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英语里有许多怪异有趣的语言现象，你是否留意过？
Let's face it—English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant<注1> nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.<注2> English muffins<注3> weren't invented in England or French fries<注4> in France. Sweetmeats<注5> are candies while sweetbreads,<注6> which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted.<注7> But if we explore its paradox<注8>, we find that quicksand<注9> can work slowly, boxing rings<注10> are square and a guinea pig<注11> is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce<注12> and hammers don't ham? <注13> If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth<注14> beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, <注15> 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends<注16> but not one amend, that you comb through annals<注17> of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends<注18> and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preacher praught?<注19> If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?<注20> If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?<注21>
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbal insanity.<注22> In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?<注23> Ship<注24> by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?<注25> Park on driveways and drive on parkways?<注26>
How can a slim chance and a fat chance<注27> be the same, while a wise man and wise guy<注28> are opposites? How can overlook and oversee<注29> be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few<注30> are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell<注31> one day and cold as hell another? (来源：英语学习门户网站EnglishCN.com)
Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent?<注32> Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love?
You have to marvel at<注33> the unique lunacy<注34> of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down,<注35> in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.<注36>
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race<注37> at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out,<注38> they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up<注39> this essay, I end it? -
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