用法学习: 1. perk up 振奋, 精神百倍 to become invigorated; to become more active. to make someone more cheery or refreshed. to make someone more active and interested. After a bit of water, the plants perked up nicely. About noon, Andy perked up and looked wide-awake. It was a clear summer day, and Nancy looked like she was beginning to perk up. His stay with Aunt Podie soon perked him up. A nice cup of coffee would really perk me up. A cup of coffee will perk up the sleepiest person. Every one was perked up, why is he talking to the CFO? 2. Where did my horse come我下注的马第几名? It came fifth. The opposition party appears to be making ground 赶上来 in the opinion polls. To make/gain ground (lose/give ground) 收复失地, 赶上来, 追上了 is to make headway, as in a battle. To take over territory. in this day and age 这年头, 现如今, 这世道 Fig. now; in these modern times. in modern times. at the present time: You can't afford to run businesses inefficiently in this day and age. She said she was appalled that so much injustice could exist in this day and age. Bill: Ted flunked out of school. Mother: Imagine that! Especially in this day and age. Bill: Taxes keep going up and up. Bob: What do you expect in this day and age? 3. gather someone or something around (oneself) 聚一下(gather around, guys) to collect people or things around oneself; to draw someone or something to oneself. He gathered a lot of arty people around himself. She liked to gather exotic plants around herself. Grandpa gathered all the kids around and read them a story. gather around someone or something to collect around someone or something. Let's all gather around her and hear her out. Please gather around the table for dinner. low-level I. relatively unimportant 级别低的 The low-level bureacrat couldn't help us and his boss could have but wouldn't. II. not intense 不太强烈的 The low-level radiation released won't kill you immediately, but avoid long term exposure. III. (computing) of, or relating to a program, or to code in which each statement corresponds to a single machine instruction. The assembler generates low-level code. IV. details. 4. put/set the cat among the pigeons (British & Australian) to do or say something that causes trouble and makes a lot of people angry or worried. Tell them all they've got to work on Saturday. That should set the cat among the pigeons. 5. off-day I. A day when things go poorly. A day in which a person is not performing up to their usual level of ability. I understand any pitcher can have an off day but walking four batters in one inning is ridiculous! I guess this is one of my off-days. II. A day in which an employee is not scheduled to work. Until they gain a little seniority at this hospital, newly hired nurses need not expect to have two consecutive off days. never the twain shall meet 水火不相容 these two things or people will never exist together or agree with each other. something that you say when two things or people are so different that they can never exist together or agree with each other. Psychologists support behavioural therapy, pharmacologists support drugs, and never the twain shall meet. Psychologists believe in therapy, chemists believe in drugs, and never the twain shall meet. 6. tough titty means "That's tough luck!", but with an unapologetic undertone. An
insincere or sarcastic way of saying "that's too bad", or "deal with it". Person A: Strawberry ice-cream? But I wanted chocolate. Person B: Tough titty. That's all they had. Chambers Slang Dictionary dates it to the 1920s, and also records the variants hard titty, tough tiddy, tough tit, tough titties and tough tits. It is defined as 'bad luck' and shown to produce tough tits, toots, described, accurately enough, I would imagine, as 'a phrase of dismissal'. A hardened nipple is, presumably, less likely to deliver the sustenance, or any other comfort, normally expected of it and so those, infants or others, who encounter such an anatomical feature might be thought unfortunate. 7. IPAD Air 种种: So it was expected that Apple really had to pull out the stops不停站 and land some significant improvements with their 5th-generation product, which clearly they have done by reducing weight, and vastly improving processor performance with their 64-bit A7 SoC. In the 6th version of the iPad as well as with the third generation iPad mini, Apple will need to maintain a balance between introducing significant new features and iterative improvements, while keeping its technological edge over hungry competitors who are going to compete on value, performance as well as with displays of similar or superior resolution and pixel density. Although the Air's new, ultrathin display and touch screen are more expensive than for the third-generation iPad, Apple has held the line on cost( hold the line (on something) 按兵不动 to not reduce or increase something. Businesses are holding the line on hiring and spending plans because of uncertainty about the economy. hold the line (at someone or something) 守住底线, 坚守 Fig. not to exceed a certain limit regarding someone or something. Having your wife on the payroll is one thing, but no one else from the family — I will hold the line at her. We have to hold the line at this kind of expenditure. Okay, we'll hold the line. ) by taking advantage of price erosion in other areas. 8. do a runner 跑路, 开溜, 溜走, 逃跑, 离家出走 If people leave a restaurant without paying, they do a runner. to leave a place in order to avoid a difficult or unpleasant situation or to avoid paying for something. He did a runner with his girlfriend.
澳审视汽车业救助: Holden has demanded annual "rent" from the Coalition after 2016 to keep making cars in Australia. The bid for a yearly subsidy is a key issue dividing cabinet as it considers the future of taxpayer assistance to the industry. Liberal frontbencher Jamie Briggs today warned the government would not sustain Holden at any cost. "The Labor Party wants to run down the road那么做 with a chequebook," he said. "We don't work that way." He said there would ultimately be a "decision point"下决定的时候 at which the cost of supporting Holden would outweigh the benefits. But opposition industry spokesman Kim Carr said the Coalition was condemning the carmaker's future in Australia. "I'm staggered惊呆 at ( staggers (used with a sing. verb) Any of various diseases of the nervous system in animals, especially horses, cattle, or other domestic animals, characterized by a lack of coordination in moving, a staggering gait, and frequent falling. Also called blind staggers. ) the failure of this government to understand how urgent the situation is in the auto industry," he said. 手机何时更新到KitKat: To their credit, some handset manufacturers like Samsung and HTC have already promised the update for their flagship devices, but others haven't been so forthcoming 坦诚, 大方. HTC was the first OEM to publicly flesh out plans for Android 4.4. Indeed, Jason Mackenzie, president of HTC America, confirmed that the company will step on the gas ( step on the gas and step on it to hurry up; to make a vehicle go faster. (As if stepping on an automobile's accelerator. to hurry in order to get something done quickly. We are going to be late! step on it! Let's go! ) to get the latest version of Android out to its flagship One line. Now, here's the bad news. Samsung Galaxy Nexus owners are rightly peeved 惹恼 that they won't get Android 4.4. One reason is that the developer of the smartphone's processor, Texas Instruments, is no longer in the mobile CPU business and can't help upgrade the handset. It's a bummer and for what it's worth不管怎样吧, 不管结果如何, more than 15,000 people have signed an online petition hoping to change the situation. Melbourne Cup 2013: IT'S the story that overshadowed Australia's most glamorous race. But why did Melbourne Cup runner Verema have to be euthanised after snapping a bone断骨头 in her leg at Flemington? In short, horses are bad patients that just aren't built to recover from fractures, says Australian Veterinary Association equine surgeon Dr Barry Smyth. It's a high impact and often "catastrophic" injury when a 500kg horse, racing at 60km/h, breaks its leg, sending huge amounts of energy through the bone. "When things go wrong, they go very wrong," Dr Smyth said. "Horses are not constructed to withstand major trauma or injury." As thousands of people around Australia drank champagne to celebrate Fiorente's Melbourne Cup victory, the champion mare lay on the ground with a shattered leg, about to be put to sleep. Verema, who dropped out of the great race 退出比赛 in distress at about the halfway mark, snapped her cannon bone, a large bone in her lower leg. On-track vets made a quick decision to euthanase Verema but the million-dollar mare's death was met with outrage from punters. Evolution has certainly been unkind to horses. Their bones shatter into irreparable pieces裂成碎片 in a high-impact injury. Even a clean fracture usually means a fatal end because their lower limbs are made up of just skin and tendons with little muscle to stabilise a broken bone. Inserting metal plates, commonly used to repair fractures in humans, dogs and cats, is not an option because they are only designed to hold 100kg of body weight, Dr Smyth said. Then there's weeks and months of trying to keep a horse still. Horses can't lay down because they are vulnerable to pneumonia and pressure sores - not that a horse would lay still anyway. Standing on three legs is a no-go too because horses develop problems in the opposite leg holding the extra weight. "You can occasionally get a horse that stands in a sling or suspended in a pool( sling Med a wide piece of cloth suspended from the neck for supporting an injured hand or arm across the front of the body. bandage 绷带.) but temperamentally, they aren't built for long periods of nursing," Dr Smyth said. "If you try and put a horse in a sling it will often try and jump out and end up doing more damage. "Horses have not evolved to be good patients, anatomically they are not built to withstand fractures and temperamentally they will not respond to long-term nursing." Dr Smyth said Verema's injury was the equivalent to a human breaking the hand bone between the wrist and finger. It sounds minor enough but when the lower part of the limb is poorly supported, it's a death sentence, he said. "When this happens, it happens before crowds and is broadcast on TV, which is very distressing for people but there are also plenty of horses that snap their legs galloping ( gallop to move, read, talk, etc., rapidly; hurry. ) around a paddock," Dr Smyth said. "These injuries are not unique to racing ... horses are very vulnerable to catastrophic injuries. "There's been a huge amount of research done over the past 20 to 30 years into repairing broken bones in horses but unfortunately I don't think we'll ever find one. "We can sometimes recognise a clue that a horse is developing a problem in the bone but often there is no warning. It is almost impossible to predict."
