【推荐1】In the first series of the BBC television comedy Flying Circus, broadcast in 1969, a man tells a slightly nervous woman on her doorstep that he would like to come into her house and steal a few things. Suspiciously, she asks him: “Are you an encyclopedia (《百科全书》) salesman?” No, he announces, he is a burglar. Eventually, she lets him in. Once inside, he says: “Mind you, I don’t know whether you’ve really considered owning a really fine set of modern encyclopedias…” The self-proclaimed thief was, after all, a successful encyclopedia salesman.

Author and journalist Simon Garfield quotes this comedy in his book, All the Knowledge in the World, his “history” of the encyclopedia. Garfield’s passion for encyclopedias began as a child in the 1960s and continues to this day. Although now, like everyone else, he searches for information online too, he asks at the end of the book “Is the information we receive today more or less reliable than the information we received in our childhood?” It is a fascinating question, which his book goes at least some of the way toward answering.

Despite a large variety of encyclopedias, Garfield’s account is dominated by Britannica, launched in the United Kingdom in 1768 and Wikipedia, launched in the United States in 2001. Britannica’s contributors have always been selected for their expertise. During the 20th century, named contributors included Cecil B. DeMille on motion pictures, Albert Einstein on space-time, J. B. Priestley on English literature and George Bernard Shaw on socialism. Most were paid a fee, however modest; Einstein, for example, received $86.40 for his entry. The contrast with Wikipedia is sharp: Anyone may contribute to it, contributors are anonymous, and none receives payment.

Authority is therefore the key feature of Britannica, although it certainly contains errors — whereas Wikipedia claims to be full of expertise, leaving itself open to both praise for its unparalleled diversity and criticism for its elementary errors. Even so, “You could still consider,” writes Garfield, “Wikipedia as the most influential and enduring representative of the internet as a force for good.” Yet he also wryly notes that “wiki” is the Hawaiian word for “quick”. Wikipedia tends to be quickly written, quickly consumed, sometimes quickly corrected, and often quickly forgotten.

“I hope this book has encouraged you to think twice about throwing out an old set of encyclopedias,” concludes Garfield. As it controversially suggests, despite — or perhaps because of — the continuing growth of the internet, we are sometimes less reliably informed today than the 1960s. After all, anyone can be a contributor nowadays.

【推荐3】For the first time, the Oxford English Dictionary has chosen not to name a word of the year, describing 2020 as "a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word". Instead, from "unmute" to "mail-in", and from "coronavirus" to "lockdown", the famous reference work has announced its "words of an unprecedente(史无前例的) year".

Coronavirus, one of its words of the year, is a term that dates back to the 1960s. By March this year it was one of the most frequently used nouns in the English language. "Covid-19". first recorded on 11 February in a report by the World Health Organization, quickly overtook(超过) coronavirus in frequency of use. noted the dictionary. Other coronavirus-related language cited by the OED includes "pandemic". which has seen usage increase by more than 57,000% this year, as well as "lockdown", "shelter-in-place" “face masks".

The revolution in working habits has also affected language, with both "remote" and "remotely" seeing more than 300% growth in use since March. "Unmute" have seen 500% rises since March, while the "workation" and "staycation" increased by 500% and 380% respectively.

Other news events have also been reflected in language. In the early months of 2020, there were peaks in usage of "impeachment", and "mail-in" has seen an increase of 3,000%, Use of "Black Lives Matter" and "BLM" also increased sharply. "Bushfires", meanwhile. has been included. Use of "Brexit"(脱欧) however, has dropped by 80% this year.

"What words best describe 2020? A strange year? A crazy year? A lost year? Oxford Languages' monitor corpus(语料库) of English shows a huge rise in usage of each of those phrases compared to 2019," said the OED in its report. "What was genuinely unprecedented this year was the super speed at which the English-speaking world built up a new collective vocabulary relating to the coronavirus, and how quickly it became, in many instances, a core(核心的) part of the language.”

【推荐3】One evening, I was on the air as usual, broadcasting my radio show, taking requests, chatting with listeners, and looking through e-mails. I stopped on an e-mail begging for help. It was from a woman named Winifred at a refugee (难民) camp at Buduburam in Ghana. She needed money to care for three small children. I was about to hit delete (删除) — it had to be a cheat — but something stopped me. I had a chance to go there for a report the next week.

I had a picture in my head of what I thought I’d see. But the reality of the camp was nothing that I could have ever prepared myself for. I found Winifred and her family among more than 42,000 others, surviving on one meal a day-sometimes less, with no clean water, no toilets. The suffering was extreme. I helped Winifred’s family.

But there was so much more need. Where could I possibly start to make a difference?

One day not long after I’d gotten back from Ghana, I went into my kitchen to get a snack. A small sound stopped me. Plink. The tap was dripping (滴落) ever so slightly. I couldn’t take my eyes off that tiny, shining drop. Water. It seemed like such a simple, basic thing for me. But for the people at Buduburam, it was a matter of life or death.

I turned off the tap, tight. Suddenly I knew what I had to do. I created a project called Point Hope, to bring water to the people at Buduburam. Today there are 12 pumping stations at the camp.

I’ve returned to Ghana many times to check in on the water projects, and meet with people. They call me mum. They remind me of Ghana-where so much remains to be done. I strongly believe that with enough devotion and faith, we can bring more hope. You! Me! All of us!