用法学习: 1. "beat someone off" I. Fend off = fight off = ward off 击退, 打退, 打败 to successfully fight back against an attacker or to defeat a competitor. to manage to defeat someone who is attacking you: She beat off her attacker by hitting him with her purse. figurative The company managed to beat off the competition and secure the contract. "She managed to beat off her attacker with a heavy bag". "The company beat off fierce competition to win the contract". In this clip from "Good Morning Britain," Dan Stevens discusses his role in the movie "The Guest." Things take a humorous turn when the interviewer uses the phrase "beat him off," leading to a hilarious double entendre: "This is you as an all-American and a big opportunity for you in Hollywood. You must have had beaten off a lot of American men to get this part. Why did that make you giggle? Did you not have to beat them off? With a big stick? I imagine there were quite a few men up for this role as well. " (all-American = TYPICALLY AMERICAN I. considered to be typical of the US, and respected and approved of by Americans. If you describe someone as an all-American boy or girl, you mean that they seem to have all the typical qualities that are valued by ordinary Americans, such as good looks and love of their country. ...the image of the standard all-American boy. He was the perfect image of a clean-cut, all-American boy. II. used to refer to an amateur sports person from the US who is considered to be one of the best in their sport: an all-American football player. ) II. Vulgar Slang informal American English 手淫 a vulgar slang term for masturbation, specifically referring to a man. Because of this widespread sexual connotation, many native speakers avoid using "beat off" in professional or polite settings and prefer alternatives like "fight off" or "repel" to avoid a double entendre. beat something out I. 敲打. 击打. to make sounds that have a particular rhythm by hitting something such as a drum: The drummer beat out a steady rhythm while we marched. II. to make a fire go out by hitting it repeatedly with an object, such as a large piece of cloth: She beat the flames out 扑灭火 with her bare hands. III. to defeat someone or do better than them in a competition, sport, or business: They beat out several other rivals for the contract. III. mainly US In baseball, if you beat out a hit, you reach first base just before the defence can throw the ball there to put you out: He beat out an infield single. With his speed, he can beat out throws to first base, and then steal second. Torres hustled and beat out the throw to first. beat out someone 打败, 打退, 打赢 I. to defeat or finish before a competitor: Chicago beat out Washington for the last playoff spot. II. to be more successful than your competitors: The New York-based accounting and consulting firm beat out eight rival bids to win the contract. 2. riot noun. I. an occasion when a large number of people behave in a noisy, violent, and uncontrolled way in public, often as a protest: The militia dispersed the rioters. At least fifteen people are now known to have died in three days of rioting. Food protests and riots 骚乱, 暴乱, 暴动 (rioter 暴乱者. social unrest 社会动乱. 社会动荡. ) have erupted in more than 30 countries. In the riot, the statues were toppled from their pedestals. Police used tear gas to put the riot down. The weeks following the riots were extremely tense. The prison riots have sharpened the debate about how prisons should be run. According to unconfirmed reports, two people were killed in the riots last night. a noisy and violent public gathering: The streets in this district include South Central Los Angeles, where the riots broke out two years ago. II. old-fashioned informal a very funny or entertaining occasion or person. A riot is also something very amusing: The show was a riot. "How was the party?" "It was great - we had a riot." I met Mike's brother for the first time - he's a riot. a riot of colour 五颜六色, 鲜艳, 多姿多彩, 色彩丰富, 万紫千红 extremely colourful and bright. If you say that there is a riot of something pleasant such as colour, you mean that there is a large amount of various types of it. All the cacti were in flower, so that the desert was a riot of colour. ...a riot of tastes and spices. Jim's rose garden is a riot of colour. verb. I. to take part in a riot. If people riot, they behave violently in a public place. Last year 600 inmates rioted, starting fires and building barricades. They rioted in protest against the government. Students are rioting in the streets of the capital. read someone the riot act If someone in authority reads you the riot act, they tell you that you will be punished unless you start behaving properly. I'm glad you read the riot act to Billy. He's still a kid and still needs to be told what to do. to run riot I. 乱跑. 疯跑. If people run riot, they behave in a wild and uncontrolled manner. If people run riot, they behave in a way that is not controlled, running in all directions or being noisy or violent: I dread them coming here because they let their kids run riot. Rampaging prisoners ran riot through the jail. II. If your imagination runs riot, you have a lot of strange, exciting, or surprising thoughts: My imagination was running riot, thinking of all the ways that I could spend the money. 3. 俄罗斯: While there have been no signs of mass social unrest in Russia, and other malls including the giant Aviapark in northwest Moscow appear to be doing good business, several workers at Goodzone described to CNN with concern the increasingly minimal foot traffic 人流 there. 北京车展: Chinese carmakers are cranking out their offerings at a large scale and a comparatively low price. And there's another major sell 卖点: while oil and gas costs skyrocket due to the Iran war, the vast majority of these cars are electric or hybrid. The contrast with the US has never been as stark: Washington last year rolled back support for EVs in favor of gas guzzlers, and it has effectively barred Chinese cars from entering the market, citing a need to protect national security and local industry. By a wide margin, the country has the world's largest EV market. More than half of new cars sold in China are electric or hybrid. In its megacities and beyond, traffic is increasingly falling silent, the dull whir of the electric motor replacing the purr of an internal combustion engine 内燃引擎. But its industry titans are also locked in a knock-down, drag-out fight for market share, with brutal price wars and competition in a crowded home market deflating profits and stymieing growth. Europe has opted for tariffs it sees as leveling the playing field, not blocking the competition. And Chinese carmakers are fast gaining market share there. New-car registrations for BYDs were up 增加, 提高, 提升 nearly 170% in the first quarter of this year in European Union countries, industry data shows. What strikes fear into the hearts of overseas rivals is the sheer scale of production in China, where automakers can rely on deep domestic supply chains and have automated their factories. Underlying that concern is that the government’s long-standing backing for the sector, in subsidies, tax breaks and other perks, has made Chinese cars unfair competitors that will wipe out global competition. 4. vestigial [vestɪdʒiəl] I. 残存的. Vestigial is used to describe the small amounts of something that still remain of a larger or more important thing. being a small remaining part or amount. Vestigial remains of these plays are now seen in the Christmas pantomime. II. (tonsil 扁桃体. Gallbladder 胆囊. Appendix: Once used to digest cellulose, it is now largely reduced. Wisdom teeth: Remnants from ancestors who needed to chew raw, tough food. Coccyx (tailbone): A remnant of a tail, which early ancestors used for balance. Ear muscles: Ancestors used these to turn ears for sound detection. Goose bumps/arrector pili muscle. 痕跡器官vestigial organ. 退化器官 rudimentary organ. rudimentary 未发展好的, 未发育好的, 未开化的 I. involving or limited to basic, fundamental principles, or being in an early, undeveloped stage of development (vestigial). It describes things that are simple, crude, or not highly developed, such as elementary knowledge, basic tools, or embryonic biological structures. II. 初始阶段的. 初步的 Rudimentary methods, equipment, systems, or body parts are simple and not very well developed: Some unusual fish have rudimentary legs. III. only basic, and not deep or detailed: She has only a rudimentary grasp of the language. IV. basic: Her knowledge is still only rudimentary. ) used to describe something, especially a part of the body, that has not developed completely, or has stopped being used and has almost disappeared: a vestigial organ/limb/tail. note: Vestigial organs are body parts, tissues, or behaviors that have lost most or all of their original function through evolution. These structures are remnants of features that served a purpose in ancestors but are now reduced or functionless in the current species. They provide evidence of evolutionary history, demonstrating how species have adapted to new environments. Vestigiality is the retention, during the process of evolution, of genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of the ancestral function in a given species. Assessment of the vestigiality must generally rely on comparison with homologous features in related species. The emergence of vestigiality occurs by normal evolutionary processes, typically by loss of function of a feature that is no longer subject to positive selection pressures when it loses its value in a changing environment. The feature may be selected against more urgently when its function becomes definitively harmful, but if the lack of the feature provides no advantage, and its presence provides no disadvantage, the feature may not be phased out by natural selection and persist across species. Examples of vestigial structures (also called degenerate 退化的, atrophied, or rudimentary organs) are the loss of functional wings in island-dwelling birds; the human vomeronasal organ; and the hindlimbs of the snake and whale. In the context of human evolution, vestigiality involves those traits occurring in humans that have lost all or most of their original function through evolution. Although structures called vestigial often appear functionless, they may retain lesser functions or develop minor new ones. In some cases, structures once identified as vestigial simply had an unrecognized function. Vestigial organs are sometimes called rudimentary organs. Many human characteristics are also vestigial in other primates and related animals. 5. be looking to do something I. 朝着...努力. 计划着. 打算着. 想着. 想要. to be planning to do something. To be working toward some outcome or aim. try to find ways of doing something: You can't live here. I'm not looking to. The government is looking to reduce inflation. I'm looking to get a new job—do you know anyone who's hiring? If you need to finalize everything in 30 days, the seller doesn't have a problem with that—he's looking to move on from this investment property as soon as possible. Guys like that are just looking to put any competitors out of business. You can't trust them! I'm looking to start my own business. We are looking to open three new stores next year. They were looking to buy a house in the countryside. She will be looking to show that she's ready for the finals in two months. He is looking to study at a European university. look to I. If you look to someone or something for a particular thing that you want, you expect or hope that they will provide it. We look to others for support, for example in online groups. look to someone for something or to do something 期待某人做某事 to hope that someone will do something for you: We're looking to you to advise us on how to proceed. II. If you look to something that will happen in the future, you think about it. As an organisation we are looking to 期待 the future. 6. child's play 小孩玩意, 很容易的事 I. an extremely simple task or act. something that is very easy to do: For her, computer programming is child's play. II. something that is insignificant figuring out the password was child's play. A powwow 印第安人聚会 (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and Canadian First Nations communities. Inaugurated in 1923, powwows today are an opportunity for Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or public, indoors or outdoors. Dancing events can be competitive with monetary prizes. Powwows vary in length from single-day to weeklong events. In mainstream American culture, such as 20th-century Western movies or by military personnel, the term powwow was used to refer to any type of meeting. This usage is now considered by some Native Americans to be an offensive case of appropriation because of the cultural significance powwows hold. the upshot 最终结论, 最终结果, 结论, 结果 something that happens as a result of other actions, events, or decisions. The upshot of a series of events or discussions is the final result of them, usually a surprising result. The upshot is that we have lots of good but not very happy employees. So the upshot is we're going for lunch on Friday. The upshot of the discussions is that there will be no layoffs. A solo act (单打独斗 单人独骑) is a performance, show, or activity executed by one person alone. Often used in entertainment, it features a single individual (e.g., singer, comedian, magician) performing without partners. The term also implies independence in tasks, such as flying an airplane or starting a business alone. A solo performance 单人表演, sometimes referred to as a one-man show, one-woman show, or one-person show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieties, including autobiographical creations, comedy acts, novel adaptations, vaudeville, poetry, music and dance. In 1996, Rob Becker's Defending the Caveman became the longest-running one-person play in the history of Broadway theatre. 7. courteous [ˈkɜː.ti.əs] Don't be so courteous. Polite: Follows rules and social norms of acceptable behavior; About not being rude — the baseline standard of decent behavior; Can be somewhat mechanical or obligatory — you can be polite without really meaning it; The minimum expected standard in social interaction; More about what you don't do — not interrupting, not being offensive. "He was polite but cold — said the right things but didn't really seem to care". Courteous: Goes beyond basic politeness — actively considerate and thoughtful toward others; Implies genuine warmth and regard for the other person's comfort and feelings; More proactive — doing things to make others feel respected and at ease; Slightly more formal and old fashioned in tone; More about what you actively do — holding doors, anticipating needs, showing deference; "She was courteous enough to call ahead and let us know she'd be late". Simple way to think about it: Polite = meeting the standard. Courteous = exceeding the standard. Other related words for comparison: Civil: even more minimal than polite, just not being hostile. Gracious: warm and generous in manner, similar to courteous but with more elegance. Considerate: thinking about others' feelings, closest in meaning to courteous. Cordial: warm and friendly, less formal than courteous. 8. blackball to vote against allowing someone to be a member of an organization or group. If the members of a club blackball someone, they vote against that person being allowed to join their club. Members can blackball candidates in secret ballots. He was initially blackballed because of a dispute he once had with a couple of the committee members. It is perfectly possible that the guy knew things were wrong but did not want to say anything for fear of being blackballed from the industry. Wiki: Blackballing is a rejection in a traditional form of secret ballot, where a white ball or ballot constitutes a vote in support and a black ball signifies opposition. The system is commonly used where an organization's rules provide that one or two objections, rather than a percentage of the vote (for example, more than 50%), are sufficient to defeat a proposition. Since the seventeenth century, these rules have commonly applied to elections to membership of many gentlemen's clubs and similar institutions such as Masonic lodges and fraternities. grandfather sb/sth into sth = grandfather sb/sth in 暂免, 赦免 to give or be given official permission not to obey a new law or regulation that one would normally be required to obey. to allow someone to continue to do or to have something that a new law or rule makes illegal: Older cars have been grandfathered in and don't have to have air bags. Most existing companies will be grandfathered into the old system for up to five years. Many old bridges will suddenly be out of date but will be grandfathered in. grandfather somebody/something Workers who were here before the cut in benefits went into effect will be automatically grandfathered. 9. daylight verb I. [ usually passive] past tense daylit or or daylighted architecture to use natural light from the sun in a building, rather than artificial light: The paintings will be displayed in large daylit galleries 自然光照射的. The space is daylighted and there are also LED lights for night use. II. environment mainly US past tense daylighted 见天日. to make something open to the air and light again, especially a stream that has been covered over by land, buildings, etc.: The district recently daylighted a creek by digging up a stretch that had been buried beneath a school. There is a plan to daylight the section of the stream that runs through a 30-inch underground pipe. III. transport US past tense daylighted to prevent cars from parking near pedestrian crossings (= places where vehicles stop to let people walk across the road) or road junctions (= places where roads meet) to make it easier for drivers and pedestrians to see the road: Curb extensions should be long enough to "daylight" the crossing, i.e., provide open sight lines to 看得到, 能直接看到 the pedestrian crossing for approaching motorists. IV. US past tense daylighted to make it possible for the public to know about something such as a hidden problem, process, or secret: News coverage of the crisis has daylighted it for the wider community. They have succeeded in daylighting 公之于众, 见天日 a century and a half of voter suppression. noun. I. Daylight is the natural light that there is during the day, before it gets dark. In those days the entire factory was lit only by daylight 太阳光, 日光 and was closed at night. The colours look much better in daylight 在自然光. It was still daylight 白天, 天亮 but all the cars had their headlights on. Lack of daylight can make people feel depressed. II. Daylight is the time of day when it begins to get light. Quinn returned shortly after daylight 天明 yesterday morning. III. The period of time between sunrise and sunset. burning daylight; wasting daylight. We should get home while it's still daylight. IV. Exposure to public scrutiny. Budgeting a spy organization can't very well be done in daylight. V. A clear, open space. All small running backs 球员 instinctively run to daylight (美式足球). ( "Running to daylight" means a running back instinctively heads toward whatever open space (gap) appears in the defensive line — rather than following a fixed, pre-planned route. "Daylight" = the open gap where there are no defenders blocking the way. "Instinctively" is the key word here — it implies the best small running backs don't need to think about it consciously. They read the defense and react naturally, like a reflex 本能反应, 肌跳反应. "Small running backs" specifically — the idea is that smaller, quicker backs are especially good at this because their agility lets them change direction rapidly to exploit those fleeting gaps, whereas bigger backs tend to rely more on power and set blocking schemes. "Running to daylight" means a running back instinctively heads toward whatever open space (gap) appears in the defensive line — rather than following a fixed, pre-planned route. The sentence suggests that elite small running backs share a natural, almost innate ability to find and exploit opportunities the moment they open up — it's instinct, not just training. The phrase "run to daylight" was actually popularized by legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi, who wrote a book called Run to Daylight (1963) describing his Green Bay Packers' offensive philosophy. It has since become a widely used expression in football to describe this kind of instinctive open-field visionapidly to exploit those fleeting gaps, whereas bigger backs tend to rely more on power and set blocking schemes. The sentence suggests that elite small running backs share a natural, almost innate ability to find and exploit opportunities the moment they open up — it's instinct, not just training. ). He could barely see daylight through the complex clockwork. Finally, after weeks of work on the project, they could see daylight. VI. Emotional or psychological distance between people, or disagreement. We completely agree. There's no daylight between us on the issue. VII. (figurative) Meaningful or noticeable difference or distinction between two things, especially concepts. There's not much daylight between saying that the universe is God and saying that God doesn't exist. Hormuz is in the news at the moment, but it comes a close second to Malacca as the world's most important oil transit passage — 21 million barrels a day before it closed in February, versus Malacca's 24. It is daylight 巨大差距, 明显区别. to number three — the Suez Canal, with 5 million barrels a day. (put) daylight between yourself and somebody informal if you put daylight between yourself and someone else, you make the distance or difference between you larger Now the team need to put some daylight between themselves and their rivals for the championship. 10. 中国澳洲在分界点: At the same time as China was deciding to shift from powering its economy with molecules carried through two narrow waterways and instead use electrons generated in China, the Howard government in Australia published a 2004 energy white paper titled Securing Australia's Energy Future. That turned out to be an exercise in irony because Australia's energy future was anything but secured by it. A year earlier, in 2003, as Hu Jintao was making the "Malacca Dilemma" speech, Mobil's Port Stanvac became the third Australian refinery to close. Five more would close after that, leaving us with two, one of which caught fire last week. At the same time as the Australian energy white paper was being ignored and shelved in 2004, China launched the "Mid-to-Long Term Railway Network Plan", which has in 20 years astonishingly resulted in 54,000km of high-speed rail — more than twice the total in the rest of the world combined. People still fly between cities in China, but less than half as much as they would have, and much less than in Australia, where Melbourne to Sydney is the sixth-busiest air traffic route in the world. In 2009, when the Liberal Party had a civil war over climate change that resulted in ferocious sceptic Tony Abbott replacing Malcolm Turnbull as leader, China was launching the Ten Cities, Thousand Vehicles (TCTV) program to promote electric cars. Ten years later, in the 2019 election campaign, Scott Morrison was still campaigning against EVs, declaring that they would "end the weekend" for ute drivers and boat owners. Before 2009, BYD was a struggling battery producer; now it is the world's largest EV manufacturer, and China's car industry is eating Japan's and Germany's.
Hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship: Hantavirus infections are typically linked to 和...有关 exposure to the feces or urine of infected rodents, WHO said. While rare, WHO said they can be spread between people and they can lead to severe respiratory illness. There is no specific treatment or cure 特效治疗, 治愈方案, but early medical attention 尽早就医 can increase the chance of survival. 澳大利亚财政: Whatever gains are made will be used to pay down 减轻债务 debt now forecast to reach a trillion dollars next financial year. And savings measures, in particular a $35 billion belt-tightening on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, will also go to paying down debt, as well as to improve deficits that in December totalled $143.2 billion over four years, and offset spending on hospitals and defence already committed earlier this year. Managing expectations that next week will ease hip pocket 零用钱, 日常花销, 日常费用 pains, the treasurer says the government will be saving more than it spends when it hands down its budget. "In this budget you'll see more responsible economic management and more restraint from the Albanese government.". While the Iran war will lift the government's revenue take 进账, borrowing costs have also risen due to Australia's inflation woes and the Middle East conflict, and the treasurer says "that will hit the budget hard". Additionally, social security payments tied to inflation are an "unavoidable" spending pressure draining the government's coffers. An extra $9 billion in payments is forecast for the disability support pension, Jobseeker and aged pension, which are all indexed and rising in line with( indexed: Finance:"The portfolio is indexed to the S&P 500, ensuring it tracks the top 500 U.S. companies". Data/Computing索引的: "The new database entries were quickly indexed to improve query speed". Publishing: "The book's glossary is well indexed for easy reference". Economics: "The pension is indexed to the cost of living, adjusting annually for inflation". -indexed 关联的, 挂钩的 having a value that is connected to the thing mentioned, so that the value becomes bigger or smaller as the other thing changes: a wage-indexed pension. inflation-indexed securities issued by the U.S. Treasury. index-linked = US indexed An index-linked investment or government payment changes by the same amount as the general level of prices. an index-linked investment or payment changes by the same amount as the general level of prices, or in relation to another fixed standard: an index-linked pension. index-linked bonds/gilts/securities. an index-linked pension/benefit. ) inflation. It means the government will have little money to play with, despite tax windfalls and the $22 billion in net savings from NDIS reforms, one of the single largest savings measures this century. And with inflation running too hot, at 4.6 per cent over the 12 months to March and still above target even after accounting for 去除, 考虑到 higher fuel prices driven by the war in Iran, the government cannot risk spending measures that could further push up inflation. As voter frustrations grow over lingering inflation and expected further lifts to the cash rate, Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson is expected to take the extraordinary step of accusing the government of intentionally fuelling inflation in a speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "Inflation is not a bug in the economy Labor built, it is a design feature( Design Feature 强调一种功能: A specific, notable, or unique element of a product, system, or educational tool. Refers to an element that is part of the overall design, often focusing on functionality, aesthetics, or user interaction. Used when defining the characteristics, traits, or components of a product. "The ventilation holes on the cigarette filter are a key design feature"."The retractable undercarriage is a design feature endorsement in aviation". No longer a place just for hiding disused tools and miscellaneous junk, it can be a standalone design feature or positioned to blend into your plot. Perhaps the most important design feature of the budget laptop, though, is its low power needs and the ability to be powered by mechanical means. Designed Feature 强调某种功能的目的和意图: A feature that was intentionally created or planned to serve a specific purpose. Emphasizes the intent behind the creation, usually in the passive voice ("was designed to..."). Used when describing the intent or function that was engineered into the object. "The drainage system is designed to keep the highway dry"."The software includes a designed feature for data encryption". ): a deliberate cycle to fuel the inflation, tax the inflation, spend the inflation, to fuel the inflation," Mr Wilson is expected to say. "We have higher inflation than any of the major advanced economies. It was high and rising before the Iran crisis. And if the Iran conflict ended today, it would persist." Mr Wilson will also say that the average worker has lost about $1,000 in annual purchasing power due to lower real wages since 2022, and $2,000 due to bracket creep (Bracket creep is a situation in Australia where inflation and wage increases push more and more people into higher tax brackets. The result is that income tax takes more and more of people's earnings, even though the Government did not formally raise tax rates. wiki: Bracket creep is usually defined as the process by which inflation pushes wages and salaries into higher tax brackets, leading to fiscal drag. However, even if there is only one tax bracket, or one remains within the same tax bracket, there will still be bracket creep resulting in a higher proportion of income being paid in tax. That is, although the marginal tax rate remains unchanged with inflation, the average tax rate will increase. Most progressive tax systems are not adjusted for inflation. As wages and salaries rise in nominal terms under the influence of inflation they become more highly taxed, even though in real terms the value of the wages and salaries has not increased at all. The net effect is that in real terms taxes rise unless the tax rates or brackets are adjusted to compensate. ), where higher wages lead to an overall higher tax rate, but increased costs ultimately leave workers with less disposable income. The Productivity Commission has urged if the government proceeds with a widely expected move to wind back tax perks for capital gains and investment properties, that those revenue windfalls at least should be handed back to workers in the form of income tax relief.
