| 词组 | catalyst |
| 释义 | catalyst Catalyst is a term borrowed from chemistry and popularized, Reader's Digest 1983 believes, by its familiarity from high-school science classes. The word is commonly used metaphorically, usually meaning "an agent that provokes or speeds change." Two British commentators, Sir Bruce Fraser (in Gowers 1973) and Phythian 1979, worry that the metaphor may be misapplied. Fraser cites a British politician who spoke of an agreement that "would automatically act as a catalyst for bridging the gap." Similar examples exist in our files: • I agree that government is the developmental catalyst necessary to bring the private sector to water — letter to editor, Area Development, May 1970 • ... they've become either catalysts or pawns in schemes of those who stand to profit —Thomas Moran, Woman's Wear Daily, 15 Nov. 1976 What these somewhat blundering uses prove is that the metaphorical sense has become so well established that it is separated from its chemical beginnings, at least in the minds of some of its users. The examples that follow are more typical: • ... at most a catalyst accelerating a reaction which had begun in the embryonic hours of Christianity — Norman Mailer, Harper's, March 1971 • Some Westerners even envisage trade as a catalyst for liberalization in the USSR —Hedrick Smith, Atlantic, December 1974 • ... taking lovers often is a catalyst for divorce — Albert H. Johnston, Publishers Weekly, 21 Apr. 1975 • The regimen provides some guests the catalyst they need for changing their life-styles —Jerry Kirshen-baum et al., Sports Illustrated, 7 Feb. 1983 Catalyst is commonly applied to a person who gets things going: • The main thing is for me to be the catalyst and to let the viewers decide —David Frost, quoted in People, 1 Sept. 1975 • You've got to have somebody who's going to be a catalyst, to bring out the excitement in the other guy —a source at ESPN (television network), quoted in TV Guide, 15 July 1983 • ... left-fielder and team catalyst Gary Matthews — Craig Neff, Sports Illustrated, 13 May 1985 • She acts as a catalyst to overcome this lack —Times Literary Supp., 22 Oct. 1971 |
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