VOA标准英语2009年-What's in a Name - in?

What's in a Name - in $$$$$?
Ted¹ Landphair | Washington, DC 02 December 2009

After some market research, we could easily put an estimated dollar value on a company's name.  Often it's worth so much that a Coca-Cola or Ford² or Yahoo, say, will go to great lengths to protect it and keep it from being misused³ by somebody else.

But what is YOUR name worth?  Would you change it if someone paid you to take a different one?

Your name here?

It's been done.  Most recently, a 19-year-old Wisconsin man, Calvin Gosz, put his name up for sale on the online auction⁴ site e-bay.  He had moved to Wisconsin in September, he told the Associated Press, but hadn't had any luck finding work and badly needed money.  His name was just about all that he owned.

If people can have a name like 'Mercedes' for free, why wouldn't McDonald's pay me to have 'Ronald McDonald' for a name? Gosz asked.  The clown character Ronald McDonald is the hamburger chain's mascot⁵.

In his buy-my-name-please listing, Gosz wrote: Literally⁶ will change it to anything: corporation names, toilet humor, random⁷ letters, you name it.

The old Mr. Gosz (and new Mr. Con) might have better luck with his new persona here. This is Helsinki.

Gosz set a minimum bid of $5,000. So he certainly had no trouble setting a value on his name.

Sure enough, a Finnish electronics company, Verkkokaupa, took him up on his offer, submitting the only bid at his asking price. 

So Calvin Gosz says that as soon as he can get down to the courthouse to officially change his name, he will become Verkkokaupa Com – the last name, Com, presumably referring to the company's .com Web address.

The man formerly⁸ known as Calvin may be surprised that a lot of people he meets won't bat an eyelash when he introduces himself as Verkkokaupa.  There are a lot of Scandinavians in the northland state of Wisconsin!

Read more of Ted's personal reflections and stories from the road on his blog, Ted Landphair's America.
 

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

3 misused   

v.使用…不当( misuse的过去式和过去分词 )；把…派作不正当的用途；虐待；滥用

参考例句：

• He misused his dog shamefully. 他可耻地虐待自己的狗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had grossly misused his power. 他严重滥用职权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

5 mascot   

n.福神，吉祥的东西

参考例句：

• The football team's mascot is a goat.足球队的吉祥物是山羊。
• We had a panda as our mascot.我们把熊猫作为吉详物。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

8 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。