"英语中有40万个单词,其中有7个不能在电视上说。这个比例可真厉害。399993比7。它们一定真的很糟糕。要从这么大的一组中分离出来,它们肯定得非常过分。"
— George Carlin
Simplified Meaning:
Imagine there are thousands of toys in a big toy store, but only a few toys are locked in a special cabinet because they are very dangerous. This tells you those toys must be extremely harmful if they need to be kept away from all the others. The quote is like that; out of hundreds of thousands of English words, only a tiny number can't be said on TV because they are considered very offensive or inappropriate. It makes you think about how bad those words must be if they get singled out from so many. By looking at this ratio, you can see just how serious people are about not using those specific words. It's a funny way to show the importance of what we choose to say, and it reminds us to think about the impact of our words.
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