Dialogue 1
Jingjing: Hey Mark, there you are. I thought you'd be waiting for me in the lobby.
京晶：嘿，马克，你在这啊。我还以为你会在大厅等我呢。
Mark: Nah, I found this armchair here and have been waiting comfortably for the last five minutes.
马克：不，我在这儿看见一把扶手椅，已经舒舒服服地坐着等了你五分钟了。
Jingjing: Ok. What's that you're watching?
京晶：好吧。你在看什么？
Mark: It's a video of a fireplace. I finished a chapter in the book I'm reading and started this video. It just shows a fireplace. I'm totally mesmerized by it though.
马克：看一个壁炉的视频。我读完了最近正在读的书的一章，然后开始看这个视频。它就展示了一个壁炉而已，但我却彻底被它迷住了。
Jingjing: A small fire can have that effect. It kind of hypnotizes people. Hey, that's a weird word: mesmerize.
京晶：小火苗就能达到这种效果。它甚至可以催眠人。嘿，这是个奇怪的词:催眠术。
Mark: Yeah, the word comes from the name of an Austrian doctor from the late 1700s and early 1800s. He was popular for using a form of hypnosis. So, when people get intensely interested in something, but it's not really that exciting, we say they get mesmerized.
马克：是的，这个词来自18世纪末19世纪初一位奥地利医生的名字。他因使用催眠术而出名。所以，当人们对某事极度感兴趣，但这事本身并非那么令人兴奋时，我们就说他们被催眠了。
Jingjing: That's kind of an obscure word origin.
京晶：这是一个鲜为人知的词源。
Mark: It is, and we don't use the word much. Well, I just saw an article with four other words and their origins. Want to know about those?
马克：是的，我们很少用到这个词。我刚看了一篇文章，里面有其他四个单词和它们的词源。想知道这些吗?
Jingjing: Sure. Are they common words?
京晶：当然。它们是常用词汇吗？
Mark: Yes, and their origins will surprise you. The first one is quiz.
马克：是的，它们的起源会让你大吃一惊。第一个是quiz小测验。
Jingjing: You mean like a test or an exam, but shorter or less important?
京晶：你的意思是测验或考试，但时间更短或不那么重要的?
Mark: Right. That's what a quiz is nowadays. A man in Ireland bet his friends that he could make up a word and make it popular. He then asked people working for him to write the word quiz on walls and windows everywhere in the city.
马克：对。这就是今天quiz的含义（小测验）。爱尔兰的一名男子和他的朋友打赌说他可以编造一个词，并且能让它流行起来。然后，他雇人在城市各处的墙上和窗户上写上这个词quiz。
Jingjing: Let me guess, people got curious about what the words meant.
京晶：让我来猜一下，人们开始对这个新词的意思很好奇。
Mark: Exactly. So, people thought the word was a kind of test. No wonder it has that meaning now.
马克：非常正确。所以，人们就认为这个词是某种测试。现在它有这个意思就不奇怪了。
Jingjing: That's a cool story. What's the second one?
京晶：这个故事很酷啊。第二个词是什么?
Mark: It's the word clue. It comes from an ancient Greek story of Theseus, who had to walk into the center of a big maze. He used a ball of yarn to make sure he could get back out. In Greek, a ball of yarn is called a clew.
马克：是clue（线索）这个词。它出自于一个古希腊英雄Theseus忒修斯的故事，他不得不进入一个大迷宫的中心。他用了一团纱线来确保自己能走出迷宫。在希腊语中，一团纱线就被称为线索。
Jingjing: And now a clue is something that helps people solve a mystery. That makes sense.
京晶：那如今，线索一词是帮助人们解开谜团的东西。这说得通。


New words : 习语短语
mesmerize 施催眠术 迷住 使着迷
to make someone fascinated (interested and focused on something)
hypnotize 对（某人）施催眠术 使（某人）着迷；迷住
to make someone very relaxed, so that they will more easily remember earlier parts of their life or take the doctor's suggestions
obscure 无名的；鲜为人知的
not commonly used nowadays

Dialogue 2
Jingjing: Mark, you said there were four word origins from the article you read. What were the other two?
京晶：马克，你说你读的文章里有说到四个字的词源。另外两个是什么?
Mark: They're both about public transportation. Do you know the origin of the word bus?
马克：它们都是关于公共交通的。你知道单词bus的起源吗?
Jingjing: That comes from omnibus, doesn't it? I'm not sure how the word came to be used for a large vehicle that carries lots of passengers, though.
京晶：那是来自于公共汽车omnibus，不是吗？不过，我不确定这个词如何开始被用来形容一辆搭载乘客的大型交通工具。
Mark: The story is about a guy surnamed Baudry who ran a bathhouse in France. To get more business, he gave people rides in a vehicle he called an omnibus.
马克：这个故事讲的是一个姓鲍德里的人，他在法国经营一家澡堂。为了做更多生意，他搭载人们乘坐一种他称之为“omnibus”的交通工具。
Jingjing: Yeah, omnibus is Latin, meaning: for all.
京晶：对了，omnibus是拉丁语，意思是:面向所有人的。
Mark: Right. So, as the omnibus became more popular, and people started taking it regularly, not just to go to the bathhouse, they called it a bus for short.
马克：正解。因此，随着公共马车越来越受欢迎，人们开始定期乘坐它，但不仅仅是去澡堂，大家把它简称为bus。
Jingjing: Now bus can be a verb or a noun. That's an interesting origin story.
京晶：现在bus既可以做动词，也可以是名词。这是一个有趣的词源故事。
Mark: Alright. So, the next word is taxi. Believe it or not, it comes from the time before motorized vehicles.
马克：好吧。下一个单词是taxi. 信不信由你，它出现的时代比机动车还早。
Jingjing: Wasn't it always a car with a driver that could be hired for a short ride? Or was it also used for horse-drawn carriages?
京晶：它不是一直都指的是有司机的还可以短程租用一段的汽车吗?或者也用于马车?
Mark: Well, it comes from an invention. A German named Wilhelm Bruhn made the first taximeter. It measured time and distance.
马克：嗯，它来自一项发明。德国人威廉·布鲁恩制作了世界上第一个计价器。它能测量时间和距离。
Jingjing: Again, let me guess: vehicles were called taximeters?
京晶：那让我再猜猜看:装了这个机器的交通工具就被叫做taximeters计价器?
Mark: Close. They were called taximeter cabs, then taxicabs, then finally taxis.
马克：非常接近了。他们被称为计价器出租车，然后合并缩略成taxicabs，最后成了taxis .
Jingjing: Again, taxi can be a verb or a noun nowadays. It's good to know word origins. I'm not sure I'll remember them all, though.
京晶：同样的，如今taxi也是可作动词或名词。知道单词的起源挺好的，不过，我不确定我能否全记住。
Mark: I bet you will, especially quiz.
马克：我敢说你能，特别是quiz。
Jingjing: Why, because you'll ask me about it later, to test me?
京晶：为啥？因为你稍后就会来问我，给我一个小测试？
Mark: Yeah, I'll give you a quiz. Ha ha.
马克：好吧，我来考考你吧。哈哈。


New words : 习语短语
omnibus 公共的
Latin, meaning for all or for everyone
surname 姓氏
a person's family name
taximeter 计价器；车费指示器
a machine that measures time spent and distance travelled in a vehicle