participants are just receivers. In this way, it is passed automatically from the top level of an organization to the bottom level without any difficulty in delivering the message.