lay sb low, lie low; take a/the hint; stand/sit pat [on sth];learn something down/off pat; sit sth out; play to the crowd/gallery;rail against sth;well-preserved;charged down on sth; wave a blank check at; kinesthetic, kinetic energy; labor of love; code feet; with an eye/view to doing sth; refrain, restrain;let rip; go whole hog;go hog wild;Incontinence;take the wind out of someone's sails;see which way the wind is blowing also see how the wind is blowing;draw/pull in your horns; a bad/rough patch; tip sb over the edge; become the norm;played out my angst

用法学习： 1. lay somebody low I. 放倒. if an illness lays someone low, they are unable to do what they usually do for a period of time (usually passive). He was at home at the time, laid low with the flu. II. to make someone weak or extremely sad. The death of her father really laid her low. Paul was laid low by the flu for about a week. lay low I. To topple; to cause to fall; (of a person) to knock out. He was laid low by a vicious blow to the head. II. (intransitive, proscribed. 作为这个意思其实是lie low的误用. 低调, 放低身段, 老实点.) To remain hidden or to hide oneself.  (intransitive) To conceal oneself; to remain hidden.  to keep quiet and not be noticed; to avoid being conspicuous. (Lay is a common error for lie.) I suggest you lie low for a few days. The robber said that he would lay low for a short time after the robbery. I'll lie low here until you get back, good luck! I'm going to lay low for a bit in case the police come looking. 2. take a/the hint 明白点事理吧, 领会一下吧, 搞搞清楚吧 to understand or do something that is communicated indirectly. to understand a hint and behave accordingly. I said I didn't want to see you anymore. Can't you take a hint听不明白吗? I don't like you. Sure I can take a hint, but I'd rather be told directly. I can take a hint – if you don't want to talk about it, that's OK with me. "Weren't you going to check your messages?" she asked. I took the hint and left. 3. Are you always cheerful你总是那么高兴吗?. hold (on) tight 捉好了, 抓好了, 抓紧了 to grasp (someone or something) tightly. Here we go on the merry-go-round! Hold on tight! The children were told to hold tight on the swings. sit tight (informal) I. to remain in a place, usually sitting down. Just sit tight while I go and phone for help. Sit tight and don't move that leg. II. 老实待着. 好好等着. to not take any action while you wait for something to happen. to wait; to wait patiently. (This does not necessarily refer to sitting.) Just relax and sit tight. I'll be right with you. We were waiting in line for the gates to open when someone came out and told us to sit tight because it wouldn't be much longer before we could go in. Shareholders are advised to sit tight and see how the situation develops. stand pat [on sth] (American informal) also sit pat on sth 立场坚定, 坚持意见 (Australian informal) to refuse to make any changes. to stick firmly to one's position or opinions. I am going to stand pat on this issue. I thought you would stand pat in the absence of new information. Our advice to investors is, stand pat - the recession will soon be over. learn something down/off pat (American) to learn something so well that you do not have to think about how to do or say it. All the answers he'd learned off pat for the interview sounded unconvincing now. sit up I. 坐起来. to rise from a lying to a sitting position. When the alarm went off, he sat up and put his feet on the floor. She couldn't sleep, so she sat up and read a book. II. 坐直了. to sit more straight in one's seat; to hold one's posture more upright while seated. Please sit up. Don't slouch! You wouldn't get backaches if you would sit up. Sister Act: "Are you with us?你在听吗, 你在跟我们一起唱吗" "Sorry, I don't know this one, I'll sit this one out."  sit something out not to participate in something; to wait until something is over before participating. not take part in a particular event or activity: He had to sit out Sheffield Wednesday's UEFA Cup game. Oh, please play with us. Don't sit it out. I'm tired of playing cards, so I think I'll sit out this game. sit out I. 不参与. 不参加. 旁边看着. to elect not to participate in something. I think I will not join in this game. I'll sit out. I'll sit out for this round. II. 坐等. 干等. wait without moving or taking action until a particular unwelcome situation or process is over: Most of the workers seem to be sitting the crisis out, waiting to see what will happen. 4. play to the gallery/crowd 哗众取宠 to perform in a manner that will get the strong approval of the audience; to perform in a manner that will get the approval of the lower elements in the audience. to spend time doing or saying things that will make people admire or support you, instead of dealing with more important matters. Politicians these days are more interested in playing to the gallery than exercising real influence on world events. John is a competent actor, but he has a tendency to play to the crowd. When he made the rude remark, he was just playing to the gallery. Tony Abbott plays to the crowd in the parochial west: For the second day running, Tony Abbott invited his troupe of travelling journalists to pity some people who are perhaps not used to being pitied. On Friday, Mr Abbott ushered his touring party to the Linfox warehouse in Melbourne to hear about the troubles of billionaire trucking baron大鳄 Lindsay Fox, who would soon be crushed under the weight of 在...重压下 ( crushed 皱皱的, 皱巴巴的 adj. Treated so as to have a permanently crinkled or rumpled appearance. Used of a fabric: crushed velvet; crushed denim.) a carbon tax on diesel. And on Saturday, Team Abbott went west to rail against ( rail against someone or something to complain vehemently about someone or something. Why are you railing against me? What did I do? Leonard is railing against the tax increase again.) Labor's shabby treatment of Australia's wealthiest citizenry. 'We will unshackle 解脱束缚, 解放 the people of this state,'' Mr Abbott declared at a Liberal Party campaign breakfast in the West Australian marginal seat of Brand. ''Hear, Hear!'' cried a well-preserved ( I. kept in a good condition. II. 保养的很好的, 保养得宜的. 显得很年轻的. continuing to appear youthful. She was a well-preserved old lady. ) man wearing khaki pants and a navy blazer with gold buttons. ''Damn straight!'' said another. The crowd, all wearing blue T-shirts, clapped and cheered. Mr Abbott was joined at the breakfast by his West Australian colleague Michaelia Cash. Senator Cash, who sits on the hard right flank of the Coalition, is well skilled at firing up anti-asylum seeker sentiment. Describing Mr Rudd as "desperate" and cooking up ''policy on the run'', the Opposition Leader said the Prime Minister was "charging down the street ( charge: move quickly and violently; "The car tore down the street"; "He came charging into my office". "He rushed down the hall to receive his guests"; "The cars raced down the street". charge down on someone or something 冲向 [for an animal or vehicle] to race or move quickly against someone or something. The angry elephant charged down on the hunters. The speeding truck charged down on the small shed. charge in (to some place) 冲进去 to move quickly or run wildly into a place. The people charged into the store on the day of the sale. They all charged in trying to be first in line. Charge it to the dust and let the rain settle it. Rur. Do not expect to be paid for this. (A humorous answer to a question like, "Who is going to pay for this?") Tom: Who's going to pay me all that money you owe? Mary: Charge it to the dust and let the rain settle it! charge off to move quickly or run away. He got angry and charged off. Juan charged off to talk to the boss. charge out (of some place) 冲出去 to move quickly or stomp out of some place. Carol charged out of the house, trying to catch Sally before she got on the bus. Juan got mad and suddenly charged out. press/file charges (against someone) Fig. to make a formal charge of wrongdoing against someone. They agreed not to press charges against me if I agreed to pay for the damages.) waving a blank cheque at 开空头支票, 开空白支票 the auto industry". 5. relic I. 遗迹. Something that has survived the passage of time, especially an object or custom whose original culture has disappeared: "Corporal punishment was a relic of barbarism" (Cyril Connolly). II. Something cherished for its age or historic interest. III. An object kept for its association with the past; a memento. IV. An object of religious veneration, especially a piece of the body or a personal item of a saint. V. or relics遗体, 遗骸, 遗骨. A corpse; remains. wiki: In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated 尊敬的, 敬重的, 崇拜的 person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a touchable or tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Shamanism, and many other religions. A reliquary圣骨盒, 遗骨盒 is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics. 6. Learning style - Neil Fleming's VAK/VARK model: One of the most common and widely-used categorizations of the various types of learning styles is Fleming's VARK model (sometimes VAK) which expanded upon earlier Neuro-linguistic programming (VARK) models: visual learners; auditory learners(verbal learner); reading-writing preference learners; kinesthetic [,kinis'θɛtik] 肌肉运动知觉的 ( = kinaesthetic. The sense that detects bodily position, weight, or movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints. kinetic 运动的. kinetic energy 动能. kinematics 运动学. 见下边. ) learners or tactile触觉的, 触觉感知的 learners. Fleming claimed that visual learners have a preference for seeing (think in pictures; visual aids such as overhead slides, diagrams, handouts, etc.). Auditory learners best learn through listening (lectures, discussions, tapes, etc.). Tactile/kinesthetic learners prefer to learn via experience—moving, touching, and doing (active exploration of the world; science projects; experiments, etc.). Its use in pedagogy allows teachers to prepare classes that address each of these areas. Students can also use the model to identify their preferred learning style and maximize their educational experience by focusing on what benefits them the most. statics静力学, dynamics [dai'næmiks] 动力学 kinematics 运动学 [,kini'mætiks ˌkaɪ-]. kinetic energy动能, 运动产生的能量. The Cops keep harping on about SPEEDING as if it is the only factor in their conquest of fatality statistics. They appear to have no comprehension that the severity of a collision is directly related to the amount of KINETIC ENERGY possessed by the vehicles concerned, and the dissipation of that energy into heat etc in the deformation of the vehicles (and passengers). Kinetic energy is proportional to the MASS of the object multiplied by the square of the SPEED. kinetic [ki'nɛtik kai-] adj relating to, characterized by, or caused by motion. kinesthetic肌肉运动知觉的 Dynamics is a branch of physics (specifically classical mechanics) concerned with the study of forces and torques and their effect on motion, as opposed to kinematics, which studies the motion of objects without reference to its causes. Statics静力学 is the branch of mechanics that is concerned with the analysis of loads (force and torque, or "moment") on physical systems in static equilibrium, that is, in a state where the relative positions of subsystems do not vary over time, or where components and structures are at a constant velocity. When in static equilibrium, the system is either at rest, or its center of mass moves at constant velocity. By Newton's first law, this situation implies that the net force and net torque (also known as moment of force) on every part of the system is zero. From this constraint, such quantities as stress or pressure can be derived. The net forces equaling zero is known as the first condition for equilibrium, and the net torque equaling zero is known as the second condition for equilibrium. Dynamics is a branch of physics (specifically classical mechanics) concerned with the study of forces and torques and their effect on motion, as opposed to kinematics, which studies the motion of objects without reference to its causes. Kinematics is the branch of classical mechanics经典力学 that describes the motion of points, bodies (objects) and systems of bodies (groups of objects) without consideration of the causes of motion. The study of kinematics is often referred to as the geometry of motion. 7. labor of love Fig. a task that is either unpaid or badly paid and that one does simply for one's own satisfaction or pleasure or to please someone whom one likes or loves. Jane made no money out of the biography she wrote. She was writing about the life of a friend and the book was a labor of love. Mary hates knitting, but she made a sweater for her boyfriend. What a labor of love. cold feet 婚前恐惧症, 临阵胆怯. Fig. fear of doing something; cowardice at the moment of action. (get ~; have ~; give someone ~.). Fearfulness or timidity preventing the completion of a course of action. The bridegroom got cold feet on the day of the wedding. Sally said I should try skydiving, but I had cold feet. 8. Do you want a swing? Do you want to play on the seesaw/swings? Do you want to swing or play seesaw? Luckily both can be used as a verb, so you can go "see-saw on the see-saw" or "teeter-totter on the teeter-totter". Incidentally, do Americans know immediately what we mean by seesaw? It's what you call a teeter-totter, but very few British people would have heard that. They want to be able to balance each other as much as possible, so before riding on it, they must decide where they are going to sit.
 
Divorce Diary: I am starting to see a different side to Danny. He is suspicious for no reason, takes offense at the smallest thing and his moods are punishing. I spend my days confused and bewildered at this behavior, but I work hard at pushing the negatives to a place in the back of my mind抛诸脑后. On the bright side, we connect well on lots of levels and when things are all good between us, we are happy enough. I am sure it's just a rocky patch(rocky patch = rock area 磕磕绊绊. My personal life is going well, with a man that I truly care for, even though we hit our rocky patches occasionally. a bad/rough patch If you have or go through a bad patch or a rough patch, you have a lot of problems for a time. His marriage was going through a bad patch...). My relationship is officially horrible. I am so unhappy. I am married to a man I don't know any more. He belittles me侮辱, 鄙视, intimidates me and rolled his eyes every time I try to talk about us. What can I do? I can't just walk away, not when we have a tiny baby together. When I made those vows, I mean them. I looked into his eyes and I wanted to be with him forever. Perhaps this is just a bad year. When we look back on our silver anniversary, we'll be able to laugh about how close we came, right? Now that I'm carrying Danny's baby, I feel that my doubts about our marriage have been quashed. We are more united than we have ever been. Things are starting to go really wrong and I don't know what to do. I am exhausted, sick and emotional. Danny has withdrawn in a fog of misunderstanding and resentment. Our bad days have begun to outnumber数量多过 the good. I have made a secret 私下里, 偷偷的许愿 news Year's resolution. I will see this marriage through to our child's first birthday and reassess. That gives me 6 months to turn this around. But just one more little event among the many that have demonstrated to me how utterly loveless our life is has tipped me over the edge(over the edge into a condition of extreme emotional or mental suffering. excessive; out of control. His performance was over the edge. Too long, too dirty, and too loud! I worry that someone as upset as she is could easily be pushed over the edge and cause herself great harm.). We'd arranged to go out with some friends and I organised a babysitter, but at the last minute, he decided he didn't want to go with me - and went out on his own instead. There is nothing that makes this occasion stand out from what has now become the norm变成常规, 习以为常, 常态化, except that something inside me has finally collapsed. I ask him to leave and it surprises me about as much as it does him. After a few hideous( ['hidiəs] adj I. extremely ugly; repulsive. a hideous person. II. terrifying and horrific. ) weeks, where he continued to live with us while he sored himself out理清头绪, he has left and I'm alone once again. As practicalities go, however, I am lucky. I am not reliant on him financially, own my own hom and have family support and a good network of friends to lean on依靠. He doesn't even want custody of our child, just regular contact. But emotionally? I feel a mix of despair, failure and unexpectedly overriding relief. When you've walked on eggshells ( walk on eggshells I. 如履薄冰的. Fig. to walk very carefully; to take steps gingerly小心翼翼的, 战战兢兢的. to try very hard not to upset someone or something. Everyone at the company was walking on eggshells until we heard that no one would be fired. Etymology: based on the idea that eggshells are easily broken. Since he stumbled and fell against the china cabinet, Bill has been walking on eggshells. II. Fig. to be very diplomatic and inoffensive. I was walking on eggshells trying to explain the remark to her without offending her further. tiptoe around sb/sth. to avoid dealing directly with a problem. to be very careful about how you behave towards someone because you are afraid of offending or annoying them. The government should stop tiptoeing around the issue of health care. [walk/skate] on thin ice (idiomatic) In a dangerous, hazardous, or delicate situation; at risk. Ever since he was caught stealing office supplies, he has been on thin ice with his boss. If I concur to that I will be skating on thin ice. ) for so long that the knot in your stomach becomes normal( Though stress can sometimes come from one obvious cause (such as splitting up with your partner, losing your job, or money problems) in many people it comes from several problems that may be minor in themselves, but together can add up to a considerable amount of worry. It can be easy to miss that one thing is happening on top of another, which can gradually wear you down压垮你, leading to symptoms of stress. Stress doesn't just make you irritable, or give you headaches. It can affect every part of the body, and the digestive system is a favorite target. Think how you got butterflies in your stomach before exams when you were a school! In adults, it can cause increased tension in the muscles of the stomach and intestine, causing that 'knotted-up' feeling, often with cramps, bloating, and erratic bowels as well.), to suddenly have it gone, to be able to put your key in your own front door without dreading what you're going to find on the other side of it, well, the freedom is intoxicating( intoxicating [in'toksi,keitiŋ] adj I. (of an alcoholic drink) producing in a person a state ranging from euphoria to stupor, usually accompanied by loss of inhibitions and control; inebriating. II. stimulating, exciting, or producing great elation. ). My lawer advises me that an ex spouse can make a financial claim against you for up to a year after the divorce is finalised (if you win Lotto 10 months after your are divorced, you ex can still make a claim for half your winnings), so her advice is to get that clock ticking as soon as possible. Despite what you read about "irreconcilable differences" and adultery there is actually only one ground for divorce一个离婚的理由 and that is that you have been separated for 12 months and there is no reasonable likelihood of reconciliation. Danny is trying to make me change my mind about ending our marriage. He still thinks we can give it another shot. I'm not even sure why he's bothering, as he has told me to my face that he does not love me. He doesn't take the rejection well and threatens to move overseas, where our child will not be able to have regular contact with him. What he finds hard to accept is that I am not playing a game. I don't secretly want him to beg me to reconsider重新考虑. This is genuinely over for me. I played out my angst 耗尽, 用尽(play out something also play itself out I. to go through a process. We're waiting to see how the debate about more education reform will play itself out in the weeks ahead. II. = pay something out to unwind, unfold, or unreel something. Please play some more rope out. They played out many feet of cable. ) while we were still together.