Lottery
本义为凭号码或抽签决定中奖者的博彩形式；口语中 “a lottery” 可形容医疗排队、升学派位等“像抽签一样难以预测”的情况。
- “They bought a lottery ticket every Friday but never expected to win.” (他们每周五买彩票，却从没指望会中奖。)
- “Finding affordable housing in that city felt like winning the lottery.” (在那座城市找到负担得起的住房就像中彩票。)
- “The charity raised funds through a lottery with donated prizes.” (慈善机构通过抽奖义卖募集捐款。)
来自意大利语 lotteria，与 lotto（份额、签）同源，与古英语 hlot（签、份额）有关。
词根 “lott-” 表抽签、份额，加名词后缀 “-ery” 表示场所或活动类型。
美国各州有 state lottery；英国有 National Lottery；媒体讨论中奖故事时常提醒税务与心理风险，比喻用法在社论里很常见。
- 固定搭配: “national lottery” (国家彩票), “lottery winner” (中奖者)
- 复数: lotteries
lot（许多、一堆）里抽一份运气 → lottery（抽签定输赢的游戏）。
“Her first week on the new job was a lottery of meetings, and she still had to learn everyone’s name.” (她新工作第一周会议排得随机又密集，还得记住每个人的名字。)