几年前因希望将一篇刊登在文学城上自己喜欢的文章保存在文学城里，我需要有一个《个人书签》。于是就随便想了一个以前似曾听闻过的一个叫作“Riverbrook” 的词作为我的帐户名注了册，以取其中“小溪”的意思。之后就没怎么用过它，因为我几乎不上文学城。直到近几日，心血来潮又来到这儿并在同一账户名下开了个博客。
向博客前辈们学习，也为代表我的“形象”，我得找一张与我账户名接近的图像to go with it。可上网敲入 "Riverbrook + images"后却没找到任何与溪（或河）有关的图像。查了一下字典,才恍然大悟 --- 原来本就没这个词;有人只是把 river + brook = Riverbook 来作人名,公司或组织名罢了。
带着好奇的心情,我查了单词 brook, creek,steam, river, pond, lake, sea an d ocean, 包括他们各自的定义、相同处和不同处。对比之下，我个人感觉是英文的解释较仔细易辨。如在中文将"brook" 和 "creek" 都译成 “溪”，而英语字典和网上则说(大意）---
All of brooks, creeks, streams, rivers, seas, and oceans are flowing waters,while ponds can be still water. Brooks are smallest water channels. Creeks are often larger than brooks, and they are also sometimes referred as streams. However the word “stream” is a generic term of any body of flowing water, which could be on the surface of the earth, underground, and even within an ocean, such as Gulf Stream. Rivers are large streams flow over land. Ponds are small lakes, usually contains water by nature compressions. Lakes are any accumulation of water surrounded by land in considerable sizes. A very large lake that contains salt water is known as sea, and sea can be attached to or even a part of ocean. Oceans are the ultimate bodies of water and refers to the five oceans in the World - Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Indian, and Southern. *
对于上述内容我虽然没去考证它的准确性,然而却觉得挺有意思的。通过查找“小溪”这个小词的过程,我得到一个小心得,那就是 ---- 学无止境。
* Source: http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/waterbodies.htm
