[by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51VOA.COM [00:00.08]Hello and welcome to another episodes of Words and Their Stories, [00:12.44]a VOA Learning English program. [00:16.48]Each week we explore the stories [00:19.06]behind common American words and expressions. [00:23.04]We try to give you useful information. [00:27.08]But some of the most exciting information [00:30.24]does not come from online [00:32.72]or from your phone or in a text. [00:36.20]Some of the most exciting information comes to you by way of "the grapevine" [00:43.52]That is so because reports received [00:46.72]through "the grapevine" are supposed to be secret. [00:50.28]The information is very "hush-hush." [00:53.68]It is whispered into your ear, [00:55.92]with the understanding that you will not pass it on to others. [01:01.12]You feel honored and excited. [01:03.76]You are one of the special few to get this information. [01:08.28]You cannot wait. You must quickly find another ear to pour the information into. [01:15.04]And so, the information, [01:17.28]secret as it is, begins to spread ¨C like a vine. [01:22.72]Nobody knows how far the vine will spread. [01:27.12]The expression "by the grapevine" is more than 100 years old. [01:32.68]But it seems like a new expression; [01:35.64]it hasn't changed a bit and is often used in conversations. [01:41.20]The American inventor Samuel F. B. Morse [01:45.00] is largely responsible for the birth of the expression. [01:49.60]Among others, he experimented with the idea of telegraphy, [01:54.36]sending messages over a wire by electricity. [01:59.04]When Morse finally completed his telegraphic instrument, [02:03.24]he went before Congress to show that it worked. [02:07.04]He sent a message over a wire from Washington to Baltimore. [02:12.24]The message was: "What God hath wrought." [02:16.40]This was on May 24, 1844. [02:21.12]And with those words, telegraphy was born. [02:25.24]Everybody heard the news with great excitement. [02:28.72]Everybody, it seems, but the author of "Walden," Henry David Thoreau. [02:34.64]He wondered if men had anything to say [02:37.30]that was worth sending by electricity. [02:40.84]But Thoreau was a loner, a dreamer. Few shared his ideas. [02:46.76]Quickly, companies began to build telegraph lines [02:50.56]from one place to another. [02:53.20]Men everywhere seemed to be putting up poles [02:56.48]with strings of wire for carrying telegraphic messages. [03:01.56]The workmanship was poor [03:03.64]and the wires were not often put up straight. [03:07.80]One was so badly built that people joked about it. [03:11.88]They said it looked like a grapevine. [03:15.80]A large number of the telegraph lines looked just as funny, [03:19.65]going in all directions, as crooked as a grapevine. [03:23.64]And so the expression "by the grapevine" was born. [03:28.84]Some writers believe that the phrase would soon have disappeared, [03:33.00]were it not for the American Civil War. [03:36.68]Soon after the war began, [03:38.68]military commanders started to send battlefield reports by telegraph. [03:44.36]Then something strange happened. [03:48.00]Besides these true reports, [03:50.40]all sorts of wild rumors and false stories [03:54.16]were being received in different places. [03:57.56]These false reports spread quickly. [04:01.16]They spread so fast that people believed [04:04.32]there were "grapevine telegraphs" [04:06.56]sending messages from a number of different places. [04:11.24]One soon heard the phrase, "by the grapevine" [04:14.48]to describe false as well as true reports from the battlefield. [04:20.20]There was a mystery about these reports. [04:24.24]People wondered where the secret information came from. [04:28.20]It was like a game: Was it true? Who says so? [04:33.24]Now, as in those far off Civil War days, [04:36.56]getting information by the grapevine remains something of a game. [04:41.68]A friend brings you a bit of strange news. [04:44.88]It may be so shocking that you ask, [04:47.80]"Where did you hear that?" [04:49.96]The answer may be, "I heard it through the grapevine." [04:54.28]You have decide if it's true or not. [04:58.44]I'm Anna Matteo. [05:00.32]