| 词组 | probe |
| 释义 | probe Bremner 1980, Copperud 1964, 1970, 1980, and Flesch 1964 all disapprove of probe used as a noun to mean "investigation" or a verb to mean "investigate"; the use, they assert, was born in newspaper headlines and ought not to extend beyond them. This theory of origin can be found in Utter 1916 and in an OED Supplement citation for 1903. However, both of these sources are referring only to the noun, and for the noun, the theory seems to be plausible—the OED has only one 19th-century figurative use of the noun that does not involve prodding. But figurative use of the verb to mean "to search into, look into," even "to interrogate," dates back to the middle of the 17th century. The newspapers in this instance merely took over a well-established sense for a somewhat specialized application. The trouble with the criticism is that it takes no account of the widespread figurative uses of both verb and noun in kinds of writing other than headlines. Dictionaries have recognized these uses for a long time. Here is a sampling—first of the verb, then of the noun. • ... a citizens committee ... which had been appointed to probe corruption in government — Current Biography, April 1967 • ... went on to get his M.D. at Harvard while continuing to probe the minuscule world of the insect — Isaac Asimov, Think, May-June 1967 • ... indefatigably probed the North Korean political climate —Howard L. Boorman, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 22 Apr. 1973 • Republican analysts probe the Catholic vote —Richard Reeves, Harper's, January 1972 • ... to probe into the basic objectives and methods of higher education —Jerome Evans, Change, September 1971 • ... market analysts, always probing for what people would wish to buy —Martin Mayer, Cosmopolitan, February 1973 • ... violinist ... whose musical sensibility probes to the very depths of the work —Thor Eckert, Jr., Christian Science Monitor, 26 Oct. 1979 • ... it is possible that unmanned spaceships will probe beyond the limits of the Solar System — Myron G. H. Ligda, in Astronautics for Science Teachers, ed. John G. Meitner, 1965 • ... broadening the probe to cover construction labor and management practices —Business Week, 26 May 1975 • ... the probe into the nursing home industry —radio newscast, 15 Aug. 1979 • Later that year in A Sense of Loss, he gave us a personality probe of those involved in the troubles that beset Northern Ireland —Judith Crist, Saturday Rev., 16 Oct. 1976 • ... a series of probes begun by NASA in 1961 to study the characteristics of the moon —Current Biography, February 1968 These uses are all perfectly standard. |
| 随便看 |
英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。