【明報專訊】"Fake news" has been named the Collins Dictionary's Word of the Year in 2017. The phrase is defined by Collins as "false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting". The phrase will be added to the next print edition of Collins Dictionary.
"Fake news" may have become synonymous with statements from US President Donald Trump, as he has regularly claimed that news stories in the media are "fake news" in his first 11 months as leader of the US. It appears the rest of the world has followed suit, with its use rising by 365% in 2017.
It is the fifth year that a word or phrase has been picked by the publisher, with previous winners including "Brexit" and "Geek". Helen Newstead, Collins' head of language content, said: "'Fake news', either as a statement of fact or as an accusation, has been inescapable this year, contributing to the undermining of society's trust in news reporting."
Other words that will be added to the Collins Dictionary website include "gender-fluid", which is defined as "not identifying exclusively with one gender rather than another" and "Insta", to describe things relating to the photo-sharing app Instagram.
(Source: BBC)
■Quiz
Answer the following questions.
(Answers on next text)
1. Is the following sentence true or false?
US President Donald Trump likes to use the phrase "fake news".
True / False
2. In which year did Collins Dictionary start to pick Word of the Year?
_______________
3. Find in paragraph two a word that is opposite in meaning to "unusually".
________________
4. Which of the following is NOT the word or phrase that will be added to Collins Dictionary in 2017?
a. Gender-fluid
b. Fake news
c. Insta
d. Brexit
■Photo Story
US President Donald Trump has regularly accused the traditional media of producing "fake news".
■English highway﹕To follow suit
To followed suit is to do the same as someone else has done.
e.g. The kid played with the dog and his little sister followed suit.
■Glossary
sensational (adj) 引起轟動的
disseminate (v) 傳播
guise (n) 偽裝
synonymous (adj) 同義的
[Smarties' Power English 第198期]
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