牛津词典公布2025年度词汇：rage bait

近日，牛津词典公布2025年度词汇：rage bait（“引战”）。

今天你练听力了吗？

🤔️小作业：

1. According to the article, why did “rage bait” resonate strongly with the Oxford committee and the public?

A. Because it captures a behavior that people recognize even without prior exposure to the term.

B. Because it had never been documented before appearing in recent online videos.

C. Because it highlights improved online empathy in contemporary discourse.

D. Because its historical usage has remained stable for more than two decades.

无注释原文：

The Oxford 2025 Word of the Year Is 'Rage Bait'

From: The New York Times

Over the past few months, Jennifer Lawrence, World Series fans and right-wing influencers have all confessed to it. And now, the people behind the Oxford English Dictionary are getting into the act.

Oxford University Press has chosen “rage bait” — defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive” — as its 2025 Word of the Year.

“Rage bait,” which triumphed over the more upbeat “biohack” and “aura farming,” goes back at least to 2002, when it appeared in a post on a Usenet discussion group to describe a particular kind of driver reaction to being flashed by another driver seeking to pass. Since then, it has become an increasingly common slang term for an attention-seeking form of online behavior.

Over the past year, according to Oxford's data, frequency of use spiked by a factor of three. The two-syllable open-compound word lands with blunt force. It also sparks an immediate “aha.”

“Even if people have never heard it before, they instantly know what it means,” Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Languages, said in an interview. “And they want to talk about it.”

Oxford's Word of the Year, which began in 2004, is based on usage evidence drawn from its continually updated corpus of some 30 billion words, which is compiled from news sources across the English-speaking world. The idea is to identify new or emerging words with social and cultural significance, backed by data.

As in the past few years, Oxford's experts chose a short list, and then invited the public to weigh in. This year, there was a new twist: The entries were turned into personified candidates, who sold themselves in on-trend vertical videos by the creative studio Uncommon. (Sample pitch: “What rage bait lacks in empathy, nuance or class they make up for in absolutely nothing.”)

The winner was chosen by Oxford's committee, based on the vote (more than 30,000 people weighed in), public conversation and data analysis.

“The point of the Word of the Year is to encourage people to reflect on where we are as a culture, who we are at the moment, through the lens of words we use,” Grathwohl said. “The whole point is to create conversation.”

Over the years, winners have included “selfie” (2013), “post-truth” (2016), “toxic” (2018) and “vax” (2021). In the past few years, they have tended to have a distinctly Gen Z, very-online cast.

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注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

The Oxford 2025 Word of the Year Is 'Rage Bait'

From: The New York Times

Over the past few months, Jennifer Lawrence, World Series fans and right-wing influencers have all confessed to it. And now, the people behind the Oxford English Dictionary are getting into the act.

过去几个月里，詹妮弗·劳伦斯、职棒“世界大赛”的球迷和右翼网红都承认做过这样的事。现在，《牛津英语词典》的编纂者们也参与了进来。

right wing /ˌraɪt ˈwɪŋ/ 表示“右翼；右翼的”，英文解释为“supporting the political right and traditional ideas about society； relating to the belief that there should be low taxes, and that property and industry should be privately owned”举个🌰：She's extremely right-wing. 她是个极右翼分子。

influencer /ˈɪn.flu.ən.sər/ 字面上的意思就是影响者，有影响力的人，柯林斯词典中的解释分为两种，一个就是字面上的意思：any person or thing that exerts an influence；另一种解释为：a person who uses social media to promote lifestyle choices, commercial products, etc to his or her followers. 利用社交媒体向自己的粉丝推广或推荐产品和服务的人，就是类似于现在网络中的“网红、博主”，或者说关键意见领袖，Key Opinion Leader，KOL.

表示“坦白；供认，招认；承认（错误或罪行）”，英文解释为“to admit that you have done something wrong or something that you feel guilty or bad about”举个🌰：She confessed to her husband that she had sold her wedding ring. 她向丈夫坦白她卖掉了结婚戒指。

Oxford University Press has chosen “rage bait” — defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive” — as its 2025 Word of the Year.

牛津大学出版社将“引战”(rage bait)选为其2025年的年度词汇，它指的是“故意通过令人沮丧、挑衅或冒犯的方式引发愤怒或愤慨的网络内容”。

1）表示“故意地”，英文解释为“intentionally”举个🌰：I'm sure he says these things deliberately to annoy me. 我敢肯定他是故意说这些来气我的。

2）表示“不慌不忙地，从容地”，英文解释为“slowly and carefully”举个🌰：Calmly and deliberately, she cut up his suits one by one. 她平静从容地把他的西服一件一件剪成碎片。

elicit /iˈlɪs.ɪt/ 表示“引出，探出，诱出（尤指信息或反应）”，英文解释为“to get or produce something, especially information or a reaction”举个🌰：Have you managed to elicit a response from them yet? 你设法探到他们的反应了吗？

📍此前Jasper对着每个镜头道歉文中出现的表达：These children tell their parents those things that will elicit praise and hide the parts of their lives that won't. 这些孩子会告诉父母那些可以赢得赞扬的事情，隐瞒自己生活中不会受到赞赏的事情。

outrage /ˈaʊt.reɪdʒ/ 本身可以作动词，表示“（尤指不公平的行为或言论）使感到义愤，使愤慨，激怒”，也可以作名词，表示“愤怒；义愤；愤慨”，英文解释为“a strong feeling of shock and anger”举个🌰：The judge's remarks caused public outrage. 裁判的话引起了公愤。

outraged作形容词，表示“愤怒的；愤慨的，义愤填膺的”，英文解释为“feeling outrage”举个🌰：Outraged viewers jumped onto social media to complain about the ending of the series. 许多愤怒的观众纷纷在社交平台上对连续剧的结局表示不满。

📍词根“out-”表示“外”，“rage”表示“愤怒”，整体意味着超出正常范围的“愤怒”或“暴行”。近义词：fury（狂怒），同根词：outrageous（令人震惊的），常用短语：express outrage（表达愤怒）

1）表示“（通常指故意地）使人生气的，挑衅的，煽动的”，英文解释为“If you describe something as provocative, you mean that it is intended to make people react angrily or argue against it.”举个🌰：He has made a string of outspoken and sometimes provocative speeches in recent years.  他最近几年做了一系列直言不讳的、有时带有挑衅的演说。

2）表示“引发思考的，启发性的”，英文解释为“causing thought about interesting subjects”举个🌰：The programme will take a detailed and provocative look at the problem of homelessness. 这个节目将以启发性的眼光详细审视无家可归这个问题。

3）表示“（行为或衣服）挑逗性的”，英文解释为“If behaviour or clothing is provocative, it is intended to cause sexual desire.”

“Rage bait,” which triumphed over the more upbeat “biohack” and “aura farming,” goes back at least to 2002, when it appeared in a post on a Usenet discussion group to describe a particular kind of driver reaction to being flashed by another driver seeking to pass. Since then, it has become an increasingly common slang term for an attention-seeking form of online behavior.

“引战”打败了更乐观的“健康整活”(biohack)和“培养人设”(aura farming)，这个词至少可以追溯到2002年，当时它出现在Usenet的一个讨论组中，用来描述某类司机对超车者闪灯示意时的反应。从那时起，它成了一个越来越普遍的俚语，用于指代一种寻求关注的网络行为。

triumph /ˈtraɪ.əmf/ 1）作动词，表示“成功；获胜”，英文解释为“If someone or something triumphs, they gain complete success, control, or victory, often after a long or difficult struggle.”举个🌰：All her life, she had stuck with difficult tasks and challenges, and triumphed. 她在一生中遭遇了种种艰巨任务与挑战，但成功了。

2）作名词，表示“胜利；成就”，英文解释为“A triumph is a great success or achievement, often one that has been gained with a lot of skill or effort.”举个🌰：The championships proved to be a personal triumph for the coach. 那些冠军称号证明了教练的个人成就。

3）作名词，不可数，表示“（成功或胜利的）喜悦；心满意足，狂喜”，英文解释为“Triumph is a feeling of great satisfaction and pride resulting from a success or victory.”举个🌰：Her sense of triumph was short-lived.  她喜悦的感觉是短暂的。

表示“乐观的；快乐的；积极向上的”，英文解释为“positive and enthusiastic; making you feel that the future will be good”举个🌰：The tone of the speech was upbeat. 这次讲话的语气颇为乐观。

🎬电影《新娘靠边闪》（27 Dresses）中的台词提到：Our advertisers want fun, upbeat, colorful human-interest stories... 广告商要生动有趣的故事。

flash /flæʃ/ 1）表示“（使）闪耀，（使）闪光”，英文解释为“to shine brightly and suddenly, or to make something shine in this way”举个🌰：Stop flashing that light in my eyes! 别拿那个手电筒晃我的眼睛了！

2）表示“（快速）出示，显示”，英文解释为“to show something for a short time”举个🌰：He flashed a smile and offered to buy me a drink. 他笑了一下，提出请我喝一杯。

3）表示“飞驰，掠过”，英文解释为“to move very fast”举个🌰：They flashed past/by on a motorcycle. 他们骑着摩托飞驰而过。

Over the past year, according to Oxford's data, frequency of use spiked by a factor of three. The two-syllable open-compound word lands with blunt force. It also sparks an immediate “aha.”

根据牛津大学的数据，在过去的一年里，这个词的使用频率飙升了三倍。这个双音节开放式复合词具有强烈的冲击力，能让人瞬间恍然大悟。

spike /spaɪk/ 在年度词汇盘点文章中基本都会出现这个词，1）作名词，可以理解为“峰值”或者“激增；猛增；急升”，英文解释为“a sharp increase in the magnitude or concentration of something”如：a spike in oil prices 油价的急剧上涨。

2）也可以作动词，同样表示“激增”，英文解释为“if the number or rate of something spikes, it increases quickly and by a large amount ”举个🌰：New orders have spiked in the last two years. 新订单在过去两年里激增。

3）作名词，表示“尖头，尖刺；（尤指金属的）尖状物”，英文解释为“a narrow, thin shape with a sharp point at one end, or something, especially a piece of metal, with this shape”

4）spikes表示“（某些运动鞋上的）防滑鞋钉；钉鞋”，英文解释为“a set of short, pointed pieces of metal or plastic, attached to the bottom of shoes worn for particular sports, that stop the person wearing the shoes from sliding on the ground, or shoes with these pointed pieces”

作动词，spike /spaɪk/ 表示“（排球运动中）扣（球）”，英文解释为“in the sport of volleyball, to hit the ball so that it goes almost straight down on the other side of the net”

syllable /ˈsɪləbəl/ 表示“音节”，英文解释为“A syllable is a part of a word that contains a single vowel sound and that is pronounced as a unit. So, for example, "book" has one syllable, and "reading" has two syllables.”如：a word with two syllables 双音节单词。

blunt /blʌnt/  作动词，表示“使变钝”，英文解释为“to make something less sharp” 也可以表示“使（情感）减弱”，英文解释为“to make a feeling less strong”举个🌰：My recent bad experience has blunted my enthusiasm for travel. 最近的倒霉经历已经使我对旅游的热情减弱了不少。

作形容词，1）表示“（铅笔、刀等）钝的，不锋利的”，英文解释为“A blunt pencil, knife, etc. is not sharp and therefore not able to write, cut, etc. well.”

2）表示“直率的；生硬的；直截了当的”，英文解释为“saying what you think without trying to be polite or considering other people's feelings”举个🌰：I'll be blunt - that last piece of work you did was terrible. 我就直说了——你创作的最后一件作品糟糕透了。

“Even if people have never heard it before, they instantly know what it means,” Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Languages, said in an interview. “And they want to talk about it.”

“即使以前从未听说过这个词，也能立刻知道它的意思，”牛津语言协会主席卡斯珀·格拉斯沃在接受采访时说。“大家都想讨论这个词。”

Oxford's Word of the Year, which began in 2004, is based on usage evidence drawn from its continually updated corpus of some 30 billion words, which is compiled from news sources across the English-speaking world. The idea is to identify new or emerging words with social and cultural significance, backed by data.

《牛津词典》的年度词汇评选始于2004年，其依据是从其不断更新的约300亿词语料库中提取的用法证据，这些语料库汇集了英语世界新闻来源的语言数据，旨在通过数据来识别具有社会和文化意义的新词或新兴词汇。

corpus /ˈkɔːpəs/ 表示“语料库”，英文解释为“a collection of written or spoken material stored on a computer and used to find out how language is used”

compile /kəmˈpaɪl/ 1）表示“汇编；编纂；编辑；编制”，英文解释为“to collect information from different places and arrange it in a book, report, or list”举个🌰：We're compiling some facts and figures for a documentary on the subject. 我们正在为一部有关这个主题的纪录片汇编资料。

2）表示“编译（计算机程序）”，英文解释为“to change a computer program into a machine language”

As in the past few years, Oxford's experts chose a short list, and then invited the public to weigh in. This year, there was a new twist: The entries were turned into personified candidates, who sold themselves in on-trend vertical videos by the creative studio Uncommon. (Sample pitch: “What rage bait lacks in empathy, nuance or class they make up for in absolutely nothing.”)

和过去几年一样，牛津大学的专家们筛选出候选词短名单，然后邀请公众参与。今年有了一个小变化：入围词被变成了拟人化的候选人，由创意工作室Uncommon制作成时髦的竖屏视频为自己拉票。（举个例子：“'引战'确实没同理心、没分寸、没格调，但它好在别的地方也一无是处。”）

此前在“我不能呼吸了”美国警察暴力执法致黑人死亡文中出现过，表示“（在讨论、辩论等中）发表有分量的意见，发挥作用”，英文解释为“to join in a discussion, an argument, an activity, etc. by saying sth important, persuading sb, or doing sth to help”举个🌰：We all weighed in with our suggestions. 我们都提出了建议。

📺美剧《生活大爆炸》（The Big Bang Theory）第6季第5集中谢尔顿就说到：Care to weigh in? 可以理解为想参与讨论，想说点什么吗（To put your opinion into a matter or situation），字幕组将其解释为：有何高见？

📺还是《生活大爆炸》第7季第9集中提到：Can I weigh in here? 所以我能插一句吗?

📺还有如第7季第21集中也提到了：And yet you get to weigh in. 可是你还有话语权啊。

twist /twɪst/ 作动词，表示“转动，旋转;缠绕，盘绕”，英文解释为“to turn something, especially repeatedly, or to turn or wrap one thing around another”举个🌰：The path twists and turns for over a mile. 这条小路弯弯曲曲，长达1英里多。

作名词，1）表示“扭动，转动”，英文解释为“an act of twisting something”举个🌰：She gave the cap another twist to make sure it was tight. 她又拧了一下盖子，以确保盖紧了。

2）表示“（故事或情况的）转折，转变，突然变化”，英文解释为“an unexpected change or development in a story or situation”举个🌰：The story has taken another twist. 故事情节再一次变化。

personified /pəˈsɒn.ɪ.faɪd/ 表示“拟人化的”，英文解释为“If you say that someone is evil personified or kindness personified, you mean that they are a perfect example of that quality.”举个🌰：He is not just a murderous liar but evil personified. 他不仅是一个凶残的说谎者，而且是邪恶的化身。

The winner was chosen by Oxford's committee, based on the vote (more than 30,000 people weighed in), public conversation and data analysis.

获奖年度词汇由牛津大学委员会根据投票（超过3万人参与）、公众讨论和数据分析选出。

“The point of the Word of the Year is to encourage people to reflect on where we are as a culture, who we are at the moment, through the lens of words we use,” Grathwohl said. “The whole point is to create conversation.”

格拉斯沃说：“评选年度词汇的目的是鼓励人们通过我们使用的词汇来反思当下文化图景与自我定位，其核心价值在于激发社会对话。”

lens /lenz/ 作名词，表示“镜片，镜头，透镜”，英文解释为“a curved piece of glass, plastic, or other transparent material, used in cameras, glasses, and scientific equipment, that makes objects seem closer, larger, smaller, etc.”如：a camera with a zoom lens 变焦（镜头）照相机。作动词，表示“拍摄”。

Over the years, winners have included “selfie” (2013), “post-truth” (2016), “toxic” (2018) and “vax” (2021). In the past few years, they have tended to have a distinctly Gen Z, very-online cast.

历年获奖词汇包括“自拍”（selfie，2013年）、“后真相”（post-truth，2016年）、“有毒”（toxic，2018年）和“疫苗”（vax，2021年）。近几年的词汇往往带有鲜明的Z世代特征，极具网络属性。

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