Many people like to receive a daily quote of inspiratin. But, why do they like these sound bites?

My comments:

“Sound bites” suggest that this “daily quote of inspiration” is in audio rather than in print.

At least originally sound bites are short recordings of somebody’s words, usually taken out of a longer speech, that are repeated again and again. Literally, sound bites are bites of a certain sound, be it a speech or piece of music. Bites imply that they are tiny bits from a larger whole. For example, when you ask “Can I take a bite of you apple?” you mean to take a mouthful rather than the whole thing.

Hence a sound bite is the gist, the main point, of a speech. Such sound bites become slogans or catch words that are repeated again and again, in commercials for instance.

The term was coined and popularized by television people in America in the 1980s.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.